Out of Time?

If you are taking a timed exam using Internet Explorer 8 the timer tends to cover up the Submit button on the test. This is a "known issue" with Blackboard and they hope to soon have a patch to correct the problem. In the meantime, setting your IE browser to "Compatibility Mode" will help you avoid the problem. To use Compatibility View:
From the IE 8 Tools Menu, select Compatibility View Settings.
Enter your Blackboard URL in the Add This Website field and click Add. Then, click Close.

Or for a simpler solution, use the Mozilla Firefox browser or another browser besides Internet Explorer 8.

Adding Extra Credit to the Blackboard Grade Center

Part One:

First, create a new column in the Grade Center using the Add Grade Column button.


Set the "Points Possible" value to zero points. This will insure that anyone who does not get points for Extra Credit does not have it count against their grade.




This will be the column in which to enter points for extra credit to be added to the Total of all points earned.

Part Two:

Click on the Action Button (the double-downward pointing arrows) on the existing Total column. Choose "Modify Column" to edit the criteria.


Scroll down to 3: Select Columns, and find Include in Total. Choose "Selected Grade Columns, Calculated Columns and Categories."




Under "Columns to Select," highlight ALL of the columns listed (you may select all by holding down the Shift key and clicking the last column) including the Extra Credit column you created previously. DO NOT include any Calculated Columns (Weighted Total, Average, etc).

Click the triangle-in-a-circle arrow between "Columns to Select" and "Selected Columns" to move the highlighted columns over to selected columns. This will make certain that ALL columns are used in the Total calculation.

Under that section, choose "No" for "Calculate as a Running Total." Having "Yes" selected will ignore any columns with zero "Points Possible" including Extra Credit, so make sure that it is not enabled.

Click Submit. The Total column will now reflect the total of all columns, including the Extra Credit.

Attention Blackboard Faculty: Blackboard Users Group Meeting

Calling all interested Blackboard faculty and staff! We will be having our next Blackboard Users Group meeting on Thursday April 23rd from 2-3pm in CHSS Room C070.

The Blackboard Users Group meetings are great for learning and sharing from/with your colleagues on the front lines who are teaching with Blackboard at Sam Houston State University. The Blackboard Team will be on hand for a brief Q&A session, but this meeting is all about sharing best practices, stumbling blocks and new ideas with each other.

Our faculty presenter for the month of April is Debbie Hatton from the SHSU Department of Communication Studies. Debbie graduated from the University of Texas - Tyler with an Interdisciplinary MA degree in Speech Communication, Theatre and Social History and has since completed course work in Instructional Technology and Leadership. Debbie has been on the front lines of utilizing Blackboard in her classes since the software was available at SHSU.

Helpful Blackboard Guides

Hey Faculty!

Check out these Technology Tutorials for some pointers on using Blackboard:

• Blackboard Wiki Tool
• Adding a TA to a Blackboard Course
• Blackboard Grade Center
• Add an Assignment (Student submits to Blackboard)
• Create a Test in Blackboard

and more can be found on our Blackboard Technology Tutorials page.

As always, you can contact the Blackboard Team for more one-on-one expert help.

The Blackboard Team is available 8 a.m. - 5 p.m. Monday-Friday at (936) 294-4357 and in Academic Building 1 suite 311. We are also available at all times by e-mail at blackboard@shsu.edu (there may be a delay in response on evenings and weekends).

Blackboard will be down for maintenance 8-9 p.m. on 3/11/09

The Blackboard system will be unavailable this evening from 8 p.m. to 9 p.m. for system maintenance. You will not be able to access it during this time.

Thanks for your patience.

Attention Blackboard Faculty: Blackboard Users Group Meeting

Calling all interested Blackboard faculty and staff! We will be having our first Blackboard Users Group meeting on Thursday February 12 from 2-3pm in the College of Humanities and Social Sciences Building (CHSS) Room C070.

The Blackboard Users Group meetings are great for learning and sharing from/with your colleagues on the front lines who are teaching with Blackboard at Sam Houston State University. The Blackboard Team will be on hand for a brief Q&A session, but this meeting is all about sharing best practices, stumbling blocks and new ideas with each other.

Each meeting (meetings take place every other month) we will do our best to arrange for a guest speaker (one of your colleagues) who can showcase what they are doing with Blackboard here at SHSU. This Month we are honored to announce that our first guest speaker for 2009 will be Dr. Victoria Titterington. Dr. Titterington will be demonstrating what she is doing with multimedia in her CJ 477 Blackboard course.

We are always looking for more guest speakers, so please feel free to share with the Blackboard Team if you are working on something that you think is great! We look forward to seeing you at the Blackboard Users Group meeting on Feb 12th at 2pm in CHSS Room C070.

Blackboard Downtime 1/23 - Server Maintenance

We will be applying security patches to Blackboard's database servers this Friday 1/23 starting at 6pm. Blackboard will be unavailable because of the server maintenance until 9pm central time. The security patches keep Blackboard's database severs protected from malicious attacks. We appreciate your patience.