Month: March 2012

Sort Discussion Board Posts by Date, Author, etc.

This tutorial explains how to sort Discussion Board posts by date, author, or other characteristics

Switch to Tree View and Expand All

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If you want to see all posts and all replies, you will need to

  1. Switch to Tree View by clicking on the link in the upper right
  2. Click on Expand All to show all posts and replies

If you want to see only original posts (not replies) then use List View

Collect posts and/or replies

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  1. Click on the box at the top of the first column to select everything
  2. Click the Collect button

Sort posts and/or replies

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Now you can sort by various criteria such as Date of Last Post, Authors Last Name, etc.

Archive or Export Your Blackboard Course

This tutorial explains how to archive or export your course. This will allow you to move your course from one Blackboard server to another.

  • When a course is archived all information is saved, including course enrollments and all files in the "Files" area.
  • When a course is exported, enrollments are not included. Files in the "Files" area which are not linked to also do not appear to be included – this can be a problem if you are linking to a bundled set of HTML pages (Softchalk lessons for example) since only the "index" file will be exported – not the pages and images it links to.

In the Control Panel go to Packages and Utilities

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In the Control Panel, expand Packages and Utilities and then click on Export/Archive Course

Click on either the Export or Archive button

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Archive Your Course

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  • Choose Include Grade Center History only if you are archiving the course and wish to keep student records
  • Click Calculate Size if desired
  • Manage Package contents lets you remove files from the archive – you can also delete them after you re-import to another Blackboard server
  • Click Submit

A success message will tell you the action has been queued and you will receive an email.

Exporting a course

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Exporting is very similar – you will need to check off the course materials you want to export. It is safe to click everything – if you are not using it, it doesn’t matter. BE SURE AND EXPORT THE GRADE CENTER. You MUST export the grade center if you export anything that is linked to it (such as tests). This will NOT export student records – just the columns in the grade center.

Click Submit. Again, you’ll recieve an email when the process is complete.

Come back to download the archived file

After the process is complete you will return to the Archive/Export Course page by going to the Control Panel, expanding Packages and Utilities and clicking on Export/Archive Course. There you will see a link to the file that contains the zipped package. Click on that link and save it to your computer. Be sure and give it a name that you will recognize in the future.

Importing your course

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To import your course to a different server or restore from an archive, you will reverse the process by going to Control Panel > Packages and Utilities > Import Package / View Logs