A Quick Start Guide for Staff

For a wide range of Blackboard online tutorials please Cick Here.

1. If you have never set up a course web site in Blackboard before, sign up for Introduction to Teaching with Blackboard. This course is offered regularly by UTDC. To sign up please visit the UTDC workshops page (http://www.victoria.ac.nz/utdc-workshops/frontend/).


2. Lecturers do NOT get access to courses they teach in Blackboard automatically, this needs to be requested.

   To request a course to be set up for you in Blackboard, please visit the ITS Customer Portal and fill out the online course request form via service request. The ITS Customer Portal can be accessed directly when logged onto myVictoria. Under the University Helpdesks heading (right hand side) fourth down is ITS Customer Portal, click on this and go to Log a Service Request - The Bb course request form is here.

   For users off campus without VPN access, you need to send an email to the ITS Service Desk stating your Blackboard course request.

   If you have to send an email request to ITS make sure to note:

   • What content needs to be copied into the course (previous year’s course, standard or school template)?
   • Is the requested course a joint course (e.g. THEA204-THEA207-ENGL221) or a split-stream course (e.g. CUST213 - distance learning stream, CRN 15169)? In either case please make note of the CRN ’s (course reference numbers)


3. If you are a staff member in a School or Research Institute with teaching or administrative responsibilities you already have a Blackboard user account. Your username and password are the same as your main network login. With questions regarding your login please contact the ITS Service Desk (its-service@vuw.ac.nz).


4. You do not need to add students to your course; this is done automatically, based on the official enrolment record in Banner (CSA).


5. When you receive notification from ITS that your Blackboard course has been set up, log in to Blackboard (http://blackboard.vuw.ac.nz).


6. Click on the course link under My Courses to go to the course web site.


7. Start setting up your course.
   When a new course is added to your course list in Blackboard, it is an empty shell (unless you’ve requested an old web site to be copied in it). Before adding anything to your website, you need to make a number of decisions:
   • Have a clear understanding of why you are setting up the web site. What are the main goals of your course web site (e.g., course administration, storing and distributing course materials, delivery of teaching, creating an environment to facilitate learning, or a mixture of the above)? The web site does not need to be all-encompassing. It can be set up to support only one part of the course, e.g., a course project or a specific learning activity.
   • Create a structure for your web site that will allow it to achieve the identified goals. This is best done on paper, first, using storyboarding or by drawing a map of your site in the form of a flow chart or a map.
   • Create a course menu that reflects the top level structure of your web site.
   • Create subdirectories within each main menu area (if required) by creating folders.
   • Select the tools to be used in the course.
   • Select the means of communication to be used in the course.

Download the UTDC Blackboard Course Design handout (pdf).


8. Add content to your web site
• Add course resources and materials that are required for the beginning of the course (you can add more resources later, as and when needed). These may include documents, web links, assignments, tests and surveys.


9. Set up the learning environment
• Set up communication tools, if required (e.g., create discussion forums, create chat rooms).
• Set up group collaboration spaces, if your students are required to work in groups, using the Blackboard groups and wiki facilities.
• Set up course or group online journals (blogs), if required.


10. Set up assessment
• Create assignments, if you are planning to ask students to submit their work electronically.
• Create tests and quizzes to monitor student progress.
• Set up the online gradebook if required.


11. Final touches
    • Publish an initial course announcements.
    • Create a backup copy of your course, using the Archive Course option.
    • If your course web site was set up with a copy of an old Blackboard course,
      • Delete old course announcements (use the recycle option to delete all at once)
      • Delete old course journals (blogs) and wikis
      • If any of your old course content was set to be released at specified dates, make sure you update these dates for the current course.


12. When your course is ready, make it available.
• View this tutorial to learn how to make a course available to students.


13. After you have completed this last step, students enrolled in the course will see a new link to it under My Courses on their Blackboard Home Page.

For a wide range of Blackboard online tutorials please Cick Here.