Online Learning at CWU: Faculty Tutorials

Blackboard Course Creation and Management
Last Updated June 2008

Blackboard assists CWU faculty by functioning as a class management and communication system. CWU will provide a Blackboard course shell (Blackboard class web site) for every class offered. Instructors who have completed the Introducton to Blackboard training session are able to activate their course shells and have options as to how their courses are set up in Blackboard. For example some instructors may choose to have a separate Blackboard course for each course section, while others may prefer to have students in all sections enrolled in one Blackboard class.

The recommended method is to create a Master Course for each course number (not section) you teach, then each quarter copy the Master Course to Course Shells (system created sections). The system created sections will be designated with the Safari quarter extension, i.e. 1089. So, if you teach ENG101 you will have ONE master course (for ENG101), even if you teach 2 sections of the same course in the same quarter. Typically the automatically created sections have student enrollments and would appear as ENG101.001_1089 where .001 = section and 8 and 9 represents the year (8) and (9) the month the quarter begins in.

NOTE: Requests for Master Courses should be made at the following link:
Blackboard Master Course Request Form

STEP 1: REQUESTING A MASTER COURSE

1. A Master Course may be for an individual instructor, program with shared curriculum, a CWU committee, department, campus, or organization. It is recommended that each course you teach have a course master. So, if you teach ENG101 you will have one master course, even if you teach 2 sections in the same quarter of the same course.
2. A Master Course contains quarter to quarter content that can be copied to your Course Shells, or with approval, to other instructors.
3. The master course ID format will be the department abbreviation and number set off by a period and followed by the the instructors first and last initials, followed by an underscore and the word "master" (ex. ENG101.CS_MASTER). Blackboard System Administration requires that instructors verify the information of their course site request, including the correct course number and course title.
4. Each faculty member can request that a Master Course be created from the Blackboard System Administrator at any time. Requests should be submitted via the Blackobard course request form at: Blackboard Master Course Request Form

Shells will be available sometime toward the end of the preceding quarter. The steps required to move content from the Master course to 1 or more Course Shells is quite simple and is outlined below:

1. Go to the Control Panel in the originating Blackboard course (course site with content).
2. Click Course Copy (listed under Course Options).
3. Click Copy Course Materials into an Existing Course.
4. Click Browse next to "Destination Course ID."
5. A Search for Courses window will pop-up. Click the Search button to browse for your course.
6. Click the Select button next to the course you want to copy content into.
7. Under Section 2 select the content you would like to copy by checking each box.
8. IMPORTANT: Under Section 3 DON'T check the box next to "Enrollments."
9. Click the Submit button.
10. You should see a message that the process has been queued and that an email will be sent when it is complete.

A Blackboard Course Shell is a class section for the current quarter that is created by an automated process. Initially an empty Course Shell has no content but contains currently enrolled students. After you carry out Step 2 above your will want to make your Course Shells available to students.

1. Course Availablilty: All Course Shells are created in an "unavailable" state. Follow these steps to learn how to make a course available.
2. The Course ID for Class Shells conforms with the following convention: ENG101.001_1069, indicating the department abbreviation, course number, section and the term code.

STEP 3: EXPORT YOUR GRADEBOOK

Instructors using the Gradebook can download and save a copy of it for use in Excel or in another spreadsheet program. Keeping a copy of your Gradebook is a good idea for backup and archival purposes because once students are removed or "un-enrolled" from a Blackboard course, their grades are also removed from the Gradebook. To export a copy of your existing Gradebook, follow the steps described below.

1. Enter the course that contains the Gradebook you wish to download.
2. Click on the CONTROL PANEL button.
3. From the Control Panel screen, under the ASSESSMENTS category, click on ONLINE GRADEBOOK.
4. To download the spreadsheet to an Excel spreadsheet, click on DOWNLOAD GRADES. Read and follow all instructions listed on this page. Click on OK.
5. To open the Gradebook in Excel, locate the file and double-click on the "gradebook.csv" file or within Excel, choose File, Open (gradebook.csv). The file will be in a comma delimited format.

Note: Please be aware that courses on CWU Blackboard will be deleted 1 year after the end of the quarter for which they were taught. For this reason it is important that if you want to use a course in the future you will need to request that it be copied as a MASTER COURSE. The URL to do this is:
Blackboard Master Course Request Form

Archiving your course is the same as making a backup of your course and storing the backup file(s) on your own local hard drive, thumb drive, Zip disk, or CD or other storeage device. It is always a good idea to keep a backup of important data and information. Archived course files can be restored by the Blackboard Administrator. To archive your course, follow the steps described below.

1. Enter the course you want to archive
2. Click on the CONTROL PANEL button.
3. From the Control Panel screen under the COURSE OPTIONS category, click on ARCHIVE COURSE.
4. Follow the instructions on the screen for saving the archive.

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