Closing Out a Course Site
Exporting a course
Submitting final grades to the Registrar
Course Archiving
There are several steps you should take when the semester ends and you are wrapping up your Blackboard course site, in particular when it comes to saving a copy of your course site.
Exporting a course / saving a back-up copy.
Saving a copy of your Blackboard course site is not only helpful for use in future course sites but is critical for data maintenance and integrity. A Blackboard course site is proprietary; it only makes sense that you should ‘own’ a back-up of it too. Be responsible for all the hard work you put into a course site. Be safe and save it!
The best time to export a course site, (and you can actually export a course site as many times as you wish at any time) is at the end of semester when it is fully loaded with all the content, at this time you have the settings just so and the course site is ‘complete’. Please note that an exported course does not save student records, only non-user specific material and content. To save a copy of your course complete with student participation (such as Discussion Board entries, assignments, etc.) select the Archive icon from within the Export/Archive Manager.
To export a course site:
- From the Control Panel click on "Export/Archive Course" under the Packages and Utilities section.
- Click on the ‘Export’ icon.
- Go ahead and check every item listed under Select Course Materials section (the Content Collection Items section is currently not applicable).
- Click "Submit".
- You will be directed back out to the Export/Archive Manger screen. This is where your exported course will be found, but, depending on the size of your course, it may take a few seconds for the process to complete. You will receive an email when the process has finished. You will also need to come out of the Export Manager and go back in to see the exported file Bb has created. N.B. At this point, all you've done is asked Bb to package the course. You haven't actually exported it, yet. It is still on Bb. It is not backed up or protected from deletion.
- Once the export package is complete you’ll see something that looks like this ExportFile_BBAdvancedCourse_20070607105233.zip
- Once back in the Export/Archive Manger page, clicking on this file link will bring up a System Dialogue window that will ask you to "Open" or "Save File". You will want to chose "Save File" and pick a location to save your packaged course (e.g., Desktop, Shares, External Memory option, etc.) If you save it to your hard or network drive, I also recommend saving a copy on a CD or flash drive. Rename it if you want but remember you’ll want to identify easily, so include at least the course prefix, i.e. Engl10101 and the semester you taught it, 2007Fall.
- That’s it! You have a complete saved copy of your Blackboard course site.
- Once saved to your desired location, you can click on the Action Menu to the right of the file name (see above picture taking notice of the chevron/drop-down menu) and delete the file. This is not necessary, this file will be removed from Bb when the rest of the course is removed, but if you end up needing to export the course again (perhaps you added or changed something and want an export that reflects the new changes) it will keep you from being confused.
The nice thing about having an exported copy of your Blackboard course site is that you can then easily import it, or parts of it, into a new course.
The .zip file you've just downloaded from Bb is only readable through Bb. DO NOT open this file once it is on your computer. You will not have software on your computer that will be able to understand the dozens, if not hundres, of files contained in this zip file. This is only for future use in Bb, if you so chose to import the package in the future. If you're wanting to save individual files from your course for future use independant from Bb, make sure you download those files from within your Bb course to your computer.
Submitting final grades to the Registrar.
An instructor can easily submit final grades (at the end of semester) through Blackboard. The final grade submission process electronically dumps grades into Jenzabar, the management system.
To submit final grades through Blackboard:
-
From the Control Panel of the selected course, select "Submit Final Grades" from under Course Tools section.
-
A student's total points score will be carried over from Grade Center. This is simply an accumalitve score. This represents total points in comparison to points given to the student. If you weight your grades or have any other type of formula to calculate grades, this is NOT carried over. The column "Total Points" is simply that and may not reflect calculated columns you've created. It is your responsibility to know the student's final grade before entering this area. Grade Center is not going to calculate that into here for you. "Submit Final Grades" is meant only as a communication tool.
-
Using the Final Grade dropdown menu select the correct grade for each student. Instructors may select from A, A-, B+, B, B-, C+, C, C-, D, F, P. All other grades, including I (for incomplete) must be submitted in person to the Registrar, using the grade form.
-
An instructor may save the entered grades without submitting them to the Registrar by selcting the Save button. This permits an instructor to come back and submit the grades at a later time.
-
When final grades are ready to be submitted, check the check boxes under the Submit Grades column for the students you want to submit (or are able to, in the case that some students may have Incompletes or be Withdraw Failing). If no boxes are checked, no grades are submitted.
-
Click on the Submit button. If grades have been submitted successfully a date and time will populate under the Submission Date column and the Submit Grades checkboxes and actual grades will be greyed out indicating they can no longer be altered. If the Registrar claimes they haven't received your grades through this process, the "Submission Date" field is the first place to check to verify if you submitted grades correctly. No date, no actual submission.
Instructors cannot resubmit grades electronically through Blackboard. If any changes need to be to a student's grade this must be done in person, with the Registrar.
Archiving courses.
Courses are permanently removed from Blackboard by Jenzabar (our Snapshot process) when they are approximately ten months old (that is, ten months following the end of that course). This process removes courses from the system. These retired courses are NOT maintained by the System Administrator. Therefore, it is even more important to make sure that you export or archive your course, particularly if you plan on using content from an old course in the future or want to keep a full record of the course exchanges (e.g., discussion threads, group activities, journal postings, etc.).
Remember, Exporting saves course content (a great way to save a course and its material for future use when scheduled to teach the same course again), while Archiving saves the entire course, exchanges, grades, and all (a great way to keep a final representation of that specific section or to keep record in the even of a student arguing a grade).
The process to Archive is almost exactly the same as exporting:
- From the Control Panel click on "Export/Archive Course" under the Packages and Utilities section.
- Click on the ‘Archive’ icon.
- Checking "Include Grade Center History" will include the Grade History Report (which can be found in Grade Center by mousing-over the blue "Reports" button. The Grade History Report (image below is a look inside the Grade History Report Manager) is a record of every action that has take place in Grade Center (i.e., instructor's input of grade, student's attempt at taking a test, submitting a paper through an assignment link, etc.). If this information is important to you, check this box. It will increase file size and processing time (the Content Collection Items section is currently not applicable).
- Click "Submit".
- You will be directed back out to the Export/Archive Manger screen. This is where your archived course will be found, but, depending on the size of your course, it may take a few seconds for the process to complete. You will receive an email when the process has finished. You will also need to come out of the Archive Manager and go back in to see the archived file Bb has created. N.B. At this point, all you've done is asked Bb to package the course. You haven't actually archived it, yet. It is still on Bb. It is not backed up or protected from deletion.
- Once the archived package is complete, you’ll see something that looks like this ArchiveFile_BBAdvancedCourse_20070607105233.zip
- Once back in the Export/Archive Manger page, clicking on this file link will bring up a System Dialogue window that will ask you to "Open" or "Save File". You will want to chose "Save File" and pick a location to save your packaged course (e.g., Desktop, Shares, External Memory option, etc.) If you save it to your hard or network drive, I also recommend saving a copy on a CD or flash drive. Rename it if you want but remember you’ll want to identify easily, so include at least the course prefix, i.e. Engl10101 and the semester you taught it, 2007Fall.
- That’s it! You have a complete saved copy of your Blackboard course site.
- Once saved to your desired location, you can click on the Action Menu to the right of the file name and delete the zip file. This is not necessary, this file will be removed from Bb when the rest of the course is removed, but if you end up needing to export the course again (perhaps you added or changed something and want an export that reflects the new changes) it will keep you from being confused.
The .zip file you've just downloaded from Bb is only readable through Bb. DO NOT open this file once it is on your computer. You will not have software on your computer that will be able to understand the dozens, if not hundres, of files contained in this zip file. This is only for future use in Bb, if you so chose to import the package in the future. If you're wanting to save individual files from your course for future use independant from Bb, make sure you download those files from within your Bb course to your computer.
