New CSS Rules for APA Added to Template

The following new CSS rules were added to the template .css file today. These are useful for APA-style oredered or unordered references or bibliographies:

/*APA Bibliography*/
.apa_bib {
list-style: none;
margin: .75em 0;
padding: 0;
}
.apa_bib li { margin: .5em 0; padding: 0 0 0 3em; text-indent: -3em; }
.apa_bib article { font-style: normal; }
.apa_bib journal { font-style: italic; }
.apa_bib book { text-transform: underline; font-style: normal; }

Note that it's debatable whether italic or underline is better online for book titles.

At any rate, the XHTML should look something like this:

<ul class="apa_bib">
<li>Harrison, P. A., & Asche, S. E. (1999). <cite class="article">Comparison of Substance Abuse Treatment Outcomes for Inpatients and Outpatients</cite>. <cite class="journal">Journal of Substance Abuse Treatment</cite>, 17, 207-220.</li>
<li>Sayre, S. L., Schmitz, J. M., Stotts, A. L., Averill, P. M., Rhoades, H. M., & Grabowski, J. J. (2002). <cite class="article">Determining predictors in attrition in an outpatient substance abuse program</cite>. <cite class="journal">American Journal of Drug and Alcohol Abuse</cite>, 28(1), 55-72.</li>
<li>Weisner, C., Matzger, H., Tam, T., & Schmidt, L. (2002). <cite class="article">Who goes to alcohol and drug treatment? Understanding utilization within the context of insurance</cite>. <cite class="journal">Journal of Studies on Alcohol</cite>, 63, 673-682.</li>
</ul>

Studio Production Reminders

Janel e-mailed out this list after discussion with Design Center staff re. recent studio filming:

What we re-learned in the Studio - Post Studio Discussion

GRAPHICS
Title safe graphics / ppts
Final graphics / bullet list script submitted 1 week ahead
Hard copy bullet list script and graphics for Crew and Instructor

TALENT
Prep students ahead of taping day.
Students act interested and engaged.
Pay students real money
Have pre-studio meeting on our dime.

STUDIO
Technical Director
Floor Director
Teleprompter w/ bullet list script & graphics with operator
Cameras as per crew set up Left to Right 1-3

CREW/TALENT CALL
Crew call 1 hour before
Instructor call 30 minutes before
Talent call on the hour
Director/Camera Crew Meeting (ensure speak same language)

STUDIO TRAINING for Instructor/Students
* Studio Protocols (attire/behavior)
* Title safe graphics / limited infor per slide
* Tally Lights
* Talent marks for lighting
* Change cameras with natural breaks
* How to stand w/o looking awkward
* Clean edit points (hold position)
* Prop Positions

Directors Mtg Area Report

I'll post up my quick notes for each week's DE Directors Meeting held Monday mornings. Here's the first:

1. Need dP on new server


2. Need logo for wikilearn


3. Faculty training


4. TTIX updates


5. OER published


6. Hammond ITR


7. dP tasks


8. Report ideas on openconference


9. Openspource

IDS Services Weekly Ed Tech Meeting

Attending: Jared, Marc, Janel, Ken, Dorothy


In the future, will combine this meeting with Directors' Meeting, Monday mornings at 9:00 (both meetings covered duplicate material)

Ken

• Japanese - Some underline problems; may be font related. Ken to investigate.

IDS Services Weekly Ed Tech Meeting

Attending: Jared, Marc, Janel, Travis, Ken, Dorothy

Jared

Financial Responsibility Letter (Val Peterson)

Jared discussed specifics of Val's letter:

• All purchases or approved finding to be analyzed, deemed necessary
• Destruction of assets unacceptable
• Properly execute and record transactions
• Make notes of P-Card items purchased
• Be prepared to explain all P-Card purchases
• All transactions should be reasonable
• Ethical behavior
• Expendable resources not to be used for employees' personal use or on personal time
• Questions about expenditures? Talk to Jared

ENGL 2020

Met with Kirk Rasmussen on ENGL 2020 IN - structural changes helpful; implement this semester

TTIX

• Call for proposals 9-08-08 - View at TTIX.org. Click on rate proposal; see summary of all proposals; click on title to see entire proposal, can make comments
• Ken - in presenter submission, include instructions to choose K-12, Higher Ed, both, or other
• Conference Theme? - Contact Jared if you have a good theme idea
• Lends air of variety
  
• Should not be exclusionary
  
• Should be really great, or do not have a theme
• Need generic business cards to give to sponsors and attendees
• Small and postcard sizes
• Travis - draft some ideas, submit to Jared
• June 3-5 (Wed - Fri) scheduled by Janel

Course Proposal Signatures

• Click, get printable sheet, deliver signatures to Jared when they meet
• Jared to talk to John (printed version more compact, but still complete)
  
• Copy to Janel, Vicki first?
  

No new TV courses - Instead, video-enhanced courses, Online courses with video segments

ANTH 1010 - David Knowlton may be interested in online course- find out his track record in online courses

Marc

Need to contact all instructors (has only met with Shawn Peppers)

• Set up a couple of days for this instruction

Moving to library, possibly this Friday (this is sad news...)

Janel

Fine tuning new courses

• TECH 3850 - Leonard Pavia
• 7 videos, Oct 7
• Need planning meeting with Janel, Will, Travis & Len Pavia. New video segments planned for class filming, but Jared suggested we do it in-studio for a better quality product.
• MGMT 3600 - Harry Taute
• Needs guiding content for class
• Build text-based lectures
• Use Camtasia to narrate PowerPoints
• Travis pulling publisher's content to streaming video (Scott)
  

ITR

• Not ready for ITR reviews - Need to review courses to given instructors input
• Meeting Monday with instructors who want to increase ITR levels
• CLSS 2100 - Rick Mossholder, Marsha Haynes
• DGM 1010, 2010 - Carolyne Kuehne

Ken

• Working mostly on Japanese - Moodle issues
• RJ to work on OpenMod (Open courseware - a modification of UCLA program)
• Work with RJ Tuesday morning at 9:15
• Developers meetings Thursday mornings at 10:00

Travis

• Working on videos for Janel - meeting with Walker about videos
• Jared reminded Travis to take care of the staff management issue


• keep all on schedule with projects

Bb Vista and Relative Resource Manager

Because it's database-driven, Blackboard Vista doesn't use real paths like WebCT Campus Edition did. Instead, it uses a "relative resource manager" to refer to the current Vista course section's root folder. Use the following URL to refer to the root of a particular course section:

/webct/RelativeResourceManager/Template/

Custom Links in the Course Tools Menu

If you need the entire URL (e.g. for custom links in the Course Tools menu [Manage Course > Add Custom Link]) simply add the server URL before the relative resource manager:

https://online.uen.org/webct/RelativeResourceManager/Template/

...and append your filename:

https://online.uen.org/webct/RelativeResourceManager/
Template/myfile.html

IDS Services Weekly Ed Tech Meeting

Attending: Jared, Marc, Janel, Travis, Dorothy


Travis
Banners

• Travis finishing banners - some classes not clearly named
• Nutrition needs banner
• Travis to get titles from Jared

Video segments for courses

• Tuesday, Wednesday filming Steve Fullmer, ENGL 2300 (Spring delivery)
  
• Janel needs video links for CA 1310, TECH 3000
• No dialogue for CA 1310
• Dave Walker working on videos - Scott to help, Adam also help when he is free
• MGMT 3430 - Video segment is ripped onto computer - Problems when streaming starts. Working on first one, should be completed today
• Send audio of all videos to Cheri for accessibility services ( She will send to Dorothy for transcription)
  

Janel

• Content sent to developers
  
• BESC 4705 - finish
• TECH 3000 - JR programing (helping Janel on all courses)
  
• ESMG 310G - May need two sections, two instructors. Just comes through Banner

Marc

• New faculty need training
• Janel and Jared to send list of new faculty for training (4 from each)
• Marc to set up two sessions for group training, contact instructors and let them choose preferred session to attend

Jared
Dotprojects

• Several projects duplicated on dotprojects
• Figure out way to consolidate without losing information

Updates

• Updates: Shaline doing most, Ken doing 4, Tryel doing some.
  
• Distribute updates evenly so new projects can be distributed evenly

UVU Wiki

• UVU Wiki has been set up for accademic departments
• Wikilearn.edu.edu
• Type address and put in department prefix - takes to academic department wiki homepage
• Listed by topics instead of by courses
• Can be edited, linked to learning modules, topics

JR off Friday

Fall IDS Services Weekly Ed Tech Meeting

• Mondays 1:15 - 3:30
  

MediaWiki Fall Pilot: wikilearn.uvu.edu

After JR, RJ, and Tyrel investigated possible wiki platforms, Paul Nuffer has helped us set up a MediaWiki installation for UVU educational content.

Mediawiki is one of the top oss wiki platforms, and allows us to LDAP students into the system with directory-specific editing privileges. This means (hopefully) that Banner will send student accounts straight into wikilearn.uvu.edu, and students will login using standard UVID/password.

The URL is wikilearn.uvu.edu, though currently we are piloting it for fall with only subdirectories. I'll work on scripting an index page in the future.

Subdirectories will be added on a departmental level, so Computer Science will have wikilearn.uvu.edu/cs open for editing for their faculty and enrolled students. At this point our objective is to disallow anonymous editing and user account creation--the only wiki editors will be faculty and students (and possibly staff).

We can include wiki content pages into Bb Vista or Moodle courses in place of or in addition to regular content web pages. Similar to the Shadow Files system, the beauty here is that multiple courses can use the same content source. The source content in the wiki will be as current as faculty or students want it to be, and can be the base for a lot of cool collaborative student and faculty authoring projects.

For fall we are going to allow CS and DGM access to wikilearn.uvu.edu. Kirk Love and Nate Snapp will be using it for content in their CS courses, and I'm going to start transitioning some of my DGM stuff to it as well.

The library has asked for access for Spring, and hopefully we will be able to add more departments and courses as well. Spread the word.

Public RSS Feeds of dotProject Tasks

IDS staff can now subscribe to RSS feed(s) of their dotProject tasks.

Simply login to our dotProject server and click "RSS Feed of Your Tasks" near the top right.

You can choose to add this RSS feed to your iGoogle homepage, or your favorite RSS reader.

I've only just finished coding this RSS generator, so if you have any problems or suggestions re. the feeds, let me know!

Using Logs in dotProject

As you work on or complete tasks listed in our IDS dotProject pilot, be sure to use the Log feature to update progress and make notes about your work. Here's how it's done in 3 easy steps:

1. Choose the task in your Tasks list


2. Click New Log in the bottom right
   
   


3. Enter in at least a Description and a Progress %. Also consider adding the Date and Hours Worked. You can Email Log to Task Assignees or Project Contacts if you wish.
   
   

IDS Services Weekly Ed Tech Meeting

Attending: John, Jared, Marc, Travis, Janel, Ken, Dorothy



Discussed moving to Advancement Building by Spring 2009

Ken

• CSSE - Talked to Marsha; she will begin testing. There are some bugs, but nothing major

Travis

• Videos made for IPod didn't work. Will find out problem and report. (Maybe download from flash?)
• This week will shoot video for Art Department, Parry Stewart instructor. This is proof of concept: Tangible demonstration that we can do a quality job. If successful, will translate to other departments; instead of only using local people, we can video masters in their field and archive videos for use in courses
• Travis to arrange for Crowther to meet with Jared

Janel

• CLSS 2100 ITR - Marsha and Rick do not have it yet. Jared will check so they can be paid. Will be at least Level 2, possibly Level 3.
• Rick is interested in Portfolio in Vista (He wants students to have record of all their papers, etc.) Is there an Open Source portfolio? John said to use Google Docs. He will demonstrate how index of certain Google Docs can be made available to the public.
• TECH 3950 - We have enough content to do course for fall. Janel will check with instructor to see if he has enough load for fall course

Marc

• Art 1400 - Contacted instructor. Connie has sent only PowerPoints and some quizzes, minimal content. No developer has been assigned
  

IDS Services Weekly Ed Tech Meeting

Attending: John, Jared, Marc, Janel, Ken, Dorothy

New projects

• Two part-time employees added to list of Clark's old projects
  
• Ken: TTIX, Dist Ed Website, Drivers Ed
• RJ: Online Course Proposal form, assessing, updating courses, Webpage templates
• Tyrell: CTC course management, ITR tool
• Ken -- make sure task list has name by assigned course

Discussed time frame for receiving content from negligent instructors (sometimes no content from instructor, enrollment set at zero, but students are enrolled anyway)

Ideas discussed for getting content in on time:

• Setting June 1 for fall content deadline, July 1 absolutely last time for content
  
• Possibly docking compensation or offer course the following semester (Development Compensation Form says we can penalize by withholding compensation, but we have never done this)
• Give date for receiving full content, then say we will do courses that meet deadline first, and others may be pushed back to another semester
• If instructional designer does not have confidence in course, pull course (not sure we can recommend to do this or tell them we will do this)
• Could we tie instructional compensation with quality of teaching? No, we cannot
• We do not have ability to ensure quality of online courses
• Our only leverage is that we do development. Many instructors rely on Dist Ed only to service courses
  

Accepted ideas for getting content in on time:

• What matters most is students (not our ease, not instructor)
• Instead of penalty, lower base compensation and give bonus for getting content in on time
• In initial meeting, explain base compensation (reduced by half) -- if content in by April 1, get full bonus; if content in by June 1, get partial bonus
• Send Jared wording about compensation and bonus (emphasize bonus)

ESMG 3100 -- Shawn Peppers needs to talk to Vickie about compensations, ITR level (without much detail about compensation)

CA 1150 -- Packer has some content, not complete. Have e-mailed advisor and others, still no content. Course was set at zero until we received content; department enrolled 19 students anyway. Still have to provide course

TECH 3850

• Have full content for spring delivery
• Janel, if comfortable for fall delivery, talk to Lynn Pavia and department head - if it can be ready for fall, go ahead

CSSE -- Ken to demo next week

• Minimal or no maintenance
• If random people filling up form becomes problem, may do some sort of Captcjha to prevent spambots (See TTIX site)

Japanese

• Ken working on Game garden with RJ -- view flash game tomorrow
  
• Has made UVU-themed flashcards
• Get XML format from John to upload respondus quiz file
• RJ to redesign Webpage
• Language changing to Arabic -- Default on flashcards changes, doesn't let characters flow together -- need to be able to change to fonts that work
• May not be feasible in everyone's browser -- canvas not stretchable (will work with size of Chinami's image
• Need to visit how stored -- if we can save out jpeg, jpeg can be saved to Moodle; if not jpeg, cannot be used outside of database. Save as jpeg, do not maintain database for course

MGMT 2350 (Business Statistics) -- Need to assign instructional designer. Not sure if spring or summer; waiting for proposal to assign

Marc has not heard from Karen Mizel

IDS Services Weekly Ed Tech Meeting

Attending: Jared, Marc, Janel, Travis, Ken, Dorothy


To claim empty course development space in shell, name through administrative tab. Marc needs ten new development shells

Course Reviews:

TECH 3000 -- 15 week course

• Travis, have Walker get video streaming digitized for "The Secret" and other videos. Need address for streaming
• Decide how to format questions
• Discussed synchronous vs asynchronous discussions and activities through WIMBA. Better for students to be asynchronous in online course. John MacLean wants synchronous for creative brainstorming. We will build course and then try to convince him to use asynchronous
• Could we set up tutorial to help students with synchronous WIMBA? Flag synchronous activities with "live" to alert students that they need to meet timetable
• Are instructors committed to complexity of class? John ok, Richard may not be because of his time constraints
• We need a section in template that explains about Discussions- Jared had one and will put in template

BESC 4705 -- 15 week course

• Use built in "Course Goals." Any assignment can be associated with specific goal. Once built, it is a great feature, but is not being used
• Electronic portfolio: best way is to set up del.icio.us account and put in first lesson. Richard could check bookmarks each week- need to clarify electronic portfolio in Syllabus
• Has length of time listed to do each assignment- may be underestimated
• Change "L6 - Assignment" to "Discussions 6," etc. Combine continued discussions for ease of reference and so students can see all posts; will also help in instructor management
  
• In table of contents, change to "Assignment-Webquest" and "Quiz-Webquest" to clarify
  

TECH 3000 -- 15 week course

• Needs better description of table of contents
• Course looks ok

CA 1310

• Course has "in person" group activities. Need to figure out how to implement. Also, need to teach instructor group feature
  
• Could set up Discussions that is simply a student-led forum--could be ambiguous as to how much instructor looks at discussion
  
• Jared: No assessment of most objectives, so how are they measured? Objectives with "explain" or "describe" need essay questions, written paper, or discussion. Objective with "know" or "understand" can use multiple choice questions. Make objective and tasks compatible: either align activities to objectives or add new objectives for tasks.
  
• Discussed if instructor is committed to time involved in managing class

CLSS 2100

• Ready for review for ITR- looks great

Conference

• John has asked what conferences we plan to attend in coming year. (Can attend one conference for professional development, additional conferences if presenting) Fill out conference proposal form, which is turned in to Jared or Travis, then on to John for approval

NACE Pyramid -- Looks great; kudos to Ken (woof)

• Some text hard to read- perhaps need lighter font (not so blocky and bold)
  
• Too big to embed into page. Could have screen shot that is clickable

Japanese Flashcards

• Flashcards to be available online -- can import content into them
• Ken, talk to Gordon: generic is ready to go. Ken will try unicode. Generic English is good
• Iman wants to use template for Arabic
• Embed bottom of page with" "Flashcard tool courtesy of Utah Valley University Distance Education"
• Show flashcards at next meeting -- Website: John's Playstation Game Garden site?
• John to set up integration feature to add content, questions to file. If it works, will take multiple choice questions and turn into two-sided flash card with questions and answer
  

IDS Services Weekly Ed Tech Meeting

Attending: Jared, Marc, Janel, Travis, Dorothy

Discussed move from current offices. There will be a meeting this week to decide where Dist Ed will be relocated. Move probably by July 1. Possible new office location in Foundation Building or Advancement Building (Some confusion about which buildings these are- maybe old warehouse building or a building across freeway?) There may be more available space, but that may not include classroom space. Basement space may be difficult because of water problems.

Reviewed status of fall courses
Janel:

• BESC 4705 (JR) Resorting content. Course is partially programmed; will be ready for JR next week
• BIOL 1010 (Ken) If Heather used Camtasia, could probably produce content quickly (Carolyn used Camtasia successfully)
• ESMG 3100 (310G) E-mails sent to John Pepper. Handed off new content, 14 lessons. Work with latest submission. Not yet assigned to programmer.
  
• TECH 3000 (RJ) We have content; RJ programming.
• CA 1310 (JR) Full content in; JR will finish programming next week. Janel asked if all four videos are in (2 Harmons, 2 Val Brown) She needs them by July 1. Travis said all are done. He will tell Walker to put them together in time line- he can start editing interviews even without the graphics.
  
• TECH 3000- Just waiting for 5 videos to come back. Raw footage is in. Cheryl is waiting for content based on final videos. Travis said we are only waiting for support materials. We need to communicate deadlines clearly.
• Travis: give all raw audio files of video interviews to Dorothy for transcription

Marc

• CA 1150 - Some material sent but we need more
• PHIL 3450 (Karen Mizel) this course won't fly
• TECH3010 - Receiving constant material. Plans to use WIMBA. RJ is programming initial lesson.
• Note: All TECH Management should be use same format in VISTA

Jared

• Nutrition 1020 - E Pack course- Jared will take this one if it comes. Janel has course content (CD) for Jared to review to use for fall. Cost probably based on per student usage.
  
• BESC 481R - Will have complete content soon. Needs some prototyping
  
• ENGL 4210 and ESMG- Have not looked at yet
• Nutrition, PSY- no content
• SSY/SW - Not for summer (has disappeared)

Janel wondered about banners for all classes. Travis will check Google Docs for banners for fall courses- he is waiting for Monte to give G-drive. He will ask Shawn to link Janel to Travis' computer so she can check. Travis: check the look of all 084 courses (Spring, in yellow in Google Docs)

Janel wants archive for all Spring courses

TTIX

• TTIX Website has general survey for all participants- they have been spammed to complete survey.
• Janel wants to have a staff meeting to talk about successes and suggestions for '08 TTIX- possibly next week?

Changing from Blackboard? Luke Fernandez wants statewide LMS to be Moodle or SAKAI. Probably premature to go down that path- the State would have to be pushed to change because there has been so much time and money invested in Blackboard. When new version of Vista comes down, that would be the time to make a change, instead of renewing contract. If we have to have another LMS, be sure it is what we want- may not be Blackboard.

Still discussion new part-time web developer

Discussed Online Learning Book (95 new ideas) Jared pared information to 31 best ideas (others not so good.) Summary is posted on Jared's Blog. Janel is to review book, then pass on to Marc for his review.

Moodle Conference: UCLA has developed Open Courseware modification. We will likely scrap much of ours and use the best of theirs. We still need approval on Open Courseware procedure.

Restating Some DE/IDS Policies

After getting updated info from HR I thought it wise to take a moment to clarify or restate DE/IDS policies that you're probably already aware of. I'm summarizing what is stated in greater detail/more sophisticated parlance on the HR Web site. However, I don't want everyone to fret; just consider whether any of these apply to you, and alter your behavior if necessary:

1. Personal leave time must be requested and approved of your direct supervisor; sick leave requires notification of a responding human being at the time of leave. See IDS Out of Office Policy and IDS Leave Policy for more details.


2. For FT employees, all leave time must be entered in Banner through UVLink during the pay period in which it was taken.


3. For "exempt" employees there is neither overtime nor comp time; "non-exempt" employees must have any overtime or comp time pre-approved in writing.


4. Office/work hours may only be spent on DE projects. FT exempt and non-exempt employees get paid breaks, but lunch hours are on your own.


5. No use of College equipment for personal or side projects.


6. Each team member's work areas should be clean, organized, and professional looking especially so if it is visible to our clients or stakeholders.

Thanks for reading, and let me know if you have any questions!

Task Protocol: Reply on Completion

Just a few reminders/requests:

Everyone:

1. If an ID e-mails a task or a request directly to you please e-mail (reply all) when that task is completed. If it is a significant task you should ALSO add it to your Google Docs Task List.



2. It would also be helpful if you e-mail the responsible party upon completion of tasks in your Google Docs Task List in addition to marking them as "done" with the due date.



3. If you receive a request directly from an instructor or another DE unit (e.g. Design Center or Service Center) please CC the ID/staff member who is responsible for that course or project (Janel, Marc, Ken or myself).

IDs:

When an instructor request is completed don't forget to reply to the instructor directly.

1. I also recommend that when we reply to confirm completion of requests that come in from another DE unit (e.g. Design Center or Service Center) we CC the instructor to ensure they get the information.



2. Finally, when a developer has completed a task successfully, please verify this on their Google Docs Task List by cutting/pasting it to the Completed Tasks sheet.



3. If you have other ideas/alterations to help us keep instructors in-the-loop, please Comment here.

IDS Services Weekly Ed Tech Meeting

Attending: John, Jared, Marc, Janel, Dorothy

Video Production Meetings

• Travis should organize video production meetings and invite development people to the meetings

Library Learning Objective Process

• Janel said the library will contact us about making library tutorials for use throughout the country
• After the library receives funding, they will contact us

LSAC Certificate

• Janel had questions about needing an extension for grant for LSAC Certificate if all classes are not offered fall semester (The grant says course must be offered by December)
• Jared said if the classes are offered by December (for spring semester) , that will be soon enough--we don't need to worry about an extension

Farewell Lunch for Clark, Rebecca and Clayton

• Have the lunch by the end of May
• Need a date, time and place and let everyone know
  

Practice: Backing Up Last Semester's Courses

We are implementing a new maintenance procedure for all IDS Developers:

1. Access all of your maintenance courses for the previous semester


2. Make a backup of the course through it's LMS


3. Create a "_backup" folder within the first level of the specific semester/course folder on our network drive (e.g. courses\clss\2100\IN\083_haynes_mosholder\backup)


4. Download the backup to the "_backup" folder (in Bb Vista you must "Save as file" before downloading)


5. Delete all old backup files


6. Export the gradebook to the "_backup" folder

This should be done the 2nd week of each semester on the previous semester's courses

News Re. Moodle, Summer 2008

1. Starting immediately, the domain is http://open.uvu.edu i.e. UVSC --> UVU


2. http://open.uvsc.edu will remain live indefinitely, and your old user/passwords will still work there. No new courses will be built on open.uvsc.edu, though.


3. We have moved to Moodle 1.9 on a new server, and have installed all modules/plugins from the old server. No new plug-in requests will be processed, however, until we are confident in 1.9's stability.


4. Monty and Paul have successfully integrated with Banner LMB, meaning ALL USERS will use their regular UVLink username and password to login. Any password update in Banner will be propagated to Moodle automatically.


5. Course enrollment updates will also be propagated to Moodle automatically.


6. Using the My Moodle plugin, students and instructors will login and see only their own classes, as opposed to the full list of semesters and classes seen on older versions.

Blackboard Vista 4 Course Design Guidelines

A few Vista course construction protocols in addition to notes posted during our Blackboard Vista migration:

• Use banner.jpg on the homepage, not the front.jpg--that's too big with our current design.


• Lessons in Learning Modules should be complete: they need to be linear, and include any quizzes, discussions, or assignments attached to a given lesson.


• HIDING most Tool links in the Course Tools menu may reduce student confusion and encourage them to access activities in the proper order. This is done by going to Manage Course > Course Menu and HIDE on Assessments, Assignments, Discussions, Learning Modules--this is important because
  
  
  
  1. we don't want students to wander aimlessly--the lesson is the core of the course;
  
  
  2. the labels for these areas do not always match the instuctors' labels, adding more confusion
  
  
  3. these general areas often put items in "alphabetical order", also known as "arbitrary order". We manually structure learning modules for a reason.
  
  


• If lessons have titles or subtitles, put them in the Description field of the learning modules.


• Make sure the CSS files are referenced by course pages. This problem is evident if the font is a serif, rather than sans-serif, font.


• When making quizzes follow these guidlines unless specifically instructed not to:
  
  
  
  • Midnight should be interpreted as 11:55pm/11:59pm not 12:00am
  
  
  • Release the score once the quiz has been submitted and all the questions have been graded.
  
  
  • Do NOT 'Show the correct answer for each question.'
  
  
  • Randomize answer choices in multiple choice quizzes
  
  
  • Add questions to a quiz using a question set to randomize question order