What's New in Blackboard 8 (Overview)
Duke has an upgraded Blackboard system from version 6.3 to version 8. The upgrade was performed on Sunday, May 10, 2009 at 6 pm.
Your materials have been migrated to the new version. The Blackboard Grade Center (formerly called the Gradebook) is completely different.
Key changes are listed here.
Watch the Blackboard 8 Overview Video - Video introduction to the new features (from the College of DuPage)
Redesigned Grade Center
A complete redesign of the Grade Center means fewer mouse clicks to perform grading activities. Features include:
- inline editing of grades
- ability to send emails directly from the Grade Center
- new options for calculating, weighting and dropping grades
- user-defined custom views of student and grade columns
- ability to view history of all grade changes in the course
Enhanced Discussion Board
The new Discussion Board is integrated with the Grade Center and can be set to automatically create a grade column. It has enhanced statistics, optional moderation and peer review of posts, tagging and searching by tags, email subscription options for new thread posts and the ability to save a draft version of a post.
Improved Multi-language (or Locale) Support
In addition to English, German, Italian, Spanish, French, Portuguese and Dutch, support for Japanese and Chinese have been added with support for multi-byte characters.
Increased Compatibility for the Visual Text Box Editor (VTBE)
The VTBE is a visual editor that allows one to create text in Blackboard with an interface similar to a word processor. The VTBE now works on the Mozilla Firefox browser in addition to Microsoft Internet Explorer. Limited support for Safari has also been added.
Assessment Enhancements
New features include the ability to allow unlimited attempts or a specific number of attempts by students on a quiz or test. Students can now take self-assessments without the results being counted in the Grade Center. Tests can be exported and imported, making it easier to re-use exam questions. Extra credit is now a built-in feature.
Ubiquitous Email
Course announcements have an email option. Emails can be sent directly from within the new Grade Center. Instructors can send emails directly to students without copying other course administrators on the email. Spell-check is now available.
Need Help? Contact Us
Need help or have a problem with Blackboard:
OIT Service Desk
919-684-2200 or submit a help request
Want to learn best practices for using Blackboard:
Center for Instructional Technology
919-660-5806 or cit@duke.edu
Sign up for the bb-alerts email group at https://lists.duke.edu/sympa/info/bb-alerts for alerts about Blackboard related items including, but not limited to: scheduled outages to the Blackboard system, updates, bugs, news and training opportunities.
