Submitting Final grades through EagleLinks

This tip applies to faculty at Coppin State University... I'm not sure how faculty at other universities submit final grades for students.

At Coppin, we submit final grades through EagleLinks (our name for the campus PeopleSoft system). What I failed to understand (and thus became the "Cool" (?!) thing I learned today) is that when I clicked Save, even though the Approval status was "Not Reviewed", the grades were locked in.

I now have the joy of filling out 5 paper "Change of Grade" forms and trucking them around campus to get the proper signatures.

For those of you who would like to learn from my mistake, here are the appropriate steps to enter Final Grades:

* FIRST: Calculate final grades for students in Blackboard's GradeBook, or use Excel... whatever method works for you. Make sure that this is the final FINAL grade, that there are no additional papers that students will submit and ask to get grades for...
2. Log in to EagleLinks.
3. In the left Menu panel, select "Class Management."
NOTE: If you do not see Class Management, that is a separate problem -- you need to get paperwork submitted to get set up with the instructor role in EagleLinks. Go talk to the department chair.
4. Click Record Grades.
5. Select the Grade Roster (semester) that you are submitting grades for. (Example: Fall 2007)
6. Click the Course Title that you are submitting grades for. (Example: Info Tech in SOWK)
You will see the class roster with the students's ID, Name and Roster Grade.
7. Check the "Roster Type" -- if it says "Final Grade" you are all set to enter the Final Grades.
If you need to change the Roster Type from "Mid-Term Grade", look up a few lines on the screen to the Blue Line that says, "Select Desired Roster" -- at the right side of that, click the link labelled Last. Now verify that "Roster Type" says "Final Grade."
8. For each student in the column "Roster Grade" enter the letter grade (A, B, C, D, F) that the student earned.
*** Are you certain that this is the final FINAL grade for the student? ***
9. Click Save.

The final grades for the students are now submitted and locked. :)

Save vs. Submit in Blackboard

I learned something that I consider more important than cool... This semester I have been using the discussion board in Blackboard, and requiring students to post their answers each week to discussion questions based on the reading. Each week had it's own forum in Blackboard, and when I created the forum, I set the option "Grade Forum" and gave each forum 10 points. Students would post to a forum, for example "Week 1: Introduce yourself", and at the end of the week, I would go into that forum in the Discussion board and click the "Grade Forum" link so that I could easily read everyone's post and grade each post. This also automatically added an entry to Blackboard's gradebook, called "Week 1... Forum Grade."

The problem I ran across is that at least one student thought that she was turning in her assignments when she clicked the "Save" button (rather than Submit). She called me up to find out why I had given her 0's for these assignments, and I explained that I didn't receive them. She went into Blackboard and showed me that she had answered the question, but her message was labeled "Draft." Aha! I explained that for each of these posted messages, she would need to click Modify and then click Submit to actually turn in her answers.

Lesson learned: give clear instructions to students about how to use Blackboard! Next semester, I will put some guidelines in the course site for students that explain how to Submit a message in a discussion board.

As you look back on the semester, did you have any similar experiences?

Adding images to tests in Blackboard

Aha, so I learned something cool today... I discovered how to add images to a test in Blackboard.

This can come in handy for science classes like biology, chemistry and nursing, so that the instructor can show an image of a cell or organic compound, and ask the students to identify it. And useful for humanities classes like art and literature, to post an image of an artwork and ask students to write about it.


You can view a mini recorded overview of tests (aka assessments) in Blackboard here:
Assessments quick tutorial

And here are the specific steps to create a test and add an image to a question:
1. Log into Blackboard
2. Go into your course site
3. CLick Control Panel
4. Click Test Manager
5. Click Add Test
6. Enter a name for the test (and description/instructions if desired)
7. Click Submit
You will see the "Test Canvas" screen where you can add questions. Look closely, and you will see that there is a button called "Creation Settings" to the right of the "Go" button.
8. Click Creation Settings.
9. Locate the option, "Add images, files, and external links to questions." and check the box
10. Click Submit.

Now when you add any type of question to your test, you will have a few additional options underneath the question text.

File field and a Browse button --- this is where you can select an image on your computer (or USB drive, or network drive) to add to the test
Action field -- be sure to select "Display image within the page" so that students will see the image.


If you have other Blackboard tips and tricks, be sure to share them here!

And if you want to learn more about Blackboard, you can check out several online tutorials and guides:
Blackboard quick tutorials

Coppin State University Online support center -- (click Blackboard 7.3 Knowledge Base then INSTRUCTORS )

Or come into the Center for Teaching and Learning with Technology in Grace Jacobs 106 to get a cup of coffee and talk technology!

Saving Microsoft Word 2007 files as Word 2003

OK, so I've taken the plunge and gone cold turkey (and enjoying my metaphor mixed with a little holiday cheer!)... I'm now using Microsoft Office 2007. It's quirky, and difficult to find my favorite things (especially pivot tables in Excel, but that's a blog for another day!)...

Today, I discovered (by accident) the setting so that by default, my documents are saved in the Word 97-2003 (*.doc) format. This way, I don't have to consciously remember to save my document in DOC format before sending to a colleague who only has Word 2003.

Here's how:

1. Click the Office Button (circle in upper left)
2. Click Word options
3. Click the Save setting
4. Change the option, "Save Files in this Format" to your desired format.

If you are curious about Microsoft Office 2007, you can stop by the Center for Teaching and Learning with Technology and try it out for yourself. Or, if you want to see a demo without leaving your office, check out the Microsoft Office Word 2007 demo. (length: 4 minutes -- NOTE: it's a bit marketing-ish!) And if you prefer to read something, check out this web page, Introduction to Word 2007.

Or learn about how to Get Started with Microsoft Office 2007 and check out tips and demos for the new versions of Word, Excel, Powerpoint, Access, and more.