Information for ALL Faculty Using Blackboard:
Information for Faculty Teaching Online and Hybrid/Online Courses:
May 15th: Students can log into Blackboard but cannot access courses
May 15th: Blackboard Course Site Request Forms Due
May 25th at 12:01 am: Blackboard upgrade to SP6 begins
May 25 - May 30: Bb unavailable for upgrade to SP6
May 30th at 10:00 am: Bb available for faculty (upgrade complete)
May 31st: Courses using Blackboard become available to students.
May 31st: Instructor-led orientations
June 4th: First day of classes
Don't forget to submit your Blackboard Course Site Request Form. In order for your course to be set up in time for student access on May 31st, forms must be submitted no later than May 18, 2012. If we receive your course request after May 18, 2012, your form may not be processed in time for you to prepare your course(s). Course request forms are processed in the order they are received and priority is given to online and hybrid/online courses. Please take into account that Blackboard will be unavailable from May 25th until the morning of May 30th.
All Blackboard courses will become available to students 4 days prior to the start date of the course. Students registered for regular-semester classes that begin on Monday, June 4, 2012 will be able to access their courses in Blackboard on Thursday, May 31, 2012.
Blackboard being upgraded to Service Pack 6 (SP6)
Blackboard 9.1 has been upgraded from SP4 to SP6 over the Memorial Day weekend bringing new enhancements and features to Blackboard. Please take a few minutes to see what new features will be available this summer by viewing What's New for Faculty - Blackboard 9.1, Service Pack 6 (SP6).
eLearning Services is happy to announce the availability of SoftChalk for all PGCC faculty and staff. SoftChalk is a lesson building application that can be used to create, customize and personalize course content by using your own content and including rich media (video, audio, images), interactive exercises, quizzes and text. This document you are reading now was created in SoftChalk! The application runs on both Windows and Macintosh computers. You can easily publish your SoftChalk content into your Blackboard course and integrate it with the Blackboard Grade Center. You can also share your Activities, Quiz Groups and Lessons or find content to use in your course on the SoftChalk CONNECT website. See below for more information on SoftChalk Connect.
SoftChalk CONNECT (http://www.softchalkconnect.com) is SoftChalk's online community and learning object repository. SoftChalk users have created SoftChalk content (lessons and activities) that they are sharing on this website. The SoftChalk CONNECT website is available to the public for getting web-based Reusable Learning Objects (OERs) that can be used in web pages and SoftChalk lessons. In other words, the public can copy and paste the embed code or hyperlink for these objects and no account is required. You can share content on this site as well as find content to use in your courses.
Please see our SoftChalk webpage for more information.
eLearning Services does not conduct an on-campus Online Student Orientation for the summer semester however, a Blackboard Online Student Orientation course has been created and all online and hybrid/online students are registered. This online orientation can also be accessed from ou website. All first-time online students should take the online orientation course. Instructor-led sessions will begin at 5:00 PM on Thursday, May 31st and are located in CAT and Marlboro Hall. If you plan to conduct a REQUIRED orientation session for your students, please indicate this on the Blackboard Course Site Request form.
Online Tutoring - SMARTHINKING
eLearning Services has partnered with SMARTHINKING to provide students with online tutoring in Math and Statistics, Spanish, Writing, Science and Business Studies (math tutoring is also available in Spanish). The SMARTHINKING service supplements our existing academic support services by offering real-time online tutoring and homework help for core courses and skills. To view a complete list of tutoring subjects and time availability, see the SMARTHINKING Hours of Service page.
The link to SMARTHINKING online tutoring service is found in the Tools area of each Blackboard course site. Note: only students can access SMARTHINKING services through the Tools area of Blackboard. Each student is allowed a maximum of three hours of tutoring. Please help us get the word out to your online students about this service. You can direct your students to the SMARTHINKING page on the eLearning website. PLEASE encourage your students to use this FREE service. Faculty interested in previewing the SMARTHINKING service, should contact eLearning Services and we will provide a faculty demo account.
Questions? do not hesitate to contact us at 301-322-0463 or eLearning@pgcc.edu.
Have a great semester!
Content ©2012. All Rights Reserved.
Date last modified: May 25, 2012.
Created with SoftChalk LessonBuilder
Have Questions? Contact us: eLearning@pgcc.edu or 301-322-0463
