Using Blackboard 9.1: Uploading Content into Blackboard

This guide is designed for those who have lots of resources to upload into Blackboard 9.1 in Learning Edge, for example those manually migrating from Blackboard 8 or those who are running online courses.

We’ll present you with several ways that you can manage and upload those resources, allowing you to choose the best solution for yourself.


Basic file uploads.

• Uploading a small number of files
• The quickest way to share a few files using Blackboard 9.1 is to upload the file from a Content Area page. This uploads the file to Blackboard and creates a link that students can use to access it.
• Uploading folders structures and large numbers of files
• If you have whole folder structures to move into Blackboard 9.1, zip files will be the best solution for most people. They are easy to create in Windows XP, and then can be uploaded into Blackboard.
• Managing files in Blackboard
• If you want more control of your files, look in more detail at the Blackboard file management tools which give you a lot of control over your files and folders.

Using WebDAV

• WebDAV allows you to map a Blackboard 9.1 section to your network drives so you can use it as you would use your G: drive. You can drag files and folders into Blackboard.
• Note that this system will not work on every computer and we can only currently tell you how to set it up on Windows XP.
• Firstly you need to get the URL for the Blackboard section in question.
• Secondly you need to add the web address to your Network Places (or equivalent). Our video shows how this is done on Windows XP, but the process may change a little or stop working when we move to Windows 7.

eLearning Content Creation Tools

• eLearning content creation tools can be used to create content outside of a specific learning environment. They are most useful where you need to import your content into a number of different VLEs.
• In the past we have used Wimba Create to create content for some of our online courses, however eXe is free to use and we will be using that as an example here.
• For an introduction watch this introduction to eXe from one of the creators.
• Visit the download page to get hold of the software.
• To learn to use in details, watch this set of videos covering the use of eXe.
• 1. What is eXe (0.24) - Windows Media Version / YouTube Version
• 2. Downloading eXe (0.59) - Windows Media Version / YouTube Version
• 3. Adding iDevices (1.43) - Windows Media Version / YouTube Version
• 4. Adding More Pages (1.33) - Windows Media Version / YouTube Version
• 5. The RSS iDevice (1.46) - Windows Media Version / YouTube Version
• 6. Changing Content and Styles (1.47) - Windows Media Version / YouTube Version
• 7. Exporting and Saving (1.40) - Windows Media Version / YouTube Version
• 8. Importing an IMS Content Package to Blackboard 8 (2:38) - Windows Media Version / YouTube Version
• 9. Importing the Content into Blackboard 9.1
• Export content from eXe
• Upload content to Blackboard
• Create a link for the students to access the content
• After making changes to content in eXe, you need to re-upload to Blackboard

[image by infilmity]

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.0 Generic License.

The Web is Mine!

The nature of the web has changed!

Users are no longer mere recipients of the static web, but agents and co-creators of the Social Web, or Web 2.0. Old school transmission is replaced by community feedback through comments, as in this article itself, and in some cases, content creators, editors and publishers.

Some time ago David Wiley identified Wikipedia to have only two employees for its 15 million articles (over 3.3 million in English) - almost all of which have been written collaboratively by volunteers around the world. By you and me. Our teachers and our students. This demonstrates unparalleled cooperation amongst global communities of practice, and yet because of this very strength, many traditional academics scoff at the thought of Wikipedia, and other user generated sites, as reliable sources for educational content. However as a starting place for research into a topic, I struggle to find a more appropriate single source as Wikipedia. For example, researching teaching and learning theory leads me to Behaviourist approaches (Pavlov’s dogs and Skinner’s rats), through to the constructivist approaches of Piaget and Vygotsky. Quick searches at other sources such as You Tube might return a Von Glasersfeld talk on radical constructivism. As an introduction to a topic, I now have a basis to explore books and dare I say it, peer reviewed research articles.

This is where the web is educational! The web, educates.

Is there a boundary where web content is simply web content, and educational content is somehow subcategorised into something else? No. The Web is the most powerful educational resource one could imagine. A source which pulls together the thoughts, opinions and research from a global community of users, is shaping our everyday lives. The Web has changed! Such a community could never be achieved, heard or published, without such digital communications. Exemplifying this very point, You Tube suggest 24 hours of user generated video are uploaded every minute.

It is these chunks of content; educational, reusable, repurposable, that brings me to my key point – the openness of the web. The openness of such content can impact upon teaching and learning like no other approach. Like no other technique, tool or technology. Through user generated movements such as the open source movement, came the Creative Commons - a series of licenses that users/authors/developers can freely apply to their works to legally allow re-use, re-mixing and re-sharing.

Listening to Peter Hartley recently, a Professor in of Education Development at Bradford University, I was intrigued at his openness towards his own knowledge, or limitations thereof. A classic study into Social Psychology by Dr Zimbardo, is an area of particular interest for Professor Hartley, and one in which over the years, he has crafted a thought provoking lecture. In the Stanford Prison Experiment, Zimbardo researched ‘What happens when you put good people in an evil place? Does humanity win over evil, or does evil triumph?’ However, as Professor Hartley candidly admits, his knowledge in the topic is ‘limited’, for want of a better word. As he didn't take part in the actual research, he cannot describe the feelings of inmates, the feelings of being dragged off the street and ushered into a police car, the feelings of prison guards watching over the jail cells. Professor Hartley can only convey his understanding, albeit of high regard. His challenging lecture of Zimbardos prison experiment has received somewhat of a facelift since discovering some open resources through the Open University iTunesU pages. There he was, Dr Zimbardo himself discussing his reasoning, his rationale. Leading commentators debating methodologies and ethics of the study. And in a few clicks, subjects of the research, inmates and guards, discussing and reflecting on their mental states throughout the experiment.

So how can anybody teach this topic any better than its primary researcher, Dr Zimbardo? The job of the academic in this instance, is to shape a session which asks the right questions of the learners, or even, encourages the learners to ask the right questions (of the research, other learners, the teacher). His job is to structure resources to engage learners and encourage interaction and reflection.

The richness of such a learning experience is unequalled, and yet there are many questions... But what does this mean for the role of the traditional academic? Who is comfortable with reusing other sources of knowledge than ones-own, with fears of credibility and legitimacy?
But none should reign through more than this: How can I restructure my lectures and seminars to take advantage of such powerful resources?

The answer lies in the changing practices within Institutions.

• The new academic and multi professional teams, where people work smarter, where the lecturer is not the font of all knowledge, but where curriculum development is a joint venture between academics, learning technologists, media developers and information specialists.
• Changing practices where ‘new’ skills are encouraged: those of searching the complex web, finding, reviewing and reusing appropriate resources, and structuring them in the learning environment.
• Changing skillsets in encouraging and harnessing learner exploration, reflection and discussion around topics.

Of course many of the high quality resources available come from those places with the resources to do so - the Open University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Oxford, and other well funded projects. But what about the individual academic who does not have such wealthy resources at hand?

Search, explore, find, retrieve.
Create, share, discuss and debate.
Remix and repurpose.

The web is not a closed book with strict copyright. The web is mine. Yours. Everyones. Just look for the little cc logo :-)

Creating and Sharing Digital Content: Promises and Pitfalls

This Thursday we are hosting a free 1 day event focussing upon 'Creating and Sharing Digital Cotent'.

Creating the conditions for institutions to develop high quality content for use, reuse and open sharing is high on the agenda for UK Policy and funding bodies, but there remains various challenges that HEIs need to overcome in order to respond effectively: New Institutional practices are required to support environments to mainstream and sustain use, reuse and open sharing of digital content; and Individual practitioners must also aquire new skills and strategies to realise the potential of open educational resources (OER).

As well as sharing our own experiences from the recent JISC funded ReProduce project, there are a number of other excellent speakers, including Melissa Highton (Head of the Learning Technologies Group @ Oxford) and Tom Boyle (RLO CETL).

There are still a few places left for the event. The booking form can be found at http://surveys.edgehill.ac.uk/seminar