U N I V E R S I T Y  O F  P I T T S B U R G H

Volume XI, Number 2

Instructional Technology Update: What’s New in Blackboard 6.3

By Nick Laudato, CIDDE Associate Director, and Daniel H. Wilson, CIDDE Instructional Technologist

The University recently upgraded CourseWeb to Blackboard 6.3 (Application Pack 3), providing some significant new pedagogical functionality. This article outlines the implications for faculty.

D uring the weekend of August 20, Computing Services and Systems Development (CSSD) upgraded the CourseWeb server to Blackboard 6 Application Pack 3. Blackboard releases application packs several times a year to correct problems and introduce new features. Application Pack 3 contains several important bug fixes, interface changes, and some significant new instructional functionality.

One greatly anticipated bug fix is the correction of the WYSIWYG (what-you-see-is-what-you-get) editor. Problems arose when instructors would enter information into their courses containing “special characters” via the editor. These characters included commonly used items such as bullets, apostrophes, and quotation marks. The information copied and pasted into the text area appeared correct when it was first entered but once submitted, appeared as different characters. Another bug fix that was deployed in App Pack 3 affects the ability to place mathematics content in a course. In previous versions of Blackboard, students viewing WebEQ equations were unable to view them in Netscape browsers, a problem resolved in App Pack 3.

Unfortunately, while each new release fixes problems, it also seems to introduce new ones. One of these affects student submissions to the "Assignment" tool. Faculty use the assignment tool to collect files that students submit to fulfill course requirements. Because it is integrated with the gradebook, the assignment tool is a useful alternative to the digital drop box. This newly introduced problem occurs when students submit files with names containing spaces or special characters (spaces, periods, etc.). The result of this bug is that the instructor sees only a blank document when collecting the files. Blackboard has acknowledged this problem and will fix it in a future software patch. The digital drop box is not impacted. The simple work-around until this problem is resolved is to direct students to not upload files that contain any spaces or special characters in the file name to assignment areas. Students may use the "-" (hyphen) or "_" (underscore) characters to separate words.

Aside from bug fixes, there are more overt changes to CourseWeb that faculty may notice. Two changes are seen in item statistic tracking and linking to offline content. The initial settings for each of these functions has been removed from the “add item” form and placed in a more tertiary location, “manage item.” This move has been implemented to shorten and simplify the initial form. Another interface change affects both faculty and students. This interface change allows users to switch between “Quick View” and “Detailed View” for front end navigation. “Quick View” navigation is what we are accustomed to seeing in CourseWeb. It is a simple list of buttons or text links that provides navigation to available content and tool areas. “Detailed View” differs from this in that it displays the subfolders and contents of an area in a Windows Explorer style. This means that a student can expand content areas and navigate directly to a document placed inside of subfolders.

Application Pack 3 also provides a laundry list of new functionality. One example of this new functionality is the “What’s New” feature. This allows students to add a panel on their personalized page that informs them of new information that has been placed within a course’s structure. As we all know, online course components are rarely static entities. This new feature will raise students’ awareness regarding the dynamics of the course.

Another new feature that faculty will find useful is called “adaptive release.” Adaptive release allows faculty to determine when an object is viewable to individual students based upon such events as the date, if another item has been reviewed, and/or a student’s gradebook score.

Additional functionality changes include:

1. Several new quiz item types , including the ability to add calculated items that include variables, the addition of items containing graphics that can have defined hot spots, etc.
2. Performance Dashboard , a feature that allows instructors to see select information about students’ progress (in regard to adaptive release) and to see at a glance when they last logged into the system.
3. Multi-Language Support , allowing individual courses to be implemented in any of seven different languages.

Most App Pack 3 changes will be largely transparent to instructors, but some of the new features are complex. Consequently CIDDE offers optional updates to Blackboard training for interested faculty (see “Blackboard Training”). As always, support is also available in the Faculty Instructional Development Lab, B23 Alumni Hall.

"Bb 6.3" Illustration by Alec A. Sarkas, CIDDE

A newsletter devoted to the support of teaching and learning at the University of Pittsburgh

Center for Instructional Development & Distance Education
1996-2006 © University of Pittsburgh, CIDDE. All Rights Reserved.
Editor: Carol DeArment, Graphic Design & Illustration: Alec Sarkas
Questions or comments, please contact CIDDE Webmaster, 07/29/2008