Faculty Directions, Fall 2005 - MyCLE/Blackboard Updates for Fall 2005

Jamie Brown
CCIT Educational Technology Services

Several updates and changes will be implemented in the MyCLE portal over the next few months, and should be made available during the Fall 2005 semester. These updates will help the campus complete the transition from the current Clemson-built MyCLE portal architecture to the Blackboard-built MyCLE portal.

One of the biggest and most-needed changes that will be made will be the semi-automation of course creation in Blackboard. Over the past two years, during both the CMS pilot program and the phase-out of using MyCLE for classes, instructors have had to specifically request to use Blackboard and provide Educational Technology Services (ETS) with setup preferences, a process that has been both frustrating and time-consuming. With a "faculty self-serve" tool in place in Blackboard, faculty members will be able to create their own courses, specify which CRSM classes should be used to create the courses, and re-use existing Blackboard courses to save course development time.

Another set of major changes that will be implemented is workgroup setup tools and migration from MyCLE workgroups into Blackboard "organizations." All tools currently available for classes in Blackboard are also available for organizations, and tools not currently available (such as public Web space and MySQL database tools) will be made available. Workgroup file space is expected to remain as it currently exists, in a Novell file system. During the fall semester, ETS and Client Support will be working with current MyCLE workgroup users to help them transition into the Blackboard organization setup.

Both of these changes and updates will allow us to open a wide array of tools currently available within Blackboard - the most powerful of which is the Blackboard portal itself. With the ability to set up custom views based on roles at Clemson University (for example, a view for all incoming freshmen, a view for everyone in a particular major, a view for all faculty, etc.), the MyCLE/Blackboard portal will be able to provide the same tools that the current MyCLE portal provides, and even more. A "Portal Admin" tab will be provided to allow people to request new modules within Blackboard, allowing ETS and other areas of CCIT to work with the requestors to provide new functionality to the entire campus.

Other changes will continue to be forthcoming as Blackboard provides updates to us. Much needed changes to the Blackboard gradebook will be available in versions 6.3, 7.0, and 7.1 (Clemson currently uses version 6.2), and CCIT and Blackboard are working collaboratively to make sure that changes to the gradebook and other tools are prioritized and implemented as quickly as possible.