Triton College Has an App!

Triton College is making Blackboard Mobile Learn available for all Students and Faculty. Now, much of the core content of your Blackboard courses will automatically be available from your mobile device on the free Blackboard Mobile Learn App.

What does this mean for Faculty?

Using the same Blackboard Learn platform you already use to manage your courses, you can quickly and easily disseminate information to your students via their primary means of communication.

Updates that you make to courses loaded onto the Blackboard Learn platform, whether via your computer or your mobile device, will seamlessly sync with the content in the Blackboard Mobile Learn application.

You can now meet the needs and expectations of millennial and non-traditional students, who want to be able to do EVERYTHING on their mobile devices.  The Blackboard Mobile Learn application is available on the following networks and devices:

• Android™ devices
• BlackBerry® smartphone devices
• HP webOS devices
• iPhone®, iPod touch®, and iPad™

DOWNLOAD INSTRUCTIONS
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1. Visit the:
   
   • App Store on your iPhone®,iPad™,or iPod touch®
   • Android Marketplace™ on your Android device
   • BlackBerry App World® on your BlackBerry® smartphone device
   • Palm App Catalog on your HP webOS device
2. Search for “Blackboard Mobile Learn”.
3. Install the app.
4. Search for your institution
5. Login to Mobile Learn with your personal credentials.

Questions? Please contact our CTE department at mzicher@triton.edu or ext. 3269 for further assistance or visit Blackboard.com/Mobile for more information.

Click here to see a demo of the software on the different platforms.

Announcing Smart Notebook Version 11!

With the installation of ten new Smart Boards on campus, we have begun to upgrade our Smart Notebook software to version 11.

What are the differences between Smart Notebook Version 11 and the Notebook software running on the previously existing Smart Boards?

• New Toolbar: The most obvious difference will be a new toolbar at the top of the Board.  Buttons are now organized into panels, and clicking on a button will open an additional panel that will allow you to better format the tool that you have selected.
• Internet Browser:  You will be able to insert an Internet browser into your saved notebook files to display websites and manipulate them like you would any other object.
• New Digital Ink Features:  New custom creative pens are available, you can fill closed areas drawn with digital ink, and you can set “Magic Pen” digital ink to fade after a specified time
• New Text Editor:  Version 11 comes with an improved text editor, allowing greater flexibility when formatting text
• New Object Manipulation Features: Resize a picture to fit properly inside an object, group and ungroup objects with a “group” motion on the screen, and record sounds for specific objects.

For more information, watch the following video about Smart Notebook Version 11:




This video provides additional information about the new Toolbar:

Blackboard Service Pack 8 (SP8) - Fall 2012

On August 14th we will be installing Blackboard's latest Service Pack - Service Pack 8 (SP8).  SP8 will give us some interesting new features that we will be able to take advantage of immediately:

Grading Enhancements

• Automated Regrading - Have you ever needed to change an answer on a test after it has posted?  This new feature will allow you to correct an answer and will automatically regrade all the affected tests.
• Negative Marking - Questions can be set so that points are taken away when an incorrect answer is given.  Although most faculty will not use this feature, those who are trying to simulate certification tests where this will occur might want to give it a try.

Navigation Improvements

• Task Based Navigation - This feature will allow you to move from an area in one course to the corresponding area in another course.  For example, if you are reading discussions in Course A and want to move to discussions in Course B, you only need to click on the "Courses" tab, select Course B, and you will in discussions.

New Activity and Performance Reports

• Course Activity Overview Report displays overall activity within a single course, sorted by student and date. Data includes the total and average time spent per user and the total amount of activity the user had in the course.
• Student Overview for Single Course shows the individual student's activity in the course, including login dates, time, content accessed, and the time spent on each type of content

In addition, there are other features, such as a new template, that we will not be implementing until the Spring term.  For an overview of everything SP8 has to offer, view the following video:

Tech Tip - Creating tests for students who get extra test time

Today's tech tip is the comes courtesy of Peter Jaswilko, one of our faculty.

We had been discussing how to create a set of tests for students who have an accommodation for extra test time. Of course, one needs to copy the original test, and then deploy it on a content page. Once the test is deployed, one typically needs to set the adaptive release for the test, so only the specific student can take it.

Peter's suggestion is to "import all phantom tests to a folder with adaptive release for a particular learner. That way there is no need to create adaptive release for each test."

If a faculty member has an Assessment or Quizzes tab, they can easily accommodate the new folder. Otherwise, they may need to make it available at the bottom of the main content page. If there is no way to accommodate a "Special" folder, one will need to deploy the duplicate test in the Learning Module or Content Area with the regular test, using Adaptive Release with each test.

Click here to see the detailed instructions on how to accomplish this.

Microsoft Office Online Training from Microsoft

Microsoft has a wonderful Office online training site available at http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/training-FX101782702.aspx.  This site gives you the ability to select the product and version for which you want to get training. You can even download the training for a version to be able to train anywhere.  If you need help getting rolling on your Office 2010, 2007, or even 2003, check out this site!

Getting Your Blackboard Learn Course Ready for the New Term

We have converted all courses to the Blackboard Learn (9.1) environment. There are a few procedural changes regarding how to copy course content from one course to another, and making the course available to the students at the start of the academic year.

First of all, copying content to a new course involves logging into Blackboard Learn at https://tritonbb.blackboard.com/, opening the old course which is the source of the content, and, by selecting "Packages and Utilities" and "Course Copy" in the Course Management Area. The key items that one must do is:

• Select the new course into which the content is being copied
• Select the Course Menu items that are being copied
• Select the Tools (Blogs, Discussions, Journals, Tests, Rubrics, etc.) that are being copied
• Submit the Copy Course form

Once the course is copied, it is necessary to open the new course and do the following:

• Change dates that were set for any assignments, test, documents, discussions, learning modules, etc.
• Clear out any old discussion postings
• Confirm that the tests are deployed on the proper content pages in within Learning Modules, and, if they cannot be opened, redeploy tests
• Confirm that all external links are opening properly
• Change the Course Entry point to the page that you want the students to see first. The following link will take you to a demonstration on how to set the Course Entry point.

The following procedure explains how to copy existing course content to a new course shell.


In addition, if the course shell for the new term was created in Blackboard CE8 and was a blank shell when converted, the only item in the Course Menu will be "My Grades." If the new course shell was created in Blackboard Learn, you will see in the Course Menu the default links:

• Home Page
• Information
• Content
• Discussions
• Groups
• Tools
• Help

Please delete any of the links that you will not be using.

Finally, it will be necessary to make the course available to the students on the first day of class. The following video from Blackboard explains how to do so: Setting Course Availability. A printable procedure that explains how to do this is available by clicking on Making the Course Available.

MS Office 2007 Help Tab

For those of you who have recently converted from MS Office 2003 to MS Office 2007 here on campus, there is a free "Help Tab" that you can download for Word, Excel, and PowerPoint.  It is available at the following link: Getting Started with Microsoft Office 2007.  In addition, this link will provide you with links to Office 2007 training videos on Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, and Access.