Bringing
Together the
Blackboard
K-12
Community
Blackboard K-12
Connections
Summer 2002
Branding Your Blackboard
Customizing Gateway and Login
Pages to “Brand” Your Installation of
Blackboard
An effective way to create a
unique identity for your school or
district’s Blackboard environment
is to customize the gateway and
login pages. These two pages,
through which all Blackboard users
will pass, can contain images from
your school or district, customized messages, and links to support and information pages.
Meet and Greet
at NECC
Learning Solutions Tips
Blackboard Learning Solutions
consultants have written a tip
sheet on Customizing the Blackboard Login and Gateway Pages.
This and other useful tip sheets
and tutorials created by the
Learning Solutions team can be
found on the Blackboard Training Center at http://
trainingcenter.blackboard.com.
For ideas on what other K-12
Blackboard users have done, check
out these interesting gateways
from other K-12 Blackboard installations:
In This Issue:
Branding Your
Blackboard
Other Blackboard clients such
as Roosevelt University in Chicago have used the Login page
to link to an online support
infrastructure for Blackboard.
http://roosevelt.blackboard.com
In addition, if you click
“Preview” from the Login page
for Roosevelt, you can see some
ways Roosevelt University has
used the Blackboard Community
Portal to present information to
guests.
1
1
http://blackboard.wcpss.net
Wake County Public Schools, NC
http://eschool.peoriaud.k12.az.us
Peoria Unified School District, AZ
http://online.ccsd.k12.co.us
Cherry Creek Public Schools, CO
All the Way from 2
K…Increasing
Adoption
Join “Team
Blackboard”
Discussion List
2
Virtual Schools
Report from the
Peak Group
3
Training Sessions
In DC This
Summer
3
Workaround
Corner: Gradebook Tip
4
http://fcps.blackboard.com
Fairfax County Public Schools, VA
The Blackboard gateway page for Wake County Public Schools.
Meet and Greet other K-12 Blackboard Users at NECC
During the K-12 Focus Group
session at the Blackboard Users
Conference in Phoenix in
March, a number of K-12 clients
expressed an interest in having
an opportunity to get together
at NECC. In response to this
suggestion, the Blackboard K-12
team will be hosting a meeting
of K-12 Blackboard Users at
NECC in San Antonio on Sunday, June 16.
This is an opportunity for you
and others from your school or
district to network with other
Blackboard users, share ideas,
and collaborate.
If you’d like to attend, please
send an email to
CRMK12@blackboard.com.
We’re also looking forward to
seeing many of you at the Black-
board booth (#1756). Many
members of the Blackboard
K-12 team, including Kirk Fabrizio, Maura Keaney, Sean Meelia,
Brian Mills, Matt Muller, and
Patrick Supanc will be staffing
the booth. If you would like to
set up an individual appointment
at NECC with your Blackboard
representative, email us at
CRMK12@blackboard.com.
Page 2
Blackboard K-12 Connections
All the Way from K… through 12: Increasing Adoption at All Grades
Jan Murray, a kindergarten teacher at Fabius Elementary School
in upstate New York, found Blackboard to be an excellent resource for parents during this school year. Her Blackboard
course site includes useful information for parents such as policies and procedures, supplies lists, monthly class newsletters,
lists of reading sight words. She also has created a collection of
links to Web sites of interest to parents of her students, including
sites about early literacy, fun sites about math, and search engines for kids.
In K-12 schools and districts, Blackboard is used most often in
high school classrooms and for teacher professional development. Widening your school or district's Blackboard community
to including middle and elementary school teachers, even those at
the kindergarten level, allows you utilize Blackboard even more
effectively and get a much greater return on investment in Blackboard. But how can you convince busy teachers that Blackboard
is an ideal resource to supplement the face-to-face classroom?
One Blackboard client has found that the answer follows the old
adage of, "Show, don't tell."
Show, Don't Tell: Promoting Blackboard Among Teachers
Dan Lake, Systems Consultant for Onondoga/ Courtland/ Madison Board of Coooperative Educational Services (more commonly known as OCM BOCES) in New York State has developed a simple yet comprehensive structure for promoting use of
Blackboard among teachers at all grade levels. His strategy centers on showcasing exemplary Blackboard course sites and organization sites that include practical examples and ideas that
resonate with teachers of all grades.
A Blackboard client since 1999, OCM BOCES began with a
small installation of CourseInfo. Teacher adoption grew rapidly
over the next two years. To support over 800 active courses on
the system as well as anticipate continuing growth, OCM BOCES has upgraded to the Blackboard Learning System with
Community Portal (formerly known as Level 3) solution. How
were they so successful at promoting adoption?
The core of OCM BOCES strategy for promoting Blackboard is
encouraging teachers to allow Guest access to course areas and
ideas they are willing to share with other teachers.
"Guest access is the easiest way for us to manage widespread
sharing of ideas and best practices among our teachers," says
Lake. "We've been very successful at creating a community in
which teachers feel comfortable sharing their ideas and allowing
others to access their courses."
OCM BOCES teachers can browse each other's courses through
the Course Catalog (courses with guest access enabled will have
a Preview button in the catalog). In addition, Lake has created a
Blackboard site that aggregates links to exemplary teacher
course sites, including Jan Murray's kindergarten site, organized
into the following groups:
Teacher to Home Sites
Teacher to Teacher Sites
Grant and Department Sites
Ecouraging a climate of sharing throughout the Blackboard
K-12 community, Dan Lake welcomes guests from other
schools and districts who would like to learn more about how
Continued on page 3
Join “Team Blackboard”
Name This Newsletter!
Team Blackboard, a national K-12 Blackboard
listerv hosted by Peoria Unified School District,
includes subscribers from independent schools,
school districts, and education service centers.
A Summer Contest for Creative Teachers
Try as we might, the K-12 team just could not
come up with a creative name for this first issue
of our newsletter for the K-12 community.
Since the list’s inception in March, members have
discussed issues such as finding K-12 content in
Blackboard format, best practices for student
account management, and ideas for using the
whiteboard in the Virtual Classroom.
We welcome your suggestions for a creative,
catchy name for the newsletter. If your name is
chosen, we’ll credit you in the next issue and
you’ll win a coveted Blackboard golf shirt, perfect
to wear while enjoying your summer vacation!
All Blackboard users are welcome to join at:
Please email us at CRMK12@blackboard.com
with your ideas. We will accept all suggestions
received by July 31, 2002.
http://listserv.peoriaud.k12.az.us/teamblackboard.htm.
Summer 2002
Page 3
Blackboard: Leading Platform for Virtual Schools Across America
K-12 Blackboard Users Featured in
Peak Group report, Virtual Schools
Across America: Trends in K-12 Online Education 2002.
The Peak Group report is a comprehensive study of the development and progress of virtual schools across the United
States. It includes detailed information
on demographics, statistics, budget, and
programs of virtual schools, including
detailed profiles of 40 K-12 virtual
schools.
Blackboard was confirmed as the most
popular choice of teaching and learning
infrastructure software, with over one-
third (35%) of the virtual schools in the
study using Blackboard as a delivery platform.
We were proud to note that Houston
Independent School District (HISD) Virtual School was recognized as a Model
Virtual School in the report. Other
Blackboard clients profiled in the study
included Alabama Online High School,
Babbage Net School, Appleton eSchool
(Appleton Area School District), Keystone National High School, LancasterLebanon Intermediate Unit 13 (PA),
Plano ISD eSchool (TX), Region IV Education Service Center/Texas Virtual
School, Virtual High School @PWCS
(Prince William County Schools, Virginia), and Wichita eSchool. Blackboard
partners including Apex Learning and
Class.com were also profiled.
Virtual Schools Across America: Trends in K12 Online Education 2002 may be ordered
from The Peak Group, LLC at
http://www.peakgroup.net/educationoutl
ook/virtualschools.html or by calling 408927-5879.
If you would like your virtual school program
to be featured in an upcoming Blackboard
K-12 newsletter, please send an email to
Maura Keaney at
mkeaney@blackboard.com.
New Blackboard Training Workshops in DC This Summer
The most successful implementations of Blackboard in a
school or district have been
built on a strong foundation of
teacher training from the start.
Blackboard Learning Solutions
consultants, many of whom
come to Blackboard from K-12
classrooms, conduct hands-on
training workshops with up to
15 teachers per school or district in each workshop.
If you want to train just a few
individuals from your school or
district, Learning Solutions Regional Blackboard Training events
might be ideal for you! The following new workshops will be
offered this summer
Effective Course Design
July 12, August 16
Blackboard Fundamentals
July 11, August 15
and click “Training Sessions” to
learn about these and other training options, including shorter
Web-based training workshops.
To register, contact Rita Aouad at
raouad@blackboard.com or call
1-800-424-9299 x 332.
Future regional training sessions
will also be held in our offices in
Phoenix, Arizona, and at BlackWorkshops are full-day and cost board’s K-12 Certified Education
$250 per person. For workshop Center, Lancaster-Lebanon Interagendas and details, http://
mediate Unit 13 in Lancaster,
trainingcenter.blackboard.com
Pennsylvania.
Blackboard was
confirmed as
the most
popular choice
of teaching and
learning
platforms for
virtual schools
across America.
All the Way from K...Through 12: OCM BOCES Strategy
Continued from page 2
Blackboard is used by OCM BOCES. At
http://welol.cnyric.org, guests can preview the
Course Catalog and access the site of exemplary
courses by searching with the term "SuperVision".
Dan has also worked with teachers in some districts in the OCM BOCES area to promote teacher
interaction and collaboration by creating Web
pages outside of Blackboard that aggregate links to
Blackboard courses with guest access enabled.
One example for Math, Science, and Technology
teachers through the MST Telemetoring Project
can be found at
http://www.ocmboces.org/iss/mstsite/mstele.htm.
Dan Lake has been an active member of the
Blackboard K-12 community. In addition to
presenting at the Blackboard Users Conference
in Phoenix in March 2002, Lake participates
regularly on the Team Blackboard list and encourages other Blackboard users to join the discussion. He can be reached at dlake@cnyric.org.
Copyright © 2002 by
Blackboard Inc.
All rights reserved.
This newsletter may be distributed in its entirety either in
electronic or in paper format
to Blackboard users at licensed
Blackboard institutions. No
part of the contents of this
newsletter may be reproduced
or transmitted in any other
form or by any other means
without the written permission
of the publisher,
Blackboard Inc.
Blackboard K-12 Connections
BRINGING
TOGETHER THE
BLACKBOARD
K-12 COMMUNITY
Your Newsletter, Your Ideas: A Note from the Editor
Two years ago, when I used Blackboard with my high school students, I didn’t know any other Blackboard users.
Using Blackboard transformed teaching and learning in my classroom in a positive way, but even I was unaware of
its full potential to impact student learning outcomes, parent communication, standardized test scores, and professional development for teachers.
As Manager of K-12 Client Relations at Blackboard, one of my most important objectives is to facilitate ongoing
sharing of ideas and accomplishments in the K-12 Blackboard user community. This newsletter is designed to be a
resource for all K-12 Blackboard users. In this issue, we have tried to include different kinds of information, both
practical and informative, that can be used by Blackboard system administrators, trainers, technology coordinators,
and teachers. Based on input and suggestions from many of you, we hope to continue to include at least:
•
•
•
Blackboard Inc.
K-12 Team
Washington, DC Campus
1899 L St. NW, 5th Floor
Washington, DC 20036
1-800-424-9299 x860
1-202-463-4860 x860
Fax: 1-202-318-2619
Email your Account Manager at:
CRMK12@blackboard.com
•
One feature of practical use to an entire school or district (such as the gateway/login page article)
One feature with practical information for classroom teachers (such as the gradebook tip below)
One feature focusing on a topic of interest or one school or district’s program (such as the article on increasing teacher adoption of Blackboard at OCM BOCES)
Other important news and information of interest to the K-12 Blackboard community
We need your input and ideas for every issue of the newsletter to be a useful resource. If you would like your
school or district to be profiled in an article, please let us know. If you have discovered an interesting workaround
to a puzzling situation or a great resource that other teachers using Blackboard could use, please share it. We are
eager to give you recognition and publicity for your creativity and accomplishments.
Please let us know what you think of this newsletter. Any thoughts, feedback, suggestions, or ideas may be sent to
CRMK12@blackboard.com.
Best wishes for a wonderful summer!
Maura Keaney and the entire K-12 team at Blackboard
Workaround Corner: Online Gradebook Tip for Teachers
Situation:
It’s final exam time. A teacher has been using the
Blackboard Learning System (Release 5.5.1)
Online Gradebook to add and display total points
that a student has earned all quarter.
After the final exam is graded, the teacher would
like to create a column with grades from the final
exam, but does not want this grade to effect the
calculation of total points for the quarter.
Suggested solution:
www.blackboard.com/k12
There are two possible approaches to this situation. If the final exam is displayed as a letter grade
rather than a raw point score, then there is no
problem. The Online Gradebook can display letter grades, but does not translate them into point
values for calculation of totals.
If the final exam is expressed as points or as a
percentage value, the teacher can simply include a
letter or symbol with the number in the grade
field. The Online Gradebook will not total any
grade field including a letter or a symbol. Any
number+symbol or letter+number combination
would work, as in the following example.
Tip:
Don’t forget that the Check Grade feature can
be useful for parents, too! Encourage parents to
log on with their children to check grades through
Blackboard periodically. Many teachers find the
Report By User view of the gradebook to be useful
in parent conferences.
Blackboard Learning System (Release 6)
Teasers:
The new Observer role in Blackboard Learning
System (Release 6) will allow schools to provide
a parent with a separate login to have access to
courses and grades associated with a particular
student. Teachers and/or system administrators
will be able to decide which areas of the course
site Observers are allowed to access, including
whether Observers will be able to access Check
Grade functionality for the student.
A number of enhancements to the Online Gradebook in Release 6, currently in Beta testing, have
been specifically designed with K-12 teachers in
mind. These include the ability to weight grades
by category, define custom categories, both export and import scores, and define the value of
letter grades and other symbols in the gradebook.