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, 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 Course’ under the Course options section.
- Click on the ‘Export’ icon.
- Go ahead and check every item listed under Select Course Materials.
- Click ‘Submit’ and ‘OK’.
- You may need to come out of the Export Manager and go back in. The export process can take a few seconds.
- Once the export package is complete you’ll see something that looks like this ExportFile_BBAdvancedCourse_20070607105233.zip
- Right click on the file and select ‘Save Target As’.
- Select where you wish to save the compressed file. 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. Click ‘Save’.
- That’s it! You have a complete saved copy of your Blackboard course site.
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.
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:
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From the Control Panel of the selected course, select Submit Final Grades from under Course Tools.
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A student's total points score will be carried over from the gradebook. Using the Final Grade dropdown menu select the correct grade for each student. Instructors may select from A, A-, B+, B, B-, C+, C, D, F, P. All other grades, including I (for incomplete) must be submitted in person to the Registrar, using the grade form.
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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.
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When final grades are ready to be submitted, check the check boxes under the Submit Grades column.
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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.
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 archived from Blackboard by the System Administrator when they are approximately eighteen months old. Archiving removes courses from the system. Archived courses are maintained by the System Administrator. It is therefore even more important to make sure that you export your course, particularly if you plan on using content from an old course in the future.
