In the News

Blackboard System Availability during the Quarter Break
Update available at the end of the quarter

Blackboard Courses Afterlives
Blackboard course sites older than nine quarters are removed from the system.
Blackboard’s “Courses” Tab - Over the last several years, a large number of faculty have requested that the list of courses in the “Courses” tab be reduced. In order to fulfill this request, we perform maintenance on this part of the system each quarter. All courses older than nine quarters are no longer available. We now have a batch course archive process in place. Courses are archived to DVD and may be restored on request. The removal of courses will reduce the length of courses listed and make searches and statistical reporting faster. This removal process will be repeated each quarter so that we only maintain nine quarters of courses on the system at any time.

Blackboard course sites older than five quarters are disabled, but will remain on the Blackboard system. Disabled courses are not available to instructors or students. The “disabled” status is different from “unavailable.” “Unavailable” courses are available to instructors, but not available to students. An instructor can control “availability” through the course control panel. However, disabled courses can only be enabled upon request by Blackboard administrators. This action will also shorten course lists for instructors and reduce confusion when copying materials from one quarter to another.

Starting in Winter 2006, the only courses visible from the Courses Tab will be the most recent 5 quarters.

Instructors may also create their own archives of older courses, if desired. Please call Faculty Development (ext 52562) or Media & Technology Services (ext. 54872) for assistance with archiving.

Revised Afterlives of BB Courses
       Word Format
       HTML Format

Blackboard Updated to Application Pack 3 Fall 2005
The CSUEB Blackboard course management system has been in production since Fall 2001. There have been minor updates and a major upgrade since that time. The improvements and bug fixes in this release are significant.

Application Pack 3 (6.3.1.374) contains maintenance items as well as the following new features:

• Adaptive Release
• Multi-Language Support by Institution, Course and User
• Advanced Assessment Questions and Features
• Performance Dashboard
• Syllabus Builder
• What's New Module
• SCORM 2004

Overview Of Blackboard Learning System
The Blackboard application provides a campus-wide, electronic community and communication environment for faculty and students, as well as a course management system for faculty wishing to place instructional materials on the web. Each quarter, a pre-made course shell for every section will be automatically created by an interface to the campus student information system, SIS+, and the PeopleSoft human resource system. This interface will also automatically populate the courses with enrolled students and update the class roster each night. All of these course shells will be made available each quarter with the communication and utility tools active for use by students enrolled in the course. 

Additional use of the Bb course sites for the delivery of course material and other instructional activity will be at the discretion of the instructor. The Blackboard system can also be used to set up sites for organizations, committees and student clubs as well as publish opinion polls and campus announcements etc.