The document discusses DeSales University's upcoming upgrade from ANGEL to Blackboard 9.1. It provides information on why they are upgrading, when the upgrade will occur, and what's new in Blackboard 9.1, including new features like journals, blogs, wikis, mashups and SafeAssign. It also outlines steps faculty should take to prepare for and successfully navigate the transition, such as attending trainings, cleaning up their ANGEL content, and being aware of changing URLs. A survey is provided at the end to collect feedback on the workshop covering the information.

2. Why Are We Upgrading?
The Blackboard Corporation purchased Angel
Learning in 2009 and announced a 2013 end of
life for ANGEL. Although that decision was
rescinded for now, DeSales wanted to get ahead
of the game for when support eventually ends.
 Blackboard 9.1 introduces a number of new
features to support teaching and learning, as
well as enhanced functionality to make
managing Blackboard courses easier.

3. When Are We Upgrading?
A pilot will be run with the ACCESS
program in early spring 2013.
DEIT will begin to offer online and face-to-
face workshops to pilot instructors in
January 2013, and provide Blackboard
Learn preview sessions to all faculty and
students starting in March 2013.
All courses will be taught in Blackboard
9.1 effective the first day of classes for Fall
2013

4. What’s New in Blackboard
9.1?
New Features
Journals, Blogs, Wikis
Mashups
SafeAssign
Exciting Course Structure Templates
& Design Themes

5. Journals, Blogs, Wikis
The Journals, Blogs and Wikis provide tools, within
Blackboard, for written student work.
 Journals (one to one)
Communication is generally between the student and the
instructor only.
 Blogs (one to many)
Communication is between individual students and the
entire class.
 Wikis (many to many)
Communication is collaborative among many writers
developing a single final product.

6. Mashups
Mashups have been introduced in Blackboard
9.1 for three types of external web content:
YouTube© videos
Flickr© photo streams
SlideShare© presentations
The Mashup tool allows users to search those
external sites from within Blackboard to
quickly locate and embed content.

7. SafeAssign
Plagiarism detector that encourages academic
integrity and helps students identify how to properly
attribute sources

8. Course Structure Templates
and Design Themes
Course Structure templates to facilitate
course navigational organization to
better reflect the structure of your
course.
Course Themes allowing you to change
the color scheme and “wallpaper” within
your course.

9. What’s New in Blackboard
9.1?
New Functionality – The look and
feel of Blackboard 9.1 is very
different from ANGEL, and may well
take the most getting used to.
However, once users get the hang of
it, we think they will find it is
ultimately far more user-friendly!

10. What’s New in Blackboard
9.1?
Edit Mode Button
Toggle the button to “On” to be able
to create and edit items in a course.
Toggle the button to “Off” to be able
to see the course as students see it.

11. What’s New in Blackboard
9.1?
Drag & Drop
functionality
Mouse over any navigational item,
course content, or test question to
reveal a toolbar allowing you to drag
the item from its current location and
drop it into a new one.

12. What’s New in Blackboard
9.1?
 Streamlined interface for adding
content
Click on the + button
at the top of the
navigational panel to
add a new navigational
item.

13. What’s New in Blackboard
9.1?
 Streamlined interface for adding
content
Use the buttons at the top of
the content frame to expand
the Build Content, Create
Assessment, Add Interactive
Tool or Assign Textbook option
and select the appropriate
item.

14. What’s New in Blackboard
9.1?
Streamlined
interface for
managing content
Mouse over a
content item to
reveal “action links”
allowing you to
modify, copy, or
remove an item, or
to apply adaptive
release rules to it.

15. What’s New in Blackboard
9.1?
Control Panel access is
constant
The Control Panel in
Blackboard 9.1 is located
directly beneath the course
navigational menu with
expandable sub menus to
access each tool.

16. What Enhancements Can I
Expect to See in Bb 9.1?
Assignments
Assignments can be assigned to a
Group and a single grade given to all
members of the group
Discussion Boards
Ability to add comments and feedback
when grading Discussion Boards

17. What Enhancements Can I
Expect to See in Bb 9.1?
Groups
Availability of more group
collaboration tools: journals,
blogs, wikis.

18. Steps to Successfully Navigating
Your Way Through the Upgrade
Step 1: Stay Informed
Step 2: Learn how to use Blackboard 9.1
Step 3: Clean up your ANGEL Learning Object
Repository
Step 4: Be prepared to adjust your course(s)
for Bb 9.1
Step 5: Be aware of changing URLs
Step 6: Develop your Fall 2013 course(s)

19. Steps to Successfully Navigating
Your Way Through the Upgrade
Step 1: Stay Informed
Congratulations! You are here so this
step is already under way.
Read the Word of Mouse blog:
http://blogs.desales.edu/deit
Watch your email

20. Steps to Successfully Navigating
Your Way Through the Upgrade
Step 2: Learn how to use Blackboard 9.1
Attend a DEIT training session:
Familiarize yourself with the new
Blackboard 9.1 interface.
Learn about one or more of the new
Blackboard features.
Sign up for training via:
http://www.desales.edu/facultyworkshops

21. Steps to Successfully Navigating
Your Way Through the Upgrade
Step 2.1: Learn how to use Blackboard 9.1
Visit the Blackboard On Demand tutorials
web site at:
http://ondemand.blackboard.com/
Visit the Blackboard Instructor User Manual
at: https://help.blackboard.com/en-
us/Learn/9.1_SP_10_and_SP_11/Instructor

22. Steps to Successfully Navigating
Your Way Through the Upgrade
Step 3: Clean up your LOR
Making any move provides a great
opportunity to sort through things, scaling
back to only what is truly needed.
After 4 years in ANGEL, we suspect that
there is some “ancient history” in LORs.
The goal is to leave the “ancient history”
behind and move forward with only those
files that will be needed for future courses.

23. Steps to Successfully Navigating
Your Way Through the Upgrade
Step 3.1: Back up and Remove or Move LOR
Files
Use the Backup utility to back up all LOR
files on ANGEL for archival purposes.
Delete old files from your LOR in
ANGEL, leaving only those files you expect
to use in Bb 9.1.

24. Steps to Successfully Navigating
Your Way Through the Upgrade
Step 4: Be prepared to adjust your course(s)
for Bb 9.1
The new navigation options and tools
available in Bb Learn make the switch an
ideal time to redesign the way course
material is presented to students so it is
done through objective-driven modules.

25. Steps to Successfully Navigating
Your Way Through the Upgrade
Step 5: Be aware of changing URLs:
 https://desales.angellearning.com
 https://desales.blackboard.com/
New links will be added to the MyDSU
portal

26. Steps to Successfully Navigating
Your Way Through the Upgrade
Step 6: Develop your Fall 2013
course(s)
 With some familiarity of Blackboard
9.1 acquired through various training
methods, your course shell created,
and your ANGEL files moved, you are
ready to start developing your Fall
2013 courses.

27. Questions?

28. Survey Invitation
Survey Link: http://tinyurl.com/Workshop-E
Workshop Title:
Introducing Blackboard Learn– 1/23/13