Blackboard Content Manager Pilot

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Blackboard Content Manager Pilot

CIR is piloting a new feature on the Blackboard course management system: the Blackboard Content Manager.

You can continue to use Blackboard as you did in the past. However, the Content Manager provides a variety of new features to the Haverford community.

• Share files with exactly who you choose. The Storage server is great if you want to share files with predetermined groups of others at Haverford. However, this tool lets you refine who sees a file, as well as share files with users at Bryn Mawr, Swarthmore, and anywhere in the world.
• Drag and drop folders and files into the Blackboard system. If you currently upload multiple files into the Blackboard system, this feature will save you a lot of time.
• Easily use the same document in several Blackboard courses or organizations. If you put an item into the Blackboard Content Manager once, you can then link to it from several courses or organizations. This is especially helpful if several classes or groups want to use the same materials. You can even share materials with courses or organizations that others are teaching or leading.
• Exchange files in courses, organizations, or with colleagues. Faculty members can set up a file exchange area for all students, or groups of students, in a course. Blackboard organization leaders can, in addition to posting documents for participants, allow participants to post or edit documents for others in the organization. In fact, you can set up a file exchange area for any group.

The Content Manager is currently available to the entire Haverford community, but we are still fine-tuning the way we configure the tool and help people use it. If you think any of the features mentioned above will be useful to you, we hope you will join our Content Manager pilot program during Fall 2009.  Students, faculty, and staff are all welcome to join the pilot. Participants will get personal help using the Content Manager, and then provide feedback to us about their experience.  Faculty members thinking about Spring 2010 courses are encouraged to participate.

Students, faculty, and staff are all welcome to join the pilot. To join the pilot, sign up for our workshop, Blackboard: The New Content Manager, contact any member of the Blackboard Support Team*, or email Sharon Strauss. Our workshop is scheduled for Fall break, Tuesday, October 13, 2:00 PM - 3:00 PM; we will schedule additional workshops, if there is interest.

If you do not wish to participate in the pilot, you may experiment with the Blackboard Content Manager on your own. Some instructions are available on the Tri-College Blackboard Wiki. We will be adding to these over the Fall 2009 semester, as we determine which features, settings, and defaults will work best for the campus.

Look for further information, when we officially role out the Content Manager in Spring 2010.

* Laurie Allen, Theresa Donahue, Dawn Heckert, Barbara Mindell, Michelle Oswell, Craig Ross, Hiroyo Saito, Jennifer Scales, Sharon Strauss, Christina Webster, Jeff White, Dora Wong