Fall 2021 Academic Technology Updates
Welcome to the Fall 2021 semester! This post is a compilation of resources and links that will help you prepare for the semester. The Fall 2021 term dates set by VCU are August 10, 2021 at 12 am to January 5. 2022 at 12 am. For more information from VCU Learning Systems, visit and sign […]
Quickly and easily update all dates in your copied course
Updating dates after you copy a course for the next semester can be very time consuming and result in risk of error. Blackboard’s Date Management tool simplifies this process by making all due dates and content availability dates visible and editable on a single page. Try it! Open your course and go to Control Panel […]
El Capitan got you down?
Mac your calendars: to celebrate the start of the Fall semester, SON IT is scheduling a Mac 101 training session, to be held at the VCU School of Nursing, September 8th at 1 PM. Special emphasis will be placed on users transitioning from Windows based PC devices. We’ll review common tasks our users routinely perform, such […]
VoiceThread in Blackboard
A new tool in Blackboard is VoiceThread. What is a VoiceThread? See this video for an explanation. How can I use VoiceThread in Blackboard as an instructor? See this page to see how you can use VoiceThread in Blackboard. How do my students post using VoiceThread? See this page to how students can submit the […]
Upcoming Kaltura Training
Kaltura is a new tool that is available within your Blackboard course. You can use Kaltura to create webcam video recordings or to create screencasts to demonstrate concepts to your students. Additionally, Kaltura is also available for student use. If you have an assignment where students need to create a presentation in an online course […]
Creating a Blackboard Profile
You can set up a Blackboard profile so that any time you post to the discussion board or your blog, other members of the course will see your picture. Please see the Creating a Blackboard Profile Word document that walks you through the step by step instructions on creating your Blackboard profile for students or faculty. […]
Add a Class Calendar to Your Course
A really nice way to create your weekly assignments for class is to use a calendar. Students like to be able to print out assignments for the semester and creating a calendar using a website like calendarlabs.com makes it easy to do. Go to the website and download one of the 2016 blank templates. Fill out […]
How to Copy a Blackboard Course
The beginning of the semester is the time when you will be copying Blackboard courses to prepare for the upcoming semester. It is recommended that every few semesters, you copy a template course that is devoid of content. Copying content from semester to semester can lead to issues with your Blackboard course. Sometimes there will be […]
View Your Picture Roster
In order to view your student photos, you will need to use the VCU Reporting Center. Access to the Reporting Center from off-campus requires VPN access. First, connect to VCU’s VPN. (For additional instructions on connecting to the VPN, go to http://go.vcu.edu/ramsvpn) Once you have connected to the VPN, go to the VCU portal. https://my.vcu.edu […]