Skip to main content

Blackboard SP 8

I recently participated in a webinar about Blackboard's service pack 8 (SP8).  There are many interesting features, but one highlighted is the look and feel.  The functions remain the same, with many additional features.

With SP8, you will only see the menu controls when you see them by dragging your mouse over the top bar to access at the top.  Prior, it looked a bit cluncky and with all the arrows to the side it can be very busy.


Also, you can click on the top right to change the designs and colors without having to think about what color schemes match.











A big upgrade comes in the reporting features.  Student activity reporting is something many have been waiting for. You can now run a report on:
  • Measuring utilization and maximize performance
  • Available for admin and instructors
  • Creates a visual reporting in various graphs.
  • Student activity in content areas such as what they are accessing
  • Number of logins
  • Average non-course time
  • Average time in course


 









Student Standards Alignment + Performance
  • You can create and add your own standards   
  •  You can create course performance report aligned to performance goal
  • Student overview can provide you with single course 
  • Course Coverage report can assist with providing content alignment with standards 
  • Full coverage overview is only available to admins
There are more features that really helps target for finding out how a student is doing, but more what a student is doing to answer why to the results of student performance.

The other things were technical for IT Administrators, but it was very interesting how Blackboard is trying to expand how it is used, but why you should use it.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Papa Kuʻi ʻai a me Pohaku

As part of our huakaʻi last month to Papahana Kuaola and the opportunity to work in the loʻi, I wanted to continue that thought by sharing my experience of making a papa kuʻi 'ai (poi-pounding board). In 2008 with the encouragement from me and my co-worker, Pili Wong, Earl Kawaʻa offered to teach a papa kuʻi ʻai papa to those of us that were interested in learning what our kūpuna did as a daily way of life. For our kūpuna they had loʻi in their yards and grew their own kalo, the major source of starch in their diet. They steamed it and pounded poi or kept it whole and sliced it and ate it like bread with butter or condensed milk. Kawaʻa was very specific on our kuleana and the commitment he required of us. Our first task was to find an au koʻi (handle) for our koʻi (adze tool). I found myself suddenly looking up at every tree I saw looking for the right branch for my koʻi. My husband found mine at a jobsite from a Haole Koa tree otherwise known as ...

Blackboard Launches CourseSites - A Free, Fully Hosted Online Course System for Instructors

Hosting, Live Support Give Instructors a Comprehensive, Cloud-Based Option for Courses WASHINGTON, Feb. 10, 2011 /PRNewswire via COMTEX/ -- Blackboard Inc. (Nasdaq: BBBB) today announced the launch of CourseSites by Blackboard, a free, fully hosted and supported online course system featuring the Company's latest teaching and learning technologies. The offering gives individual K-12 and higher education instructors an innovative, high quality cloud-based option to host online courses or add a Web-based component to traditional ones. The simple, easy to use system gives educators greater choice and flexibility for online courses in a system with cutting edge features that encourage experimentation. CourseSites is designed to support instructors who may not have access to a learning management system at their institution or school, or who may have access to an older platform system from Blackboard or a competing course management provider. There is no license fee, no ...

Scratch - OWAU discussion 10/28

Aloha kākou, I while back, I learned about this product from a presentation at the eSchool conference. The speaker was so excited about Scratch and was having so much fun demonstrating it that my mind began racing immediately. "I could use it in `Ike Hawai`i courses and I bet I could use it to develop tons of activities for the A`o Makua `ōlelo Hawai`i courses". Then, reality set in as I returned to work intending to try it out after I finished my "next" task. Well, you know how that goes. 7 months later, I finally took a stab at it out of necessity of course. I really wanted some type of activity to teach my students about different Kapu in old Hawai`i without having them just read a list of them. So, what it Sratch? Simply put, it's a developer's tool (a very inexpereinced developer like myself). It allows you to create activities and games using "coding" that is in a drag and drop format. The codes are pre-written & range from phrases like ...