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Office of Academic Affairs
New Faculty Orientation


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Learning Management System


The New Faculty Orientation Planning Committee and the Office for Faculty Excellence have developed a Blackboard site where you can see how Blackboard works and discover a wealth of information which, we hope, you will find helpful. If you wish to visit the New Faculty Orientation Blackboard site prior to obtaining your personal email address, you can do so by using newfaculty as both the username and password.
 
Blackboard

Blackboard (Bb) is a virtual learning environment that enables instructors and students to share learning resources electronically, communicate and collaborate, and evaluate student progress. Blackboard was implemented at ECU in 1999. Through Blackboard students can read/download information and participate with the communication and student tools that have been enabled by the instructor. Instructors can control their individual Bb sites by adding, modifying or deleting content, enabling or disabling tools, setting up blogs, journals, wikis, groups, or discussion boards, and creating surveys and quizzes.

Blackboard software runs on the internet, allowing access both on and off campus at any time of the day or night. The university regularly upgrades Blackboard versions, usually over semester break in December. In the Summer of 2011, ECU migrated to Blackboard 9.1.

In planning for response to a weather or other situation that would require the university to close, the university creates Blackboard sites for ALL ECU courses. ALL course sections offered at ECU have an individual Backboard site ready for content to be added. If you need to merge course sections or copy course content, please visit http://www.ecu.edu/blackboard. Access to the Blackboard system is limited to members of the ECU community. It is up to faculty to make their courses available at the beginning of each semester.

Students can only access Blackboard courses they are enrolled in. The exception to student access happens when a student is given instructional responsibilities within a particular course. Population of students into a Bb course is done automatically through the Registrar's Office.

Support options


The Blackboard Team has a selection of ways to provide support for faculty and students:
  • To contact the Blackboard team: If you have an immediate need, please contact one of the Blackboard Administrators, Matt Long (longm@ecu.edu or 328-9074, Cindy Bowers (bowersc@ecu.edu or 328-9167) or Allen Dennis (dennnisa@ecu.edu or 328-2841.) An email to ecublackboard@ecu.edu will also reach the Blackboard support team.
  • Online support: In addition to live support, the Blackboard Team maintains a blog site to provide faculty and students with instructional videos and PDFs on the tools and features in Blackboard, hints & tips, and updates. Access the Blackboard Blog at http://blog.ecu.edu/sites/blackboard/faculty-support/.
  • Training opportunities: Blackboard training and assistance are provided by the Bb support team who offer courses through the ECU Training Site. Login at https://collab.ecu.edu/sites/ecutraining/Pages/Default.aspx. Bookmark this page and check back often for new training dates. The Bb support team is also available for departmental, group, and desk-side training sessions.

Additional assistance:

  • The academic unit Instructional Technology Consultants provide one-on-one training and consultants are experienced in the use of Blackboard.
  • The Walk-in IT Help Desk (formerly the Technology Resource Center) is a central location for faculty and staff to receive walk-in one-on-one IT consulting support and access to technology resources. The Walk-in IT Help Desk is located in Austin 103.