Essentially, this means that programming is in place so that Blackboard mirrors Archway in terms of courses, course enrollments, and user IDs.

• If a course is listed in Archway, automatically* a course "shell" is created on Blackboard.
• If a student enrolls on Archway, automatically* that student is enrolled in the Blackboard shell.
• If a new student, faculty or staff member is given a McDaniel email address, that user is also given a Blackboard account.

Blackboard became officially integrated with Archway on August 15, 2007.

*"Automatically" means that at least once a day a programming "snapshot" is taken of Archway and the data is entered into Blackboard. Neither Blackboard nor Archway have to be down for this to happen.

Yes.

On August 14, all Blackboard usernames (students, faculty, and staff) changed to the McDaniel email username/password.

Students' Blackboard usernames are no longer lastnamefirstname and their default passwords are no longer their Student IDs.

The only exceptions are the few non-McDaniel guest accounts created for special purposes.

Does everyone at McDaniel have a Blackboard account?

Yes. Everyone.

You can no longer change your own password in Blackboard.

But you can change your McDaniel password at Password Management Login, and this will change your Blackboard password. Realize this changes your email and your Archway password as well.

Obviously, you can no longer change students' passwords in Blackboard either. You will need to direct students to Password Management Login.

The Blackboard password is no longer separate from Email or Archway.

No. Course shell creation in Blackboard is automatic.

If a course listing exists in Archway, it will have a corresponding course shell in Blackboard.

If you don't want to use Blackboard, that's fine. Students won't be confused, since the default setting for all course shell creation is "off."

In other words, you have to go into your class and make the course available for students to see it on their login screens.

Shameless commercial: But are you sure you don't want to use Blackboard? At least minimally? Even if you aren't interested in Discussion boards, ePortfolios, online quizzes, collaborative tools, podcasting, social bookmarking, anti-plagiarism programs, etc., you may find it useful simply to upload your syllabus.

Imagine. No more copying. No more handouts. You simply upload the document(s) to your Blackboard class, and they will be available to students 24/7. If you are not sure about this, contact Steve or Kim. They will be more than happy to help you.

Course enrollments in Blackboard are now automatic. Students will be enrolled in the Blackboard course shells as soon as they are enrolled in Archway.

NOTE: During registration, Blackboard will be updated with Archway data every four hours. During the rest of the semester, Blackboard will be updated with Archway data at 5:00 am each morning.

As soon as they show up on Archway. For many courses, this can be as many as 3-4 months before the next semester starts.

Beginning with fall 2007, courses will automatically be deleted 366 days after the class start date.

If, for example, the start date is August 27, 2007, the Blackboard course will be deleted on August 28, 2008.

Before, you could just tell Steve you wanted your course to remain up, and it would. Unfortunately, from now on, Archway "owns" the data. And to keep things running smoothly (and preserve space), we have to let the courses expire in a year.

One excellent workaround for saving course materials is to use the Content Collection. And you can always download the entire course on your hard drive.

What about the titles of my courses? On my course list, I can't distinguish one section from another. I would like the section number and semester to appear.r.

You can edit your course title. That field is "owned" by Blackboard and not Archway.

To edit your course title:

• Control Panel --> Settings --> Course Name and Description.
• Enter the text you want to appear on your course list (add section number, semester, correct strange looking abbreviations, etc.)

Remember, though, what you enter will be the text that appears on all your students' course lists as well as yours.

Data integration will not affect these special classes.

The classes will not, of course, receive automatic enrollments, since they do not exist on Archway. You will still have to enroll/remove students through User Management in the Control Panel.

But these special "classes" will stay up as long as you want them up.

By default, all course shells are created "unavailable," and students cannot get in until the course is "turned on."

To make your Blackboard course "available":

• Control Panel --> Settings --> Course Availability
• Click on Yes
• Submit and OK

1. Go into your old course
2. Control Panel--> Course Copy --> Copy Course Materials into an Existing Course
3. browse by instructor (use your username and click on the instructor radio button)
4. select your new course from the list in the new window
5. select what course components you want to send over
6. click on submit

Note: If you plan on sending Tests and Test Pools, make sure you also select Gradebook settings.

Probably the easiest workaround for this situation is simply to leave one (or more) sections unavailable.

You can move enrollments from your "unavailable" sections over to the section you want to use by:

1. Going into the course section you are not going to use
2. Control Panel--> Course Copy --> Copy Course Materials into an Existing Course
3. browse by instructor (use your username and click on the instructor radio button)
4. select your the course section you intend to use from the list in the new window
5. click on one course component you probably won't use (such as calendar), and click on enrollments
6. click on submit

Yes.

1. Click on syllabus (on the main course menu)
2. Click on Edit View (at the top right of the screen)
3. Click on ADD ITEM
4. Fill in the title
5. Click the browse button to search your computer for your Syllabus (Note: if you use a Mac, you must manually add the .doc extension in the file name)
6. Click on Submit

Sure.

1. Control Panel --> Send Email
2. Click on send all users

Note: If one email is bad, you will get an "email not sent" notice, even though the others actually were sent.

Yes.

• Click on the Courses Tab at the top of your screen
• Click on the pencil icon at the top right of your Course list
• Uncheck all courses you do not want to see on your welcome screen

This may take two steps.

First Step:

• Control Panel --> Archive Course
• click on Archive
• click on Submit
• You should get the following message "This action has been successfully queued. An email will be sent when the process is complete."
• Click on Ok

Second Step:

• Once the course has been copied, click on Control Panel --> Archive
• You will see a link
• right click on that link and select "Save Link As" or "Save Link Target As"
• Navigate in your computer to My Documents, or a place you want to save your course
• Select Save

Note: This is a zip file of the complete class. It can be uploaded to Blackboard by the System Administrator and the entire class will be recreated at the archive point.

Contact Steve Kerby

• email: skerby@mcdaniel.edu
• phone: 410-386-4686

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