Restricting Student Posts in the Discussions Tool

Students often don’t “catch on” at first about how to post their response to a discussion board message within the appropriate thread of messages. They’ll often create a new thread rather than responding within the thread (e.g. to post within a given discussion thread, the responder must have the message to which they’re responding open and then press Reply. The instructor can take control of this situation and only allow student replies (within a given Discussions tool topic) to the messages the instructor posts. Here’s how. When editing a Discussions tool Topic on the Teach tab, scroll down to Topic Behavior Options. There are now three options to choose from:

· Students can post messages and reply to messages
· Students can reply to messages but cannot post messages
· Students can post messages but cannot reply to messages

To restrict students from originating a new thread, the second option is beneficial though the wording is inaccurate. It should read “Students can reply to messages but cannot create a new thread under this topic.”

Thanks to Michael Robertson for this tip.

Italic Scores in the Grade Book

When using Blackboard CE 6 do you ever wonder why midterm and final grade columns sometimes show numbers in italics and parenthesis, such as (225), and others are not, such as (239), e.g, no parenthesis, and no italics?

When a score is in italics it means that some of the column scores (used in the formula to determine the value in the calculated column) have not been posted yet. Once all columns have a score (number) posted, the calculated score changes to non-italicized.

Italics within parentheses indicate that some of the grades being used as input for the calculation in the column are missing, so the calculation is incomplete.

Public Domain & Copyright Free Images

Using copyrighted music or images without permission with few exceptions (which we’ll cover in future postings) is a violation of copyright law and a good way to end up in legal trouble. Here are some sources to find multimedia you can use. Be sure to check the specific requirements on each website to make sure the images are free for use for your particular project.

1) US Government Graphics and Photos
This is a government created directory of government graphics and photos. Most of the links are to sites with images in the public domain. A few are not, however, so read carefully to find their copyright and usage guidelines.

My personal favorite source on this list is NASA. Most NASA images are not copyrighted, but they do have some restrictions on commercial use. NASA usage guidelines are found here. http://www.nasa.gov/audience/formedia/features/MP_Photo_Guidelines.html
http://www.firstgov.gov/Topics/Graphics.shtml

2) Creative Commons
Creative Commons provides an interesting way of making very clear what rights are granted with each work displayed. Read their documentation for more precise information on what each license grants.

They also list a very informative legal guide for podcasters , which explains the Creative Commons licensing and other legal concerns for podcasters.
http://creativecommons.org/

3) Morgue file
The Morguefile is a source for free-to-use images that can be used for both commercial and noncommercial applications. They ask that the photographer be credited, wherever possible, and you are not free to sell prints or credit the work as your own.
http://morguefile.com/

4) Yotophoto
Yotophoto is a search engine for copyright friendly images. Image searches show a thumbnail, which lists the image source and the copyright restrictions, if any. This is easy to use and a great tool to find specific images.
http://yotophoto.com/

5) Wikimedia Commons
Wikimedia Commons is an offshoot of Wikipedia. Like Wikipedia, anyone can contribute content, and anyone can edit it. The images listed are theoretically free of copyright restriction, but it is possible someone uploaded an image that they did not create.
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Commons:Welcome

Thanks to Marziah Karch for gathering this information.

Security Settings and Opening PowerPoint or Other Files

Sometimes when students indicate they cannot see a PowerPoint presentation (meaning they click the links in your course and the presentation doesn’t open) it may be due to the security settings in their browser. When using Internet Explorer, the user may get a notice from IE that a download has been prevented because of potential risks. The cue is a yellow strip with warning text that appears at the top of the browser window. If this occurs the user can click the yellow strip and choose the option to proceed with the download. At times this action will kick the user out of the course but when they log back in they’ll be able to open the presentation. If the student holds the Ctrl key (Windows users) while clicking the link to the presentation, it should open without the yellow warning strip. Holding the Ctrl key while clicking a link is a way of telling the browser “I’m aware of the risks associated with this type of action but want to open this file anyway”.

Thanks to Davy Jones for the tip.

When Image Counts

Online instruction doesn’t need to be faceless. Blackboard CE includes a feature (My Profile) that can include a photograph, a nickname, your non-Blackboard email address. This information can be entered once and then available in all the courses in which you are enrolled as an instructor or student—so long as the course has the Roster tool added. To enter or update your personal profile in Blackboard CE follow these steps:

1. Go to the My Blackboard screen.
2. Select the My Settings link at the top right of the screen.
3. Be sure the My Profile tab (top left) is selected.
4. Click the Edit Profile button.
5. If you go by a nickname (such as “Davy” rather than “David”), you can enter your nickname in the First Name field (it’ll be used in all courses in which you are enrolled rather than your legal first name).
6. You can also enter an external e-mail address (in the E-mail field) to which you can forward your Blackboard Mail tool e-mail.
7. To add an image to your profile, select the Browse… button.
8. Select the My Computer icon to navigate to a location (on your computer) where you have an image (.gif or .jpg) of yourself stored. The recommended image size is 320 x 240 pixels. If the image is larger, it’ll be resized by Blackboard.
9. Once you locate the image’s filename, double-click it and the image will be uploaded.
10. Be sure the Public check box above the image is selected if you want the image visible to others.
11. Click the Save button to save the changes you’ve made.
12. Next click the Done button to return to the My Blackboard screen.

Your profile will be visible in any course that includes the Roster tool.