Control Panel
This is on the instructor's screen only, not on a student's screen.
Here is where you go to customize your course, find the roster, add
course material, etc. etc.
There are six areas:
- Content Areas: you go
here to add Course Information, such as the description of your course,
Assignments, one at a time, or the assignment sheet for the whole
semester, Course Documents (most
important), External Links (optional
-- they
could alternately be included in the assignment sheet or a course
document --
if so, make this button invisible in Course Options > Settings)
- Course Tools: you go here
to post Announcements, the Course
Calendar, Staff Information (?),
Tasks (?), to Send Email, to set up the Discussion Board, Collaboration
options, the Digital Dropbox....
- Course Options: you go
here to manage the course menu, tools,
settings (banner & appearance), and to recycle, copy,
export, archive your course.
- User Management: this is
great for getting a roster but you cannot enroll or drop students. You
can, however, manage groups.
- Assessment: you can post
tests and grades, and you can survey usage if you set your options
accordingly. This takes some time but is essential for a course taught
completely online.
- Help: You may
need to
create a profile for Bb to get access.
Send email
to a student or to a group of students in the course:
Control Panel Course Tools > Send Email. Select Recipient(s). He,
she, they will automatically appear in the To field, as will your email
address in the From field.
Enter your message. Add attchachment(s) if desired.
Note that this e-mail is one way: for sending only but not for reading.
Collaboration
tools let instructor and students work together in real
time Also, archives of previous Collaboration sessions can be
seen, useful for make-up and review. For details see full Bb Manual,
pp. 104 - 132. (For the student, access is on the Communcation menu.)
Control Panel Course Tools > Collaboration: set a name, date and
time for the session and select a Collaboration Tool:
- Virtual Classroom
- Lightweight Chat -- may
be used as part of the Virtual Classroom or separately.
Notes: All users must have Java
enabled browsers. Mac users should run Netscape 7. Set a day and time
for this, as this is a synchronous event. If the class is very large,
you may want to create smaller groups to keep the discussion
manageable.
To create an archive, you must start the recorder; see Record Menu, the
third button from the right of the Menu Bar (the top bar on the Virtual
Classroom and on the Lightweight Chat screen)
The
Digital Drop Box is useful for file exchange between instructor
and student(s). Access for the instructor is via the Control Panel, but
the student must click Main Menu, Tools, Digital Dropbox.
Select Add a file Browse for file and click Submit. (Note: this
step does not send the file.)
Therefore, now click Send file and select one or several users. Click
and hold Ctrl or Shift to select more than one name. Select the file to
send. Click Submit.
For assessment, grades, course statistics, see the full Bb Manual.
