Back-up your Course, Download Grades and More

Course Backup

There are many ways for instructors to save a copy of their course. Look at Course Copy to learn which is most appropriate.

The following method is recommended for full, periodic backups of your course.

From the Control Panel:

  • 1) Click Archive Course.
  • 2) Click the Submit button.
  • 3) Right click the Save As link as indicated to download the course.
  • 4) Click the Save [Target] As option.
  • 5) Select the path and folder where you want to save this copy of the course and click the Save button.
  • 6) Click OK on the receipt screen and you’re done!

This zip file is a snapshot of your course at that exact moment in time. Your course still exists on Blackboard, but now you have a backup copy.

To return your course to this content status, you need to send the zip file to the Blackboard Administrator. When the zip file is reloaded to Blackboard, it will overwrite everything that was left in the named course. So, please don’t add or change content after you’ve instructed the Administrator to reload your course from a zip backup. Wait until you receive notification that the course has been reloaded.

Downloading Grades

The Gradebook feature allows instructors to perform many different functions related to grading. Within the Gradebook you can add items, manage items, adjust the score settings, customize grade weighting, and download and upload grades. Be sure you Download Grades before you Archive a Course. Grades are not collected in the archive process.

From the Control Panel:

  • 1. Click on the Gradebook link in the Assessment section.
  • 2. Click on the Download Grades function (in grey bar across top).
  • 3. Click the Delimiter Type button you desire and click the Submit button.
  • 4. Click the Download button.
  • 5. Click the Save option and select the location to which you want to download this file.
  • 6. Click the Save button.
  • 7. Click the OK button.

Note: The Gradebook .csv downloaded file is an Excel compatible file, and can be opened from within Excel (File>open).

Enrolling Users into a Course

Starting in August, 2004 with Blackboard 6 Enterprise, all students are automatically enrolled in Blackboard. Once a day, a new “snapshot” of the Registrar’s data is captured and uploaded to Blackboard. This includes enrolling students into their appropriate courses. Students who drop a course are removed from that Blackboard course and students who add a course are included in the course roster for that Blackboard course.

In the event that you want/need to add another user such as a TA or a co-instructor, follow these steps:

From the Control Panel:

  • 1) Click on Enroll User in the User Management area.
  • 2) Enter the user's last name in the box and click the Search button.
  • 3) Click the checkbox in front of the appropriate user's name, and click the Submit button.
    (if more than one username exist, please use the one formatted aaa#####).
  • 4) Click OK on the receipt screen and you're done!

Hide Courses

At this time, course sites are set to be deleted one full academic year AFTER they are taught. However, YOU can control which courses you see every time you log in at courses.creighton.edu. Here's how:

  • 1) Log in to Blackboard; stay on the "My Blackboard Home" page.
  • 2) In the "My Courses" section (top right), click on the round pencil-tip icon in the title bar. This lists all your courses, current and past. It can be used to display just the course name or both the course name and the courseID. This is on a user by user basis.
  • 3) Make sure a checkmark appears in the first column only for each course you WANT to have displayed.
  • 4) Optional: read the other setting changes you can do and select them or not.
  • 5) Click the Submit button at the bottom.

This essentially HIDES courses from your view, but does not delete them.

Faculty Note: Be sure you mark all finished courses as Unavailable so students don’t also see them listed in their “My Courses” section. See also, "Course Availability."