Extensions to
Blackboard Inc.'s Course Management System software.
Stuart Raeburn,
MSU Blackboard Administrator
Created: March 2001.
Last Modified: April 2003.
A number of extensions have been
created at Michigan State University for use with Blackboard's CourseInfo
4 course management software. These extensions allow instructors and
TAs to perform administrative tasks that can not be carried out with the
standard Control Panel tools. In some cases they provide functionality
that is absent in the standard product (e.g., upload of grades to
the online gradebook from a plain text file, or upload of pool questions
from a plain text file), whereas in other cases they provide richer functionality
than is available with the equivalent tool in the standard product (e.g.,
the MSU Remove user tool preserves user data, and the MSU Enroll
user tool restores user data for a previously unenrolled user). In addition,
one other set of extensions provides access to data stored in the CourseInfo
system for which the standard Control Panel does not offer appropriate reporting
tools. Examples include the View dropbox log tool which displays
both the date and time of file transfers to and from
students via the digital dropbox, and the Activity Tracker which
can be used in a couple of ways: (a) to display new activity in the system
that may require the attention of the instructor or TA, and (b) a summary
of the activity of an individual student in the course (e.g., page accesses,
discussion posts made and read, quiz and survey attempt history etc.). The
Activity Tracker can also be used as a web-based e-mail client to read course
e-mail received by the individual instructor/TA.
Automatic drops and adds from a Blackboard course roster as a result of
changes in the official class list maintained by the Registrar's Office can
be controlled by the Class manager tool. The tool can be used
to set first and last access dates for registered students and can also be
used to make changes to the way enrollment from one or more sections is aggregated
in a single Blackboard course created for an MSU class in which there are
multiple sections.
Although the standard e-mail tools in CourseInfo do not allow file attachments,
the Email attachments tool allows instructors and TAs to send e-mail
with file attachments to participants in their courses. The standard CourseInfo
product prohibits inclusion of instructors and/or TAs as group members,
so such users do not receive e-mail sent within groups created in a course.
The Group email access tool allows individual instructors and TAs
to elect to receive group e-mail in selected course groups.
Files uploaded to Blackboard course content areas by instructors, TAs,
and Course Builders, and files transferred using the digital dropbox are
all stored in an assigned area of MSU's distributed filesystem - AFS. The
Check disk usage tool will show the current AFS disk usage in a course
and the amount of free disk space remaining. If the tool is used to check
disk usage when the amount of free space remaining is 10% or less of the
quota for the course an e-mail request for a quota increase of 40 Mb will
be sent automatically to the AFS administrators.
Whereas the Class manager can be used to manage aggregated enrollment
in Blackboard courses for classes with multiple sections, a separate utility
- the Synchronizer tool, is available for content management
in classes with multiple sections. The Synchronizer tool allows a
Blackboard course created for a specific section to be designated as a parent
to one or more child Blackboard courses created for other sections
of the same class for the same semester that are owned by the same course
owner. Individual documents, individual folders, parts of content
hierarchies, or whole content areas (e.g., course documents, course information,
assignments etc.) in the parent may be "synchronized" with one or
more child sections. When this occurs content in the synchronized document
(or folder) is automatically copied to the child section, and any subsequent
changes in the parent automatically propagate to the child section(s). Such
changes include both modification of existing documents and also addition
of new documents and/or folders to synchronized folders.
As part of the process of developing completely online courses for use
in distance education, the Michigan State University's Virtual University
developed a set of tools - the VU widgets - that add can interactivity to
a web page. These tools include online quizzing, online polling, and threaded
discussion boards. The VU widgets may be enabled by instructors and TAs
within a Blackboard course by using the MSU toolbox function. This
function provides access to a administrative page which can be used to select
which of the VU widgets should be available to the student in the "Student
Links" area, and also to carry out administrative tasks (e.g., create quiz
questions, create polls), and to display course data collected by the widgets.
For the student, if the VU widgets have been enabled, then the behavior
of the MSU Tools button displayed at the top of the navigation menu on each
course page will no longer be the default - display of the standard
online Blackboard student manual - but will instead result in display of
a page split vertically into three frames: (1) the standard Blackboard buttons
(Announcements etc.); (2) the MSU Toolbox links added to the Student Links
area; and (3) a large panel containing the main course page.
An Instructor Info tool is available to instructors and TAs which
can be used to subscribe to an MSU instructor information site in the Blackboard
system. The Instructor Information site, which was first created in December
2002, is used to announce changes and enhancements to Blackboard service
at Michigan State University. Advance notice of scheduled server maintenance
affecting official MSU classes is posted at the site. The site also features
discussion boards created
for instructors and TAs to use to share best practices advice, ask questions
about features in Blackboard, offer practical suggestions for improving
MSU's Blackboard service, and document software bugs and suggested workarounds.
It is hoped that over time, an active online community will develop in which
more experienced Blackboard instructors will offer help and guidance to
more recent adopters.
One final feature added to Blackboard courses at MSU that is absent in the
standard software is the concept of a course owner. The course owner
is defined as the individual who originally requested creation of a Blackboard
course using the online course request form. Once the course is created
the owner is permanently assigned the role of instructor, and also has access
to a Remove course tool that can be used to remove a course entirely
from the Blackboard system. The Modify user tool that replaces
the equivalent tool in the standard Control Panel allows instructors and TAs
to change the roles of course participants, but enforces the rule that the
course owner can not be changed from instructor. The Remove user
tool similarly prevents removal of the course owner from a Blackboard course
by anyone except the MSU Blackboard Administrator.
All the extensions created for
Blackboard's CourseInfo system for use by instructors and TAs are accessible
from the MSU Admin page that is displayed when an individual with the appropriate
role in the course clicks the MSU Tools button that appears at the
top of the navigation sidebar include in each course page.
