Avoid Special Characters and Unnecessary HTML Code

Avoid Special Characters and Unnecessary HTML Code
We have found that some special characters will cause problems in your Blackboard course if used in the title of items, discussion boards, forums, threads, posts, announcements, tests, etc. Do not use the following characters in the title/name of any item in your Blackboard course: , " ' % & # <> + * ^ @ =.

If you are copying and pasting text from a web page, or word processing document, into a text box editor in Blackboard, you may inadvertently copy unnecessary HTML code into your text box. This code may cause an error which will cause the information to display incorrectly. After you paste information into a text box, click the HTML <> button and delete all HTML code. Click on the <> button again and use the text box editor tools to format your message.

No Scrollbar in the Blackboard Grade Center?

If you are using Firefox on a PC, you may notice that there are no scroll bars when you view the new Blackboard Grade Center. This problem is related to the scroll bar settings in Windows XP and Windows Vista. Below are instructions on how to change the scroll bar settings:

Windows XP:
-Go Control Panel
-Click on Display Properties
-Click on the Appearance tab
-Select the Advanced button
-Select the Scroll Bar from the Item drop down list
-Change the setting to 19
-Submit

Windows Vista:
-Go to the Control Panel
-Click on Personalize
-Select the Window Color and Appearance option.
-Click the Open Classic Appearance link
-Click on the Advanced button
-Select the Scroll Bar from the Item drop down list
-Change the setting to 19
-Submit

Blackboard Version 8 Upgrade

Your My.UNL team upgraded the Blackboard software over the Holiday Closedown. Faculty may notice these changes:

The Gradebook is different. The new Grade Center allows faculty to enter scores more efficiently, freeze names for easier scrolling, and drop lowest/highest scores. Please go to http://training.unl.edu and look in the What's New area for more information and training opportunities.

The Digital Drop Box is gone. The Blackboard Assignment Manager tool is an improvement on the Drop Box. Faculty post assignments, and students upload their completed assignment directly back into Blackboard. Faculty can download student work, provide feedback, and enter their grade in the Grade Center.

To learn more about the Assignment Manager, go to http://itg.unl.edu/myunl/index.shtml, click on the Faculty/TA tab, and look for the Using Assignments tutorial under Blackboard Assessments.

If you have any questions,please contact the Help Desk at 472-3970 (outside of Lincoln, toll free at 866-472-3970), or via email at helpdesk@unl.edu

End of the Year Info

Data collection and course backups

Instructors, please remember that as soon as students have graduated, their information (including gradebook entries and quiz/survey responses) will be unavailable to you. You will need to download the results of surveys or quiz results that you are using for research before the 27th of December to make sure that you have all of the data for all of your students this semester. It is also a good idea to make a backup of your course for your records before graduated students drop out.

BLACKBOARD DOWNTIME

Your My.UNL team will be upgrading the Blackboard software to version 8 over the Holiday Closedown in December. My.UNL.EDU will be offline from December 27, 2008 through January 3, 2009.

The latest Blackboard release builds on the student engagement tools in earlier releases, and improves the performance of the software. Most noticeably, the Gradebook has been transformed into the Grade Center. Instructors will be able to enter scores more efficiently, select specific display types, freeze names for easier scrolling, and drop lowest/highest scores. The new Grade Center will also allow faculty to print progress reports and access powerful analysis tools. Please go to http://training.unl.edu and look in the What's New area for more information and training opportunities.

Another change in version 8, is the absence of the Digital Drop Box. The Blackboard Assignment Manager tool is an improvement on the Drop Box. Faculty post student assignments, and students upload their completed assignment directly back into Blackboard. There you can download their work, provide feedback, grade the assignment, and post grades to the Grade Center with a few mouse clicks. To learn more about the Assignment Manager, go to http://itg.unl.edu/myunl/index.shtml, click on the Faculty/TA tab, and look for the Using Assignments tutorial under Blackboard Assessments.

If you have any questions,please contact the Help Desk at 472-3970 (outside of Lincoln, toll free at 866-472-3970), or via email at helpdesk@unl.edu

ATTENTION ALL SafeAssign USERS!

Your My.UNL team updated our SafeAssign software over Fall Break. The new version of SafeAssign will now accept .docx files. With the progress comes two issues that are important:

#1. All faculty who are using SafeAssign, in their classes must use the SafeAssign tool to resynchronize their class. To do this, you will need to go to each course, then click on the Control Panel, then Click on SafeAssign, and then click on the link that says "Synchronize this Course". The synchronization process may take a while.

#2. All SafeAssign users (faculty and students) must set their browsers to accept cookies from the SafeAssign website. If you do not, you will receive an error when trying to use SafeAssign. Instructions for doing this can be found here: SafeAssign Cookies.

If you have any questions, please contact the Computer Help Center at 472-3970 (or, if you're outside of Lincoln, toll free at 866-472-3970) or via email at helpdesk@unl.edu.

SLATE Presentation

Speed up your Blackboard Communication

Did you know that when you post an announcement to your Blackboard class, you can automatically email the announcement to the entire class roster? Just go to Control Panel> Announcements, then when you add your announcement, click the button to automatically Email the announcement to all course users. Blackboard does all the work for you. This is a great way to email students, and create a record of your communication in your course. If your students do not check their email very often, they will still see the information when they log in to your class.