Information Technology Services at UNC-Chapel Hill

Old Courses Scheduled to Be Archived and Deleted December 19th 2006 to January 8th 2007

November 28, 2006 | In Service Notices , Upgrade/Maintenance Period
This fall the Blackboard Team within ITS will carry out a master archiving and deletion of Blackboard sites created for courses listed with the University Registrar for the semesters prior to Fall 2004 and of those Blackboard sites created by request (for either teaching or non-teaching purposes) before August 2004. Blackboard sites that will be excluded are: Blackboard sites that are still available to students or those that have been modified since January 2006. Please visit the complete list of courses targeted for archive and deletion as soon as possible.

The archival process will take place over several days beginning on December 19th 2006. Note: Any changes made to any of the Blackboard sites in the list after December 18th will not bee saved in the master archive. Once the courses have been archived, they will be deleted from the UNC-CH Blackboard system beginning January 8th 2007. After these Blackboard sites are deleted they will no longer be available even if requested. If you see one of your courses on the list that should *not* be deleted from the UNC-CH Blackboard system , please submit a help request by January 7th 2007 at http://help.unc.edu indicating the Blackboard site’s ID and a brief explanation of why the site should not be removed from the system.

Once the courses are archived and deleted from the Blackboard system will no longer be accessible even by request. However, if you think that you might need access to the content in a Blackboard site that has been targeted for archive and deletion, or that you might need to restore the site into the UNC-CH Blackboard system at a later point in the future, you can simply make your own local copy (on your computer’s hard drive, CD, etc) of any of your Blackboard sites by following the archive or export procedure. Please see How do I archive a Blackboard site? and How do I export a Blackboard site? For information about the difference between these two procedures please see When would I use Export Course instead of Archive Course to back up a Blackboard site? Please note that, beginning January 2007, we will make available a free application that will allow you to convert the copy that you have created of your exported or archived Blackboard sites into an HTML site that can be opened outsite of Blackboard should you need access to the content of these sites. Alternativale, if you need to restore a site from your personal copy into the UNC-CH Blackboard system, you could do that by following the instructions describe at How do I import materials into my Blackboard sites with Import Package?

Key actions time line:

29th November 2006: Check the list of courses targeted to be archived and deleted Contact the Help Desk if you see one of your courses on the list that should *not* be deleted from the UNC-CH Blackboard system. Deadline for notification: January 6th 2007. You can start creating your own local copies/archives any of your sites that have been targeted for archival and deletion, if you think you might need these sites or their content in the future. Deadline to create personal copies: January 7th 2007. How do I archive a Blackboard site? How do I export a Blackboard site? When would I use Export Course instead of Archive Course to back up a Blackboard site? 18th December 2006: Any changes made to any of the sites in the list after December 18th will not be saved in the master archive. 19th December 2006: Master archiving of targeted courses begins 6th January 2007: Last day to contact the Help Desk to notify the Blackboard administrator of the sites that should *not* be deleted from the UNC-CH Blackboard system. Important Notice: Once the courses are archived and deleted from the Blackboard system will no longer be accessible even by request. For emergencies the master archive will be kept only for one semester after which it will be deleted. 8th January 2006: Deletion of targeted courses begins.

Upcoming Blackboard Workshops

November 21, 2006 | In Events , Workshops
Four upcoming Blackboard workshops scheduled. Register now!

New Wiki Tool for Blackboard (Teams LX)
Nov 30th, 2006 from 2:15 pm to 3 pm and Dec 6th, 2006 from 11 am to 11:45 am.

Introduction to the Blackboard Gradebook
Nov 30th, 2006 from 3:45 pm to 4:45 pm and Dec 6th, 2006 from 12 noon to 1pm.

Upcoming Blackboard Workshops

November 13, 2006 | In Events , Workshops
You can now register for the one hour Introduction to the Blackboard Gradebook workshops scheduled for Nov 17, 2006 12:00 PM and Nov 16, 2006 12:00 PM.

These hands-on workshops are for faculty, TAs and staff members who would like to learn how to use Blackboard’s Gradebook.

During these workshops the following items will be covered: how to add items to the Gradebook; how to display grades; how to weight grades and restore the grade book to un-weight grades; where to find statistics and details for each Gradebook item; how to download and upload the Gradebook; and where to get support and find documentation.

Prerequisites:Basic Blackboard knowledge.

Receive your class Blackboard announcements on your cell phone

November 6, 2006 | In How-To , Helper Software
You can now set up your cell phone to receive the announcements of you Blackboard course sites via TXT message. For more information and support visit Rave @ UNC.

Rave@UNC is a pilot program between Rave Wireless and the Department of Technology & Systems Support in the Division of Student Affairs. Funding for the pilot has been provided by the Department of Housing & Residential Education, University Career Services and UNC's Kenan-Flagler Business School.