Using Blackboard

ALL courses, whether online or on-ground, will have Blackboard shells
created automatically!!

For instructions on how to use the Blackboard interface for creating & modifying course content, and some of the upgraded features, here are some helpful documents:

Basic Blackboard Instructions

Copying previous/current course content into new/empty course shells

Using Safe Assign

Blackbord Upgrade Info (this is from Summer 07 but has some good info)

Blackboard Adaptive Release Features

• Faculty use the same Login for Blackboard as for MySierra, however the default password is not the same. Please contact Distance Learning if you do not know
  the default password for faculty.
• Once students have registered, their accounts will be uploaded into your
  Blackboard course shells through an automatic process by the next day.
• Inform your students that they should review the Blackboard Tutorial, located on
  the Distance Learning website, so they know how to log in and navigate through
  the course. They will use their Student ID as the login, (all 9 digits), and the default password of Student, with a capital S, if they have not updated their password.
  They should also go into their personal info section to provide a current email address, and to change their password if they choose.
• The URL for the Bb tutorial is http://lrc.sierra.cc.ca.us/dl/orientation/index.html
• Please note that all Blackboard shells are created with the default of Unavailable, meaning that it is invisible to your students so that you can add & modify your content until you are ready for students to access it. You must make
  the course available for students to be able to see it when you are ready, by going into your course shell's Control Panel, then to Settings, then Course Availability,
  then select Yes.
• You can add other content, such as the syllabus, handouts, discussion questions, etc, all through the Control Panel of each course shell.

Copying course content from your current course into a new or empty course
To copy the content from a previous/current shell into a new/empty one(s), please follow the steps below, or CLICK HERE for a short video of the process:

1. Go into your old Blackboard course Control Panel, select Copy Course.
2. Hit the Browse button. A window pops up to browse for the new course - hit Search with NO criteria to bring up all your courses and select the empty course that you
   are copying content into.
3. Back in the main window, check the boxes for all the areas you wish to copy, & hit Submit.
4. Two things to note: It does take a few minutes to fully integrate, so if you don't see all of your content right away, just give it a few more minutes.
5. Also, keep in mind that every time you copy from one course to another, it ADDS to the existing content in the new course, it doesn't remove or overwrite what's already there. It is best to get the original course content how you want and then run the copy process once so you don't end up with lots of duplication.
6. Remember to go into the new course(s) and modify availability dates, and to make the course available when you are ready for students to see it! That can be done through the Control Panel, then select Settings, then Course Availability, then select Yes & hit Submit.

If you have any questions, please email cbirdsong@sierracollege.edu, or sdavenport@sierracollege.edu.