Goodbye WebCT, Hello Blackboard!
Find out what you need to do to make sure that any online provision you delivered in
WebCT/want to deliver from September 2008 will go ‘Live’ to students in
Blackboard at the Start of Year.
This briefing will help both administrative and academic colleagues understand what
you need to do, when and why!
Goodbye WebCT
WebCT will be ‘decommissioned’ 19th September 2008. This means neither you, nor
your students will have access to WebCT. Staff need to be aware that that:
Can you answer YES to the following questions?
 Have you had a course running in WebCT during 2007-08?
 Has all academic activity including resits finished on this course?
Then please do the following:
1. Copy and save from WebCT any content from your courses that you may still
wish to retain - save to your local disk, CD or memory stick
e.g. Content, Discussions, Marks spreadsheets etc
2.
Complete the above process by FRIDAY 19th September 2008
N.B. Please ensure that this deadline is met as your course WILL NOT BE
AVAILABLE IN WEBCT AFTER THIS DATE.
If you answer yes to the following questions
 Have you had a course running in WebCT during 2007-08?
 Did your course NOT complete in July 08 and IS ongoing?
 Have you received confirmation from the eLearning team that access will
continue?
Then please do the following:
Do nothing until your course has completed including resits etc, then complete task 1
above to copy and save off-line any content from your WebCT courses that you wish
to retain.
If you answer yes to the following questions
 Have you had a course running in WebCT during 2007-08?
 Did your course NOT complete in July 08 and IS ongoing?
 Is your course NOT on the attached list?
Then please do the following:
 Contact your faculty eLearning team IMMEDIATELY at
elearning@manchester.ac.uk to inform them of this course.
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You may have used the WebCT test server called ‘Snowy’, we have not migrated any
courses from this server so please ensure you take immediate copies of any files you
need from any courses on ‘Snowy’ and contact us immediately if these need to be
migrated to Blackboard
Hello Blackboard!
Q. How do I check my courses are in Blackboard?
A. Log on to Blackboard from http://www.manchester.ac.uk/elearning can you see
any courses that you used to deliver in WebCT and any ones you have been
developing for this semester?
Q. what if I can’t see a course I am expecting to see?
A. If it is a course that you used to deliver in WebCT contact the eLearning team. If it
is a course you would like to start delivering via Blackboard ask your administrator to
‘flag’ the course in Campus Solutions as BBDevelop, this will create a Blackboard
section for this course. Also ask your administrator to check that you appear as a
Primary Instructor or a Blackboard Instructor in the Class Schedule in Campus
Solutions. This is best way to ensure you get access to your Blackboard course
Q. I can see two of each of my courses, is this correct?
A. Yes this is correct. For each course flagged as BBDevelop in Campus Solutions
you will see two spaces, for example
In the above example, the first one is the ‘Development’ section. This is where we
recommend you build your course. If we have migrated your course from WebCT for
you, this is where you will find it. This is not linked to student enrolments.
In the above example, the second space has details of the ‘Class’ i.e. LEC 2009-09 2nd
Semester and is called the ‘Production’ area. This is the area students enrolled on the
Class will have access to, but only when, your course administrator has changed the
flag in Campus Solutions from BBDevelop to Blackboard.
Q. I have built my course in the Development section, how do I
make sure my students will see it?
A. For Semester 1/All year courses we are recommending the following process and
timescale
2
1
Suggested
timescale
By 5th
September at
the latest
2
By 12th
September
3
During w/c
15th
September
4
Between
Saturday 13th
September
and Friday
18th
September
What needs to be
done
1. Agreement from
academic owners
that their content
is ready to go
live.
2. Content copied
from the
Development to
the
Production/Live
section
Who should do
this
Academic
course owners
Notes
Academic
Owner of the
course
This is a very simple
process. There will be
instructions on our
website on how to do
this, we will also be
running drop-ins in
Ellen Wilkinson in
individual Schools to
help.
or
eLearning teams
can undertake
this/support
academic
colleagues
necessary
3. The flag in
Campus
Campus Solutions Solutions
needs to be
administrator
changed to
Blackboard. This or
ensures that any
students enrolled eLearning teams
on the class are
are able to do
able to view the
this if above is
Blackboard
not possible
module
4. Content that is not Academic
due to be visible
Course owner
to students in
Live courses is
Hidden/has
Selective Release
applied
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Changes can continue
to be made to course
content but once
content has been copied
from the Development
to the Production/Live
area, changes should be
made in
Production/Live area
Unless you specify
otherwise it will be
assumed that your
course is ready to go
Live. Don’t worry if
you don’t want you
students to view the
course, just add some
text in the header of the
homepage and Hide the
content you do not want
students to view.
Both of these are
straight forward to do,
documentation on how
to do this will be made
available and eLearning
staff will be available to
support academic
colleagues.
Q. I have a Semester 1/All Year course but I don’t’ need my
students to be able to see their Blackboard space straight away,
should I still follow this process?
A. Yes, but make sure you follow step 4 above. Hide content that you do not want
your students to see but add some text to the homepage to indicate to your students
when the material will be available.
Q. Can someone help me get my course ready on time and copy
content over to the Production/Live area?
A. Yes. The eLearning team is here to help you. We have drop-ins arranged in Ellen
Wilkinson and specific ones in your School for full details see
http://www.humanities.manchester.ac.uk/tandl/elearning/events/index.html you can
also contact us on elearning@manchester.ac.uk
Q. How do my students access Blackboard?
A. Students should access Blackboard through the ‘My Studies’ tab of the Student
Portal. Students can access the Portal through the StudentNet homepage
The eLearning team is here to help but please help us by checking your course early,
getting your content ready by 5th September and emailing us with any queries in good
time.
Full details of the support is available on the Teaching and Learning website
http://www.humanities.manchester.ac.uk/tandl/elearning/.
Lots of help, resources and guidance is also available on the University’s eLearning
site http://www.campus.manchester.ac.uk/elearning/.
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