Blackboard Blog

Hello, I’m Alex Ikeuchi, currently a senior in high school and a part of the Health and Wellness academy. Blackboard upgraded from 8.2 to 9.1 as of 2012 and, because of this, I created a set of tutorials as per my senior legacy. Below is my tutorial in either a pdf or PowerPoint format and 16 video tutorials.

Handbook
Powerpoint Presentation

Video Tutorials
Basics
Logging In and Recovering a Forgotten Password
Changing Your Password
Changing Your Class Name

Users
Viewing List of Users
Enrolling Users

Adding Content to Blackboard
Adding Content
Adding Discussion Boards
Adding Documents
Adding Folders
Adding Images
Adding Links
Adding Tests
Adding Videos
Adding Videos Using Youtube

Editing Content on Blackboard
Editing Content
Deleting Content

Last year we upgraded to version 9.1 from version 8 of the Blackboard Learn application.  Overall it was a fairly smooth transition though we continue to encounter issues with certain parts of the assessment feature.  We have a couple of outstanding tickets with Blackboard support in trying to resolve the assessment issue and hope to do so as soon as possible.  Regardless we continue to look for ways to improve the use of Blackboard through Kamehameha Schools and that is what I’d like to update you on.

Currently at Kamehameha Schools there are two instances of Blackboard.  One is used by mainly the campuses and another is used by the Instructional Support Center (formally Distance Learning).  Due to restructuring within the KS organization as well as needs for additional Blackboard modules it was recommended that the two instances be combined into a single Enterprise Blackboard system.  By combining the two instances, support for Blackboard can be streamlined and new modules can be added with minimal cost.  Two modules in particular include Blackboard Community Engagement and Blackboard Content Management.  We’ll also be adding active directory authentication so that your Blackboard username and password will be the same as your KS username and password.  Check back for more updates and leave a comment if you have any suggestions as we proceed.

Aloha e Na Kumu,

Great News! We will be upgrading to Blackboard version 9.1 next school year. All course content from existing Blackboard courses will be available in this new version. Blackboard 9.1 offers many improvements and a more intuitive interface.

Some new features include:
Course wikis, Student Blogs and Journals, Lesson Planning, Learning Modules, Student Notifications, etc.

Stay up to date through our upgrade process while reviewing new features available as well as links to some training tutorials at our KS Blackboard Blog located at http://blogs.ksbe.edu/blackboard.

Our ETS-i staff will offer group as well as individual training sessions at the start of next school year to assist you with transitioning to the new version.

Please contact the ETS-i staff assigned to your department or division if you have any questions.

During the the 2008-2009 school year the usage of Blackboard was increasing due to the rollout of the 1 to 1 laptop program of the Kapalama Middle School.  The Blackboard server was being pushed to its limits and the application version (6.0) had reached its end of life cycle as Blackboard was going to discontinue support of that version.  That summer we were able to acquire new servers and upgrade the application to its current version (8.0).

During the past couple of years Blackboard usage has continued to increase with the rollout of 1 to 1 through the Kapalama High School and while our servers have performed well, request for updated features have increased.  Blackboard had released a new version in 2009 and several improvements since to warrant us to upgrade our version to the latest version available (9.1).  Please see attached for improvements and new features available. Also, during this past year we’ve had a few teachers use the new Blackboard version in their classroom and have had a positive experience with the improved interface and added features that the upgrade will provide.

We hope to complete the upgrade in June with the new version available to all teachers and students for the 2011-2012 school year.  It is anticipated that course content from the current version will transition accordingly to the new version.