Google Tasks: Task Management Gone Google

Within your Gmail and Google Calendar, there is a built in feature that many of you may not know about, Google Tasks.  If you have struggled to find a task management system that fits your busy lifestyle, this Google feature could be the best bit of simple technology you have ever used.

The big advantage of Google Tasks are:

• Free
• Simple to use
• Easily Accessible 
• Tasks with due dates populate automatically into the Google Calendar that you already use
• You can, with one mouse click, add emails to tasks through Gmail
• Create multiple lists so that you can separate business tasks from grocery lists

If you would like to learn more about Google Tasks, read this awesome article by CNET about Google Tasks.

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Spelling Dictionaries in Blackboard

Blackboard (Bb) Learn has a spell check button located within the Content Editor.  If you don't see the spell check button in a specific course, please check with your instructor to make sure the Spell Check & Suggestion tools has been made available in the course.  If it has, please submit a Help Desk (https://workorder.su.edu). Make sure to include the Course Name, ID, & Instructor Name. 

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Using the Spell Checker

Click the spell checker (  ) icon to turn the automatic spell check function on or off. The button will be located beside the numbered list button if you are using the basic editor or it will be the last button in the 2nd row if you are using the expanded editor. 

You will see wavy, red underlining for words detected as potentially misspelled or not found in the loaded dictionary. If you resume typing text, the spell checker function switches off.

Right-click an underlined word to view a menu, allowing you to:

• See a list of suggested correction.
• Ignore the single instance.
• Ignore all occurrences of the indicated word.

 

By default the Spell Checker tool uses the US English Dictionary. However, you can also run spell check with the Spanish Dictionary and as US English Medical Dictionary. Simply by clicking the down arrow to the right of the button ( ) and click on the dictionary you want to use. 

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Currently, SU has 4 dictionaries available for spell check use. You can request additional ones by submitting a online Help Ticket. Blackboard Learn supports any dictionary that is formatted in the myspell or hunspell format. This gives SU the option to choose from several different dictionaries in almost every language.

The medical dictionary includes nearly 50,000 medical terms ranging from abdominis to zygomatic, which allows you to concentrate on your work instead of looking up words in a medical dictionary that are not in the built-in Bb's English spelling dictionary. This dictionary contains device and drugs that are FDA approved as of October 13, 2008.

Drug and device names are current with FDA approvals through October 13, 2008. - See more at: http://extensions.openoffice.org/en/project/openmedspel-en-us#sthash.35f5qpuz.dpuf

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Blackboard Respresentative to visit NVC 11/7

NVC:

Get ready to have a day of Blackboard support, Usability Labs, and a Blackboard Roadmap presentation in your computer lab starting at 9:00AM on 11/7!   

Blackboard will be the focus all day so start creating notes, Evernotes, Rolodex entries, and Sticky-notes with all the Blackboard related questions that you can possibly think of!

Don't be shy!  

We will be there to serve you, and to make sure that you are 100% up to date with all current Blackboard knowledge.

No user turned away, and no questions too difficult!

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Faculty Sneak Peak Opportunity From Bb

Faculty if you use McGraw-Hill digital content learn how to integrate it in Bb Learn and test it out without messing up your course in CourseSites.  The CourseSites team has integrated McGraw-Hill’s digital content and tools into CourseSites, enabling you to pull content, assignments and assessments from McGraw-Hill’s proven learning object repositories—including eTexts, video, interactive exercises, and more. Your students will stay actively engaged with the media-rich, high quality content found in this seamlessly integrated, total course solution.  

Join us for a webinar on Wednesday, November 13, 2013 at 1:00 PM EST (Time Zone Converter) on how to enhance your course(s) with rich, engaging content and activities from McGraw-Hill Higher Education.

Attend the webinar and receive  a $5 Starbucks gift card for your time! (US attendees only) Register Now

 

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Blackboard, Inc (Bb) has released the next version of Bb Learn. It is known as Service Pack 14 (SP14). This version that will be loaded on SU during the holiday break, so get a sneak peak of the new features on CourseSites. You can even upload your existing course into Coursesites and see how the changes will affect your current course design or prepare you Spring courses now. 

Coursesites will be upgraded to Blackboard Learn, Release 9.1, Service Pack 14 will take place Thursday, November 14th at 11:00 p.m. EST until 5:00 a.m. EST on Friday, November 15th (Time Zone Converter). During this time the system will be unavailable. Please plan accordingly.

Highlights of New Features and Enhancements Include With SP14:

• Achievements - Allows instructors and course designers to designate criteria for issuing rewards to students in the form of both Badges and Certificates. Students can see which rewards they’ve earned and what is required of them to receive additional rewards, providing insight into learning progression toward defined competencies.
• Date Management - Addresses the problem with dates not shifting when course content is copied from one course to another.  Using “Date Rollover,” instructors will be able to have the system automatically “shift” content and tool dates in a course in a highly efficient way.  
• Grade Center Improvements - Provides a new default option for the order in which grades are displayed.  Grading Schemas can now have values greater than 100%.  
• Groups Management -Improves the experience of managing Groups with large numbers of students in a course. It adds capabilities to the existing workflows for Group creation and management. This feature applies to both Courses and Organizations.
• Course Messages Notifications -  Adding Course Messages to the Notifications framework provides visibility and notifications in My Blackboard, and in the "What's New" module on both the institutional and course module pages.
• Inline Assignment Grading -  Instructors now have the ability to expand the grading window to full screen. 
• Inline Grading for All Collaboration Tools - The sidebars for grading Blogs & Journals, Discussions, and Wikis have all been updated to present an experience consistent with the Inline Assignment Grading sidebar.

Want to learn more?  Check out Bb's Quick Hits videos and  join them for a webinar discussing the latest and greatest changes on Monday, November 18, 2013 2:00 PM EST (Time Zone Converter).

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Open Learning for You: October MOOCs

Open Learning for You: October MOOCs

Expand your knowledge outside of what you are required to learn at SU. It is not too late to register in courses that have already started!

Coasts and Communities, UMASS Boston

Duration: 09/30-11/1 Register Now

Isocrates, University of Pittsburgh

Duration: 10/1-12/3  Register Now

Innovation & Design Thinking, University of Cincinnati

Duration: 10/7-11/24  Register Now

The Subject is Sports, Syracuse University

Duration: 10/14-11/24 Register Now

Social Entrepreneurship: A Grassroots Revolution, Fort Hays State University

Duration: 10/16-11/19  Register Now

Entrepreneurship and New Ventures, FIU

Duration: 10/22- 01/20  Register Now

Health Technology Assessment, The University of Sheffield

Duration: 10/28-11/29  Register Now

Applied Data Science: An Introduction, Syracuse University

Duration: 10/28-ongoing (self-paced) Register Now

Browse additional fall courses in the MOOC Catalog

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Take a Tour Through Blackboard's Best of the Best!

Let's face it, not all Blackboard courses are created equal.  This statement makes a lot of intuitive sense when you spend more time creating courses within Blackboard (If you are a student user and would like to give creating a Blackboard course a shot, check out Blackboard's free Coursesites webpage).

Because Blackboard offers such a buffet of features, each course can be vastly different.  With so many options available to professors courses can be created and administered exactly as they see fit!

With that in mind, Blackboard began a program called the "Exemplary Course Program."  Here is a bit of information on the program:

"The Blackboard Exemplary Course Program began in 2000 with the goal of identifying and disseminating best practices for designing engaging online courses.  Using a rubric instructors and course designers are able to evaluate how well their own course conforms to best practices for Course Design, Interaction & Collaboration, Assessment and Learner Support." - Bb Inc

If any of you fantastic Blackboard users out there would like to take a tour through Blackboard's best and brightest courses, go to the following youtube channel and take some course tours!  You might just be amazed, and hopefully inspired to create Blackboard courses that educate all users within the course effectively.

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Blackboard Inc's Help Site! Help.Blackboard.Com

Blackboard has made available a wonderful help website that will allow users of all roles (Administrators, Instructors, and Students) to navigate to carefully crafted instructions for whatever issues the user may have encountered.

 When you go to Help.Blackboard.Com, you will need to select which version and service pack you are working with (at SU we are currently using version 9.1 service pack 13), and then you will want to select your role.  Once that is complete, you will have a host of well organized content in the navigation menu on the left side of the screen.


Here is an example:
A SU student needs help learning how to submit a safe assign assignment, let's see how easy it is to find this information out.

• Help.Blackboard.Com
• 9.1 SP 12 and SP 13
• Student
• Assignments
• SafeAssign

To make all of this even easier, in the top right corner of the screen, you will see two icons:

• The printer icon will allow you to export your findings to a PDF and then print it in a nice clean format, and you can create a "Book" containing compiled PDFs for all of your Blackboard help.
• The Table of Contents Icon will break down each individual page so that you can find exactly what you are looking for within the page quickly.

If you are a Blackboard user, and you ever have questions about Blackboard, then this website should be bookmarked!

Remember, SU specific setup may be different. You should refer to the SU Blackboard Support site at www.su.edu/bb.

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Monday Tips & Tricks From Devon

Happy Monday! This week Devon's got a wide variety of tips and tricks for you covering topics from Bb, Gmail, Google Docs and iPads!  If you have any questions, stop by one of the locations below and ask him a question.

Devon's Locations This Week:
Monday - Bowman Building - 11 - 1 - Room 212
Wednesday - Cork Street - 11 - 1 - Room M 155
Thursday - Wilkins Building - 11 - 1 - Conference Room
Thursday - Halpin-Harrison Hall - 2:30 - 4:30 - Room 140
Friday - Health Professions Building - 12 - 2 - In Front of Library




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iPad Quick Tip! Did you know that you can press and hold the period key on your ipad to quickly have website domains pop up when typing website addresses in Safari.  While not a huge timesaver, it does make typing web addresses a little bit easier!  Click the link for a quick walkthrough!

 

Handwriting Input in Gmail and Google Docs A recent update to the input tools in Gmail and Google Docs now allows for handwriting input.  This can be a great alternative for those who use an iPad on a regular basis.  Check out the link to the Google Drive Blog for more information!

  My Bb Tab Uses
Still confused about what the My Bb tab can bring to the table for your Blackboard experience? Curious about how to better use this initial login page productively? Check out this post on the Information Technology Blog located off the Tech Support Tab in Bb or on the Bb Support Site (www.su.edu/bb).

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Student Tech Buzz 10/21-20/25

Student Tech Buzz 10/21-10/25

Holding off on iOS Maverick Please DO NOT upgrade your SU iMLearning equipment to OS X Maverick just yet.  You may experience some compatibility issues with the university's applications such as Blackboard until we are able to verify the new OS is compatible with all our current systems.   Apple just announced in their event today that OS X Maverick is available today via the Mac App Store Please wait to upgrade until we are able to confirm OS X Mavericks is compatible with all SU systems.  Once we are able to confirm compatibility, we will notify the SU community and make OS X Mavericks available via Self Service.   If you have any questions regarding this issue, please contact the Help Desk at helpdesk@su.edu or 540-665-5555. Author: Melissa Stange Secure Exam Browser Update for Windows Users As many of you know, Secure Exam Browser was not working for Windows properly. The company who produces this software has updated their product and now SEB will function on Windows!  Please go to the following Website and download the correct version of SEB, and follow the install instructions, for whatever windows operating system you are using.   Secure Exam Browser at Shenandoah University   Make sure to do this before your next text, or your Secure Exam Browser will still not be working properly! Via Student Tech Blog Possible Limited Interruption Of Internet Access On Monday, 10/28   Cisco has issued a security warning and SU needs to update the firewall. The update is planned to start by 7:00a on Monday, October 28. There may be a limited interruption of Internet access to and from campus for the few minutes it takes for the firewall to update and reload. We understand there is no good time to take the network down and every effort will be made to minimize the outage. IC staff are coordinating these upgrades to minimize the possibility of downtime. If you experience any issue with Internet services, Datatel, or Blackboard after 8:30a on Monday; please contact the Help Desk via phone at 540-665-5555, via email athelpdesk@su.edu, or through the online ticket system at https://workorder.su.edu Thanks for your understanding, Your Bb Support Team Author: Melissa Stange

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Hold off on iOS Maverick

Apple just announced in their event today that OS X Mavericks is available today via the Mac App Store. 

Please DO NOT upgrade your SU iMLearning equipment to OS X Mavericks just yet.  You may experience some compatibility issues with the university's applications such as Blackboard until we are able to verify the new OS is compatible with all our current systems.  

Please wait to upgrade until we are able to confirm OS X Mavericks is compatible with all SU systems.  Once we are able to confirm compatibility, we will notify the SU community and make OS X Mavericks available via Self Service.  

If you have any questions regarding this issue, please contact the Help Desk at helpdesk@su.edu or 540-665-5555.

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Secure Exam Browser Updated to Work on Windows

As many of you know, Secure Exam Browser was not working for Windows properly. The company who produces this software has updated their product and now SEB will function on Windows!  Please go to the following Website and download the correct version of SEB, and follow the install instructions, for whatever windows operating system you are using.

Secure Exam Browser at Shenandoah University

Make sure to do this before your next text, or your Secure Exam Browser will still not be working properly!

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Possible Limited Interruption Of Internet Access On Monday, 10/28

Cisco has issued a security warning and SU needs to update the firewall. The update is planned to start by 7:00a on Monday, October 28. There may be a limited interruption of Internet access to and from campus for the few minutes it takes for the firewall to update and reload.

At the same time, the IC networking staff will be rebooting on one of the switches on SU's c7000 system.  This switch is currently not connected to anything and therefore there should be no disruption in service..... But the c7000 system does run the Datatel and Blackboard systems, just on a different switch.

We understand there is no good time to take the network down and every effort will be made to minimize the outage. IC staff are coordinating these upgrades to minimize the possibility of downtime. 

If you experience any issue with Internet services, Datatel, or Blackboard after 8:30a on Monday; please contact the Help Desk via phone at 540-665-5555, via email at helpdesk@su.edu, or through the online ticket system at https://workorder.su.edu

Thanks for your understanding,
Your Bb Support Team 

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My Blackboard Details

Everything you need for your Blackboard experience is in one convenient location. My Blackboard provides you with quick and easy access to critical and timely information regarding your institution, courses, and fellow classmates. From My Blackboard, you can view how you are doing in each of the courses you are enrolled in, view grades, be reminded of assignments that are due, and much more.

Students and Staff at SU access via the My Bb tab or from the global navigation link. Faculty access My Blackboard via the global navigation link, which is their name in the upper right hand corner.

In this section...

• Profiles
• Updates
• Posts
• Messages
• People
• Spaces
• Reporting Inappropriate Content
• Best Practice: Protecting Your Reputation and Identity Online

 Have More questions about My Blackboard and how it can help you in stay connected with your courses? Stop by one of our Traveling Bb Support sites and get your questions answered. Click here to see the schedule. 

Notes:
Click here to read an earlier post on My Bb by Tristan Plummer.
My Blackboard currently is NOT available via the Bb Mobile Learn app. So use your mobile browser to access it.

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Blackboard Coursesites and You.

Shenandoah University and Blackboard go together like popcorn and a good movie, or a great university and a great learning management system.  We, as Shenandoah University student Blackboard users, use this software every day in our academic careers.  We take tests, we write blogs, we contribute to discussion boards, and we submit papers all within the framework that Blackboard provides.

Do you ever get the chance to teach what you are interested in though?  You, as a Shenandoah University Blackboard user, do not get the ability to create and teach classes the way you want to within our learn.su.edu Blackboard environment, but that does not mean you cannot use your specific knowledge to educate others!

Blackboard has made available, for free, a website called Coursesites where anybody can log in, and teach an online Blackboard class on any topic. 

As a practical example, let me share with you a story about my own personal life and why I am beginning to use Coursesites:

My little brother is 9, and lives in a remote region of a foreign country, and though the local teachers try as hard as anybody, they have limited resources and their school suffers subsequently. My Dad, knowing my older sister and I have both been educations for children around his age, has asked us if there was any way we could come up with, and administer, supplemental information that would allow our little brother to remain on track with kids roughly his age in areas where the schools are better.

My sister and I were stumped, and though we tried emailing instructions to our father for specific lessons, it never worked properly.  Something always got lost or botched, and we were not able to complete our objectives.

Now, with course sites, I can structure an online course, and populate it with information that is fun, organized, clean and concise.  It's free, easy to use, and available instantly when you sign up.  Basically, you have Blackboard at your disposal to use in any way you can think of. 

I hope you all enjoy, and use it to great lengths. Each and every one of you has something to teach another person, and using Coursesites could be a phenomenal
way to do just that.

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Tips & Tricks With Technology By Devon

New Bb Polls

Blackboard has come out with a new polling service that seems to be pretty neat. The service, which is in beta right now,  allows for login via Facebook and provides instant feedback for all your polling needs.  Clink the link to check out the new polls.bb!

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Protect Your Mobile Data
As more and more of our information becomes stored in the cloud and readily accessible on mobile devices, it is very important to make sure we secure our information as tightly as possible on our mobile devices.  Here are a few tips to get you started in the right direction.
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Google Drive Guide

Still feel unsure about how to best use Google Drive and the cloud? Here is an absolutely amazing website that can show you everything you need to know to use this powerful Google service effectively.  Click the link and give it a go!








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Devon can help you learn how to use the technology at SU. He is the Training Coordinator for Institutional Computing. Stop by and visit Devon this week while he is traveling around campus or visit him in his office within Institutional Computing (Basement of Smith Library, Main Campus).

Monday - Bowman Building - 12 - 2 - Room 212
Wednesday - Cork Street - 12 - 2 - Room M 155
Thursday - Wilkins Building - 11 - 1 - Conference Room
Thursday - Halpin-Harrison Hall - 2:30 - 4:30 - Room 140
Friday - Health Professions Building - 11 - 1 - In Front of Library
Always Online @ www.su.edu/training

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Students Let You Opinion Be Heard!

The Blackboard User Experience team who visited campus on September 20th, is researching how students would feel about obtaining and accessing their books and other course materials through Blackboard.

 

Please share this survey link with all of your classmates to make sure Bb hears the SU voice!

 

Who's invited? – Students at any Blackboard institution – part-time, full-time, on campus, distance learning, blended learning…Bb want to hear from any and all students!

• Time commitment – 10-15 minutes
• Survey Link – Take the survey

 

Thanks for helping Bb and spreading the word about the survey!

 

Happy Blackboarding!

Institutional Computing Bb Team

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Blackboard Labs Presents Polls (Beta)

Though this initiative from Blackboard Labs is still in its beta testing phase, I think we should all give a couple of moments to think about how polling on mobile devices that you always carry could change your academic experience.

Remember the days of being assigned a clicker to answer questions by the professor? Maybe the batteries are dead, or a student from a previous class broke the appropriate button that corresponds to the correct answer, we've all been there.  Those days will hopefully be behind us soon.

Now, with the development of Blackboard Polls, polling will be easier than ever. Polling will be accurate, quick, and it will be done on the mobile devices you already bring to class.

Check it out! http://polls.bb/about

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Wordorder.su.edu Now Accepting Attachments

Good news!  If you thought our workorder system was already great, well, it just got a bit better.  Now, as one of your options when creating a workorder, you have the ability to upload an attachment to your workorder which could allow the tech to resolve your problem much quicker.

Why is an attachment going to help the tech resolve your issue?

If you attach a screenshot of exactly what the problem is, the tech should be able to see, roughly, through your eyes!  This is one of the most difficult obstacles to get over in technical support.  Directions for creating screenshots are provided below:

Windows:

Alt+Print Screen -> Paste into Paint and then Save the file to desktop.

OSX:

Command+Shift+3:  This will create a screenshot and automatically store it on your desktop.

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Student Tech Buzz 10/14-10/18 This week you can receive Blackboard support at the following locations: Wednesday- 11-1p @ Cork Street | 1:30-5p @ HPB Thursday- 9-12a @ NVC | 2-3p @ Shingleton | 3-4p @ HHH Friday- 12-1p @ Bowman | 1-3p MOB II Explore the Internships.com Building Block! We all know that finding an internship or a job can be stressful, and in this economy, it can be downright frustrating.  Luckily, SU has provided a phenomenal resource for users to hook up with potential employers by providing access to the Internships.com building block within Blackboard.  If you are looking for a career opportunity, and haven't explored the Internships.com building block, you could be missing out in a big way! How do you find the Internships building block? From the "My Bb" home page Go to the Community tab Click "Internships" Sign up, and you're ready to begin! Here you will have access to 300,000 + internships and jobs from just over 40,000 different employers nationwide!   Can you afford to not take advantage of yet another phenomenal feature offered within Blackboard? Workorder.su.edu Now Supports Attachments In the past, you could not attach files to your workorders, but those days are done!  Now you can feel free to submit attachments to your workorders. What advantage does this provide for you as a user needing tech help? One of the biggest problems with helping users is that the tech providing the assistance cannot always see what the user is seeing.  Now, feel free to take and attach screenshots of what you are seeing so that you can help the tech resolve your issue quickly! Simple steps to take quality screenshots: Windows: Alt+Print Screen -> Paste into Paint and then save the file to desktop. OSX: Command+Shift+ 3.  The image file will save to your desktop.

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Find an Internship Within SU's Blackboard!

We all know that finding an internship or a job can be stressful, and in this economy, it can be downright frustrating.  Luckily, SU has provided a phenomenal resource for users to hook up with potential employers by providing access to the Internships.com building block within Blackboard.

If you are looking for a career opportunity, and haven't explored the Internships.com building block, you could be missing out in a big way!

How do you find the Internships building block?

• From the "My Bb" home page
• Go to the Community tab
• Click "Internships"
• Sign up, and you're ready to begin!

Here you will have access to 300,000 + internships and jobs from just over 40,000 different employers nationwide!

Can you afford to not take advantage of yet another phenomenal feature offered within Blackboard?

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SU Technology Tips and Tricks 10/14-10/18

Hello Everyone, Good morning everyone!  I hope that you all had a relaxing, dry weekend!  This week's tips and tricks include some interesting changes to the Google Terms of Service last week that everyone should know about,  a fix for scroll bars in Bb and advanced Gmail search operators.  If you have any questions, don't hesitate to speak up! Where I Will Be This Week Tuesday - Feltner Building - 11 - 1 - Third Floor Wednesday - Cork Street - 11 - 1 - Room M 155 Thursday - Wilkins Building - 11 - 1 - Conference Room Thursday - Halpin-Harrison Hall - 2:30 - 4:30 - Room 140 Friday - Health Professions Building - 11 - 1 - In Front of Library Always Online @ www.su.edu/training Make sure you stop by and see me for on the spot demonstrations and problem solving for all your technology related needs.

Scroll Bar Missing in Bb? Some users have been calling in with an issues related to missing scroll bars in Bb.  This is not a Bb problem, but rather an actual setting on your computer.  Want to see the fix?  Click the link to go to the Information Technology Blog for the solution! By Devon Taylor Google Privacy Changes Google recently changed its terms of service to allow your Google Plus profile picture to be used in various spots across the web. (Product reviews, ads,  etc...)  If you wish to learn more about this and also opt out of these types of services, click the link! Advanced Gmail Search! Just like Google Search, Search in Gmail is super powerful!  You can do searches within a set date, searches for emails with attachments and even searches for emails that don't contain certain words!  Want to know more?  Click the link for all the search operators that are available in Gmail!

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Horizontal Scroll Bar Missing

Using Mac OS X, users may not be able to see the horizontal scroll bar when viewing the Bb Grade Center or other applications. It will appear there are only a few columns with no way to get to the rest of the columns. This is caused by a change in the default behavior of scroll bars in OS X starting with Lion.  Current browsers (Safari 6.05, Firefox 24, Chrome 29)  will not display the horizontal scroll bars. This is also a problem with some browsers on Windows XP and Windows 7.

So in short, the website you are accessing is not having a problem. The current browsers are now embracing your system preferences. Below are some ways to fix the issue should you encounter it.

To fix this on Mac OS X:

1. Open System Preferences, either from the Dock or from the Apple menu.
2. In the System Preferences, select the General preference pane.
3. The middle section of the General preference pane controls when scroll bars appear.
4. Select "Always" from the Show Scroll Bars options.

Windows XP

1. Control Panel  -> Display Properties.
2. Click on the Appearance tab and select the Advanced button.
3. Select the Scroll Bar from the item drop down list and change the setting to 19.
4. Submit.

Windows 7

1. Control Panel [Windows Start Button > Control Panel].
2. Under Appearance and Personalization, click Change the theme.
3. Click Window Color and then click Advanced appearance settings. In the Item: drop-down list, choose Scrollbar and select a number less than 20 from the Size: option (17 is the default value).
4. Click OK.

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About the "My Bb" page

The "My Bb" page is the first page that  SU students come to when they log onto Blackboard, and some people have voiced that the page is a little confusing for them.  So let's take a moment and debunk some of this confusion.

What is the goal of this page?

The goal of the "My Bb" page is to provide you with a smooth overview of all of your Blackboard information.  This page is designed to be a one stop shop for all of your quick reference needs.  Want to see your recently graded assignments, posts, messages, and calendar due dates?  This is where you want to be.

What are the icons on the left side of the screen?

On the left side of the page is a vertical set of icons that take you to individual locations within the "My Bb" page.  From top to bottom the links are explained below:

• Profile:  When you click the avatar icon you are going to be able to see and edit your Blackboard profile.  We have been pushing for Blackboard profiles to be used more frequently for a lot of different reasons, probably the most of which is that when you are reading your follow classmates blogs, and discussion board posts, you get a better sense of who they are and where they are coming from.
•  My Bb: Home screen and landing page for all SU students.  
•  Posts:  The posts page will take you to all of your recent posts, and the responses of other users to your posts.
•  Updates:  The Updates page can get a little rowdy.  Anytime an update occurs in one of your courses, you are notified.  You can click on individual courses, organizations, and type of updates to view those specific updates (example: Only want to see the updates for Criminal Justice 101?  Click the class name under "Courses With Updates" and all available updates for this course will show up on the right side of the screen.)
•  My Grades: The my grades area is going to be one of the most valuable resources that a student has available to them within Blackboard. As you would suspect, this is the location you want to be at to view your grades.
•  Calendar:  The calendar is going to serve as a fantastic reminder for specific due dates and events within classes.  When a professor creates an assignment with a due date it automatically populates into that course's calendar so you are never left wondering when an assignment is due.
• People:  Here you will be able to see people with your learning network.  On the left side of the screen you will have the courses and organizations you are enrolled in and you will be able to see your fellow classmates.  From here you can view their profiles, send messages, follow or unfollow, and block users when you click on their avatar.
•  Messages: This is where you will want to be if you want to view messages send to you from various Blackboard users.
• Spaces:  Spaces is an online location where people of similar interest can gather to share, create, and participate in special interest groups that are a little less formal.   You might find a chess club, workout groups, religious groups, or any number of specific spaces that users may want to join in.

Overall, the My Bb page is packed with information that is tailored for your specific user account.  If you learn how to use this page effectively, you'll be right at the top of your academic game by being incredibly well informed about your grades, due dates, posts and comments, updates to courses, and lots of other academic related items!

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Student Tech Buzz 10/7-10/11

Not seeing scroll bars within websites? If you are not getting scroll bars within websites, and you are being forced to begin scrolling by using finger motions on your track pad, there is a simple solution to the problem.   Go to the Apple icon in the top left corner of the screen. Click "System preferences" In the new window navigate to the "General" button in the top left corner Here you will see the "Show scroll bars" options. Click "Always." Problem solved!   Want to make a difference with Blackboard Calendar? If you've got a second, take the time and fill out this survey to help Blackboard know how you feel about the Calendars feature. When you fill out the following survey, your responses will  be analyzed and tallied to help Blackboard figure out how they will modify Blackboard Calendars to continue to improve the feature. https://bbuxresearch.wufoo.com/forms/calendar-survey/Your text caption goes here via Information Technology Blog Author: Tristan Plummer

Do you suspect there to be a Blackboard outage? First, before reporting a suspected Blackboard outage, make sure it isn't just your computer. Check your internet connection.  See if you are on your desired network and properly connected to the internet.  If you are not on the internet properly, select your desired network and wait for it to connect. If you are having further issues, try turning your wireless card off and then on after waiting 15 seconds. Take note that every week the Bb servers at Shenandoah University come down on Sundays between 4:00am-6:00am for maintenance. During this time, you will not be able to access Blackboard at all. If you can connect to the internet, and are able to visit other websites and cannot access the gateway page where you input your Bb log in credentials, fill out a worker order at the following URL: workorder.su.edu Or speak with after hours support.  Directions to access after hours support are at the following URL: bbstudentinfo.blogspot.com/2013/08/ic-help-desk-after-hours-support.html

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