TVU Online Learning - Blackboard Training Guide
Sixth Form Academy – agreed structure for courses in
Blackboard

All active courses on the Reading Unit-e will have a corresponding course
space in Blackboard.

All active students will be attached in Blackboard to all of the courses
(Programmes and Modules) to which they are enrolled in Unit-e.
So a typical AS student in 2005-6 would have been attached to the following:
BH002
BH002-00
BH002-00_M
BH002-44_B
BH002-44
BH005N-85
BH002-88_M
BH002-88
BH005N-18_B
BH005N-18
BH002-20
BH002-20_B
BH002-24_C
BH002-24
AS level F/T
AS level Tutorial
AS level Tutorial
English Language AS Level
English Language AS Level
Key Skills - Application of Number L2 (Level 3 students)
Key Skills - Information Technology 2
Key Skills - Information Technology 2
Mathematics GCSE for Level 3 Students
Mathematics GCSE for Level 3 Students
Media Studies AS Level
Media Studies AS Level
Sociology AS Level
Sociology AS Level
Please note that the Blackboard database cannot handle characters like / as the course ID,
so in Blackboard a code such as BH002-88/M becomes BH002-88_M
Remember that the student will only see those courses which their
Blackboard Instructors have set as Available. And in practice, staff will only
use some of these course codes to make materials available – but which to
use?
Rather than leaving this decision to individual lecturers, Cheryl and a group of
Sixth Form Academy staff have come up with the following recommended
structure.
This structure has been drawn up before anyone is actively using Blackboard
– it may be that in six months’ or a year’s time we have to review it and start
afresh, but please use it for now.
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Main programme
e.g.
CH002
AS level F/T
CH003
A2 level F/T
CH005
GCSE F/T
Used only to provide very general information about A levels / GCSEs and the
Sixth Form Academy in general. One or two key staff e.g. Cheryl, Norman will
act as Blackboard Instructors.
Individual Subjects
Students will be enrolled on the main course code
e.g. CH002-20 Media Studies AS Level
and on the individual class code
e.g. CH002-20_B Media Studies AS Level
Please use the main code
e.g.
CH002-20
Media Studies AS Level
CH003-23
Psychology A2 Level
CH005-14_A
History GCSE
This is where students should find all the resources for the specific courses
that they are studying.
Ideally all lecturers on the course team should be set up as Instructors, even if
in practice one or two staff carry out most of the maintenance of the
Blackboard site.
Using the main course code will avoid the need for staff to upload the same
materials to several different versions of the same course.
If you want to provide some separate materials for the different class groups,
you can set up separate folders in the Course Documents area of the
Blackboard course space.
If you want to contact the class members separately, you can set up a Group
for each class. This has to be done manually by the Instructor, but it’s a fairly
quick and painless procedure which – apart from when students change
courses – only has to be done once.
This allows you to email the Groups separately, and, if you wish, set up a
discussion board for each Group.
see Managing Groups at http://www.tvu.ac.uk/blackboard/staff_info/staff_userguides.htm
Key Skills
For AS Levels, follow the same pattern as for Subjects: please use the main
code
e.g. CH002-88 Key Skills - Information Technology 2
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For GCSEs, there does not appear to be a generic course code for Key Skills
e.g. CH005-82
So staff will have to use the specific codes
e.g.
CH005-82_A
Key Skills - Communications L2 (Humanities)
CH005-85_D
Key Skills - Application of Number L2 (Creative Arts)
If you are using the same resources with a range of Key Skills classes, please
contact Andy Turner to discuss how best to do this – using the Blackboard
Content System should help save time and file space on the server.
Tutorial groups
With Tutorials, it is clearly important for individual Tutors to be able to address
their tutor group directly. So please use the specific code
e.g.
CH002-00_A4
CH003-00_D1
CH005-00_E
If staff – e.g. Specialist Personal Tutors – need to make resources available to
all Tutor Groups, please contact Andy Turner to discuss how best to do this.
Example
Applying these rules, our typical student in 2006-7 might see something like
this when they log onto Blackboard:
CH002
CH002-00_A4
CH002-44
CH005N-85
CH002-88
CH005N-18
CH002-20
CH002-24
AS level F/T
AS level Tutorial
English Language AS Level
Key Skills - Application of Number L2 (Level 3 students)
Key Skills - Information Technology 2
Mathematics GCSE for Level 3 Students
Media Studies AS Level
Sociology AS Level
Help
Look under Info for Staff on the TVU Online Learning help site for guidance on
everyday Blackboard tasks. In particular see the staff user guides at
http://www.tvu.ac.uk/blackboard/staff_info/staff_userguides.htm
To have yourself (and your colleagues) set up as Instructor on a course in
Blackboard, complete the online form at
http://hermes.tvu.ac.uk/blackboard/R1-form.htm
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Blackboard Course menus
The default menu buttons, and what one would expect to see in each section,
are as shown below.
It is possible to rename the buttons, and to add additional buttons, but on the
whole it will be easiest for students if they see the same menu on all of their
courses, and find the same sorts of material in each section.
see Managing Course Menu at http://www.tvu.ac.uk/blackboard/staff_info/staff_userguides.htm
Announcements
This is the entry point for the course – will
display any messages which the Instructor
puts up for the students to see
Course Information
General details about the course e.g.
 Programme handbook
 Link to the Examining Board website /
Syllabus
 Timetable
Staff Information
Names and contact details of the course team
Course Documents
Create folders here for each Unit / topic,
containing e.g.
 Handouts
 Powerpoints
 Links to useful websites / articles in
e-journals
 Study guides
Assignments
All the course assignments
Communication
This links to Email and Discussion Boards
Tools
This links to a range of Blackboard tools
e.g. Calendar, Digital Dropbox
Best to remove those tools which you do
not intend to use.
External Links
Websites useful for the course as a whole
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