Bb SP 8 comes on May 19

The weekend of May 19 has been identified as the roll out date for the new Blackboard Service Pack 8 installation.


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2012 Online Teaching Conference

The 2012 Online Teaching Conference is scheduled for June 14-15 in San Jose, CA, but offers FREE virtual attendance.  Registration is required:

http://www.onlineteachingconference.org/TopNav/Registration.html

Course Creation Wizard

KCTCS has now turned on the Course Creation Wizard on the eTest server. This means that you can create yourself any shell you need.

Simply click the link on the tool in the portal and follow the directions. (FYI course codes cannot have spaces and cannot be the same as any other course in the system. You may want to include your name or initials to make sure it is original.)

This tool does not have the option to use the new course structures and themes, but they can be added once the course shell is created.

FYI – this tool will not be available on production (since courses come from PS).

Troubleshooting AdvisorTrac Access

Having trouble accessing AdvisorTrac?  Try these solutions:

• Authenticate with KCTCS.  Remember to use your KCTCS email and password when logging in--and be sure you are using your current password.
• Use Mozilla Firefox or Google Chrome.  Users have reported problems using MS Internet Explorer.
• Clear Your Browser's Cache.  Follow these directions to clear your browser's cache.  I know, I know this sounds very techy. . . but it's not hard to do.  
• Use the correct link.  From the BCTC home page, click Faculty&Staff  then click the AdvisorTrac link located under "Tools".
• Restart your Web browser.  Sometimes Firefox gets wiggy.  Shut down all window and restart.
• Restart your computer.  This is a common cure-all for many computer woes.  Power down your machine and restart.

Still can't access AdvisorTrac?  There could be an error with your log in information on our end.  Send an email to BL-AdvisorTrac@kctcs.edu.  Be sure to give your name and student/employee number and we'll track down what's wrong.

Grade History

You can use Blackboard review a student's “grade history” for purposes of validating student participation in Bb courses. In other words, if you want to check to see if a student has "participated" in your class, here's how to do it:

http://district.bluegrass.kctcs.edu/ben.worth/blog/grade_history.pdf

Bb SP8 Video

Check out this short (2:19) video showing the new features in Service Pack 8. .. .

 http://bit.ly/w0fWZu