The Center For Excellence in Learning Technology

Blackboard 8 offers opportunities for self and peer assessment that were not available in earlier versions of the system. View the tutorial below to get an idea how you can use the self and peer assessment features in your own Blackboard 8 classes this spring.

• Self and Peer Assessment in Blackboard 8 video tutorial

For those of you who missed the in-person Blackboard 8 Grade Center workshops, please take a look at the following video tutorials provided by Blackboard.
Grade Center Overview:

• Grade Center: Determining Grades and Exemptions
• Grade Center: Analyzing Grades (differentiated instruction orientation)
• Grade Center: Customizing the Grade Center

As you prepare your courses in Blackboard 8, you may notice that he discussion board has changed a bit. Blackboard has created a video tutorial to assist you in using and managing your discussion boards.

• View the Blackboard Discussion Board Tutorial.

I’ll be posting more video tutorials to address some of Blackboard 8’s new features, let me know if there are any aspects of the system you’d like to learn.

TurnItIn.com allows students and instructors to compare the text of papers with websites, other student papers, and even full-text periodical databases to determine whether or not any of the content is plagiarized.

For more information on TurnItIn.com (and to see some basic training videos), please visit: http://turnitin.com/static/training.html

Students:
Sign up for your account by clicking “New Users” at TurnItIn.com. You’ll need information from your professor about how to join their class in the system.

Faculty:
If you have not used the service before, TurnItIn offers a very helpful Quick Start Video for instructors on its training page. You’ll need to contact CELT to receive the CSI account code and password to set up your account. Once you’ve done that, you’re ready to set up your class and begin submitting work (you can either cut-and-paste or upload the actual Word documents), or even have students upload papers themselves.

In preparation for next semester’s move to the new Blackboard 8 system, course website shells will be brought into the system beginning on Monday, 11/24. When you access Blackboard 8, you will be able to begin building your courses and experimenting with the new features of the system.

To access Blackboard 8, log in to the CUNY portal and click “Early Adopter Rollout Blackboard Courses” in the Blackboard Gateway box.

Watch this space for more updates on course migration, training, and support.