Goodbye WebCT, Hello Blackboard!
Find out what you need to do to make sure that any online provision you delivered in WebCT/want to deliver from September 2008 will go ‘Live’ to students in Blackboard at the Start of Year.
This briefing will help both administrative and academic colleagues understand what you need to do, when and why!
Goodbye WebCT
WebCT will be ‘decommissioned’ 19th September 2008. This means neither you, nor your students will have access to WebCT. Staff need to be aware that that:
Can you answer YES to the following questions?
- Have you had a course running in WebCT during 2007-08?
- Has all academic activity including resits finished on this course?
Then please do the following:
- Copy and save from WebCT any content from your courses that you may still wish to retain - save to your local disk, CD or memory stick
e.g. Content, Discussions, Marks spreadsheets etc
- Complete the above process by FRIDAY 19th September 2008
N.B. Please ensure that this deadline is met as your course WILL NOT BE AVAILABLE IN WEBCT AFTER THIS DATE.
If you answer yes to the following questions
- Have you had a course running in WebCT during 2007-08?
- Did your course NOT complete in July 08 and IS ongoing?
- Have you received confirmation from the eLearning team that access will continue?
Then please do the following:
Do nothing until your course has completed including resits etc, then complete task 1 above to copy and save off-line any content from yourWebCT courses that you wish to retain.
If you answer yes to the following questions
- Have you had a course running in WebCT during 2007-08?
- Did your course NOT complete in July 08 and IS ongoing?
- Is your course NOT on the attached list?
Then please do the following:
- Contact your faculty eLearning team IMMEDIATELY at to inform them of this course.
You may have used the WebCT test server called ‘Snowy’, we have not migrated any courses from this server so please ensure you take immediate copies of any files you need from any courses on ‘Snowy’ and contact us immediately if these need to be migrated to Blackboard
Hello Blackboard!
Q. How do I check my courses are in Blackboard?
A. Log on to Blackboard from you see any courses that you used to deliver in WebCT and any ones you have been developing for this semester?
Q. what if I can’t see a course I am expecting to see?
A. If it is a course that you used to deliver in WebCT contact the eLearning team. If it is a course you would like to start delivering via Blackboard ask your administrator to ‘flag’ the course in Campus Solutions as BBDevelop, this will create a Blackboard section for this course. Also ask your administrator to check that you appear as a Primary Instructor or a Blackboard Instructor in the Class Schedule in Campus Solutions. This is best way to ensure you get access to your Blackboard course
Q. I can see two of each of my courses, is this correct?
A. Yes this is correct. For each course flagged as BBDevelop in Campus Solutions you will see two spaces, for example
In the above example, the first one is the ‘Development’ section. This is where we recommend you build your course. If we have migrated your course from WebCT for you, this is where you will find it. This is not linked to student enrolments.
In the above example, the second space has details of the ‘Class’ i.e. LEC 2009-09 2nd Semester and is called the ‘Production’ area. This is the area students enrolled on the Class will have access to, but only when, your course administrator has changed the flag in Campus Solutions from BBDevelopto Blackboard.
Q. I have built my course in the Development section, how do I make sure my students will see it?
A. For Semester 1/All year courses we are recommending the following process and timescale
Suggested timescale / What needs to be done / Who should do this / Notes1 / By 5th September at the latest /
- Agreement from academic owners that their content is ready to go live.
2 / By 12th September /
- Content copied from the Development to the Production/Live section
or
eLearning teams can undertake this/support academic colleagues necessary / This is a very simple process. There will be instructions on our website on how to do this, we will also be running drop-ins in Ellen Wilkinson in individual Schools to help.
3 / During w/c 15th September /
- The flag in Campus Solutions needs to be changed to Blackboard. This ensures that any students enrolled on the class are able to view the Blackboard module
or
eLearning teams are able to do this if above is not possible / Unless you specify otherwise it will be assumed that your course is ready to go Live. Don’t worry if you don’t want you students to view the course, just add some text in the header of the homepage and Hide the content you do not want students to view.
4 / Between Saturday 13th September and Friday 18th September /
- Content that is not due to be visible to students in Live courses is Hidden/has Selective Release applied
Q. I have a Semester 1/All Year course but I don’t’ need my students to be able to see their Blackboard space straight away, should I still follow this process?
A. Yes, but make sure you follow step 4 above. Hide content that you do not want your students to see but add some text to the homepage to indicate to your students when the material will be available.
Q. Can someone help me get my course ready on time and copy content over to the Production/Live area?
A. Yes. The eLearning team is here to help you. We have drop-ins arranged in Ellen Wilkinson and specific ones in your School for full details see you can also contact us on
Q. How do my students access Blackboard?
A. Students should access Blackboard through the ‘My Studies’ tab of the Student Portal.Students can access the Portal through the StudentNet homepage
The eLearning team is here to help but please help us by checking your course early, getting your content ready by 5th September and emailing us with any queries in good time.
Full details of the support is available on the Teaching and Learning website
Lots of help, resources and guidance is also available on the University’s eLearning site
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