Information Technology Services

Start of Semester Activities

ITS suggests the following start of semester activities involving Blackboard:

1. Check that Your Course is in Blackboard.
   
   
   • ITS will automatically create a Blackboard shell for every scheduled course listed in CougarNet/Banner. The Blackboard course shells will automatically be created three months prior to the start of the upcoming semester (ex: October for spring courses); ITS will notify the campus when the courses have been created. Classes added to CougarNet/Banner after the initial course creation will have a course shell created in Blackboard by the following day.  
     
     
   • Blackboard course shells can only be created when there is an actual instructor of record listed in Banner for the course: the instructor cannot be listed as "TBA." This Knowledge Base article explains how to determine the Instructor of Record in Banner. If the teaching faculty is not listed in Banner as the Instructor of Record, the faculty or department must check with the Registrar's Office to ensure the proper paperwork is on file. 
2. Merge your course shells (if needed).  If you are teaching multiple sections of the same course and want them to be in one Blackboard shell, please request that your sections be merged prior to starting work in your Blackboard courses.
   
   
3. Build your course by importing content from a previous course into your new course shell, or by building a new class from scratch.  Please see these instructions for copying a previous course in Blackboard, or reach out to an ITS Instructional Designer for assistance building your course. 

   
   When copying a course from a previous semester, be sure to:

   • Recreate all imported Turnitin Assignments, with new date settings, since imported Turnitin Assignments will not function properly in the new course shell.
   • Delete duplicate course navigational items.  Note that your copied navigational items will generally appear beneath the default course navigational items that were in the course at the time it was created.
   • Review the imported Grade Center, deleting any duplicate columns, removing columns for assessments that will no longer be used, creating columns for new assessments, and reviewing the Total and/or Weighted Total columns to be sure they are accurate for the new course.
   • Edit all imported Discussion Boards in order to 1) associate your name (rather than Anonymous) as the creator of any instructor created discussion thread prompts, and 2) to delete Anonymous threads imported from discussion boards where students could create their own threads.

   In addition, review and update:

   • Course syllabi
   • Course calendars
   • Announcements
   • External links
   • Due dates (These appear in "My Grades" and also trigger "Notifications" in the "To Do Module.")
   • Tool availability (Note: Hiding a tool here makes it unavailable everywhere in the course.)
   • Adaptive Release rules
     
     

4. Activate your Student Preview in the course. This will allow you to see the course as your students see it, test Adaptive Release rules, and verify Grade Center settings.
5. Make Your Course Available.  All Blackboard courses are set to be "unavailable" at the time of creation.  Students can see the course shell when it is unavailable but cannot access the shell. When your course has been developed and is ready for students to view, you must make the course available.