Blackboard 6 Migration

Part 3: What's new for faculty?

By Dr. T. Derrickson

Most will be surprised (and perhaps a bit relieved) to learn that Blackboard 6 looks very similar to Blackboard 5. Indeed, Blackboard 6 is simply an enhanced version of its Blackboard 5 precursor; it is not, that is, an entirely new system.

That's good news for those out there who would prefer not to have to learn Blackboard all over again. It's also good news, however, for those who would like to see increased functionality in Blackboard, for despite its similarity to the current version in use at UAA, Blackboard 6 has several new features that students and faculty will find useful.

Students, for example, will now be able to

• customize their list of Blackboard courses to ensure that only desired courses show up on the main "My UAA" page
• save quiz answers while a quiz is being taken to lessen the possibility that quiz responses are lost
• complete assignments online and save assignments for later revision
• minimize a course's main navigation bar to increase the space on the page for displayed content
• converse in real time with other students through a new "MS messenger"-type chat tool

Faculty also have a range of new features available to them in Blackboard 6. Faculty will now be able to

• use main navigation links instead of buttons to save space in the main navigation bar
• name main navigation links anything they want
• obtain as many main navigation links as they want
• create navigation links to specific content areas within a course
• use letter grades and percentages in the gradebook
• view a detailed item analysis for the results of test questions
• copy individual pieces of content easily from one area of the course to another
• copy individual pieces of content easily from one course to another course
• administer assignments through a new tool that is directly linked to the online gradebook
• customize their list of Blackboard courses to ensure that only desired courses show up on the main "My UAA" page

In short, Blackboard 6 does not solve all the problems and complaints that UAA instructors and students have about the course management system; however, it does address many of them. Not only that, but it addresses those issues in a way that preserves the simple and easy-to-learn user interface that Blackboard is so well known for. Those facts make UAA's move to Blackboard 6 an advisable and much-anticipated event

.