Blackboard WYSIWYG Editor

The Blackboard WYSIWYG editor (aka the Visual Text Box Editor) is causing nightmares for students and faculty. Any student who posts an image (or any document) with the VTBE using the paperclip tool eliminates the ability for any user (student or faculty) to “collect” posts. Collection is used on a regular basis to bring all the posts from a particular student–or all the posts from a particular thread–into a single reading window. Obviously, the collection method is infinitely faster than clicking on every post and reading them one at a time.

We have applied plan to apply a just-released patch next week. In the meantime, and prior to the long weekend (when we suspect many students may be active in their Blackboard courses), wWe have turned off the VTBE back on by default. This doesn’t mean the VTBE is unavailable–it simply means that when you (or a student or a faculty member) logs in over the next few days, the VTBE will not be turned on. But it can easily be turned on. However advanced users may find it easier to leave the VTBE editor off because if you are inserting JavaScript within the text box, the VTBE editor often strips out your code (or adds the “defer” parameter to the end of the function with the same effect).

To assist you with turning on the VTBE on or off (in case you need to use the editor and will not be attaching documents to discussion board posts), we have created a new Knowledgebase article located at:

http://supportcenteronline.com/ics/support/default.asp?deptID=688&task=knowledge&questionID=2458.

Spring, 2008: A New Beginning

New! WELCOME ANNOUNCEMENTS IN COURSES

UTTC has a new requirement that all courses have a welcome announcement posted by the faculty member prior to the semester start. In addition, UTTC requires that at least one discussion board forum be available to students on the first day of class.

 

New! PLAIGIARISM DETECTION (SafeAssignment/SafeAssign) UPGRADE

UTTC is currently upgrading the plagiarism detection service we use in Blackboard. We are moving from SafeAssignment to the new Blackboard version of the product, which is called SafeAssign. Upgrade information is available on the Blackboard portal. We expect the process to be complete by the end of the day on Thursday, January 3 and ask that you refrain using the service until then.

 
New! CHANGE IN HELP DESK PROVIDER

UTTC has signed a contract with SunGard and will be making the shift to a new help desk partner in the beginning of February. The toll free number for the help desk will not change (1-866-321-2988) but we will no longer have a webform for support. If you have a link to the webform in your course, please remove it. Also, please change any reference to “Embanet” to “24/7 Help Desk.” We expect the transition to be relatively seamless (for example, the current webform link will go to our technical support website pages).

 
New! WEBSITE AND KNOWLEDGE CENTER UPDATES

UTTC recently unveiled a new website (www.uttc.org). We are currently updating the information in our Knowledge Center (http://www.telecampus.utsystem.edu/enrollmentservices/knowledgecenter.aspx) to reflect the website changes. We expect to have the Knowledge Center updates completed by January 14.

 
SEMESTER START

The student and faculty services (SFS) group at UTTC puts a great deal of effort into getting students started for the semester. In addition to emails and postcards, UTTC will call enrolled students the day before each course starts, using an automated phone system. The call is to encourage students to login on the first day of class and explains how they can get help if they need it.

 
COURSE ACCESS

The way in which individuals receive access to your course is determined by their role in the course and, for students, the first day of class at your campus. Each campus may have up to two staff members in a course to provide support to faculty during the semester. Staff can be identified in courses because their last name in Blackboard includes “Course Dev.”

Blogs or Discussion Boards?

Just in case you missed this concise look at the use of blogs vs. discussion boards in online courses (by Matt Crosslin).

Blogs or Discussion Boards?

December 2007

Blogs and discussion boards both provide opportunities for interaction in online courses, but there are instances when one is more appropriate than the other, says Matt Crosslin, instructional designer at the University of Texas at Arlington’s Center for Distance Education.

The entire article may be viewed at http://www.magnapubs.com/issues/magnapubs_ff/4_12/news/600974-1.html

2006 Magna Publications, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

- Brad Shaevel

New Help Desk

The TeleCampus is moving to a new Help Desk provider in 2008. The exact date is still uncertain, but we are working to have the new service operational in the spring. This seems like a good time to remind the UTTC course development community (OK, maybe “nag” is a better verb) that UTTC courses should NOT include specific information about the Help Desk, but instead should link to the UTTC Technical Support page. All technical reviews for the past three years have required:

Technical Support information in the Syllabus…should link to the TeleCampus website (http://www.telecampus.utsystem.edu/index.cfm/4,0,83,html) but not incorporate or reproduce the information

The impending change in Help Desk providers is exactly the reason we created this requirement. A Web best practice–in 1983, in 2003, and in today’s Web 2.0 world–is this: don’t repeat information (especially if you don’t own it), link to it.And speaking of technical reviews, when you say that a course is ready for technical review, what we hear is that you have checked the following:

• All tests are available for student access (technical reviewers access the course exactly as a student will)
• All assignments and calendars have the correct semester dates
• No areas of the course are blank and no content items are hidden
• All left-hand navigation buttons (that are present) are used
• All links work and external links open in a new browser window
• No images are broken
• All media clips and interactive areas work
• All navigation links in the course work correctly
• At least one forum exists in the Discussion Board
• An introductory announcement authored by the faculty member (not a course developer) exists

If you turn a course over to us for technical review without checking the above areas, the course will get kicked back to you, occasionally multiple times, which may delay the course being approved for student access. In turn, this may require you to correct errors over the Holidays instead of spending time with your loved ones (although if you have teenagers like I do, that might be an acceptable trade-off). Because UTTC is charged in the UT System Strategic Plan with guaranteeing the quality of our courses, we cannot open courses with serious technical errors; students tend to start filing formal complaints with Provosts when this happens. I don’t know about you, but I really hate getting a call from a Provost (or a Dean or a Darcy) because it’s never a call to give me money. Please save all of us time and phone calls and check your courses before you turn them over.

sxsw podcast

This is a podcast from the sxsw interactive conference in Austin on March 10, 2007:

Outta Control: Does Education Matter Anymore?

Do social networking tools eliminate the role of faculty and other authoritative sources? Are courses dead, replaced by referential webs and empowering wikis? Or do the tools threaten a chaotic “yellow learning” environment where the most connected claim is given the most credence? Taxonomy versus folksonomy, lecture versus discovery, AOL versus myspace are but a few of the microrevolutions representing this shift in how we will learn tomorrow.

Visit  the sxsw interactive website for more podcasts and informaiton about the festival.