Enhancements beginning summer, 2008
WebSpace File Management
Grade Center
Discussion Board
Blackboard Sync
Web Appointment Scheduling System
WebSpace File Management (click for more info) [formerly Content Collection]
We have recently licensed the full, up-to-date version of Xythos, on which the
Blackboard Content Collection (aka Blackboard Content System) is based.
We are calling this
document management and collaboration solution
WebSpace. Among other advantages, this newer version will make collaboration with your colleagues and others outside the Princeton community much simpler, and does not require any kind of special ID or Blackboard access for outside parties. While WebSpace can be used completely independently of Blackboard, it can also be used as a replacement for the Blackboard Content Collection to facilitate sharing files with members of courses sites. WebSpace can replace your H drive, as well, with more feature-rich Web-interfaced content management. Please click this text to see an overview of the features.
Grade Center (click for more info) [formerly Gradebook]
Almost entirely redesigned, and newly named, the Grade Center exhibits new capabilities and vast improvements over the previous Gradebook. Some of the new features or improvements include the following:
- Smart Views -- the ability to categorize Students into groupings based on selected criteria. Very useful for AIs and section instructors who want to see only their own students in the Grade Center
- Inline editing: the ability to enter grades directly through the Grade Center spreadsheet
- A multitude of ways to customize the display of the Grade Center
- A redesigned tool bar, titled the Action Bar, through which multiple functions are possible
- The ability to create and print Reports, such as final grades, to hand out to students or other interested parties
- New grade calculations, Average grade and Minimum/Maximum grade, and improvements to the creation of Weighted grades and Total points grade
- The ability to create Grading Schema: multiple grading scales that match Assessment grades to chosen grade displays, such as text or percent grades
Watch a video overview of the new Grade Center.
Discussion Board (click for more info)
Restoring the capability in release 7.1, the user can again view the Course Discussions in a Tree View, in which the post titles to a particular thread are visible. The user must select the Tree View icon located on the right side of the Course Discussions page. Selecting a post from the Course Discussions page will navigate the user to the Thread Detail page and will display the post as well.
On the action toolbar, there are new icons. Mark as Read and Mark as Unread allow the instructor to classify which forums have been read or not. The Search area has been rolled up into a graphic icon of a magnifying glass. Selecting this icon will drop down the search area. Within the Search tool, it is now possible to search by time. Also, Subscribe and Unsubscribe icons allow users to subscribe or unsubscribe to a forum.
Within the Thread table of the Course Discussion page, several enhancements have been made. Grade and Tag columns have been added to the page, as well as a Grade icon that allows the user to navigate to Modify Grade Item page and grade the students’ forum performance. As well, the Subscribe and Flag indicators columns have been added, allowing the user to see the subscribed and flagged forums. Also, the Date column includes the exact time of the latest change to the forum. Finally, the number of unread posts in the Unread Posts column is a clickable icon that directs the user to the text of these unread posts.
For a visual introduction to the Discussion Board changes, watch the Tutorial (Viewlet).
Blackboard Sync (click for more info)
Blackboard Sync is an application that delivers course information and updates from Blackboard to users inside Facebook. Students can find out if you have new assignments, grades, forum posts, etc., without having to leave Facebook. To add this application, log into Princeton's Blackboard and select "Blackboard Sync" from the Tools module under the My Blackboard tab.
For security reasons, Princeton has opted not to allow course rosters to be displayed in Blackboard Sync.
Web Appointment Scheduling System (click for more info)
Though not actually a part of Blackboard, the
Web Appointment Scheduling System (WASS), a tool that makes it possible to schedule appointments on the Web, can be linked to from the course table of contents.
Faculty, deans, and others can use WASS to create a web-based calendar on which they indicate their availability for appointments. Students and others can locate these calendars on the Web, find an available appointment time, and schedule an appointment.
August 20, 2008
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