Course Management System to undergo interface-lift “operation”

By Mary Schuller, Developer
NUIT Academic Technologies

On Sunday, June 20, Northwestern faculty and students will have at their disposal the very latest version of NU's Blackboard-based course management system, version 6.1. While most members of the NU community will notice little difference, this new version resolves bugs associated with the current version of the software as well as offers some useful enhancements for instructors. These include a Quick Edit feature and a "What you See is What you Get" (WYSIWYG) text editor offering such helpful features as a spell checker.

The Quick Edit tool allows instructors to easily toggle between the instructors’ editing view of a course site and the students’ view. In this way, instructors can quickly change content without having to click through numerous layers of the control panel. When viewing the course site from the student view, instructors will see the option Edit View in the upper right of the screen.

Instructor View

Instructors can click on Edit View to be taken to an instructor-only view to edit the content. To display the content again as a student, click on Display View.

The WYSIWYG tool allows instructors and students to format text in text boxes throughout their course site, much as they would in a Microsoft Word document. The tool appears in all standard text boxes, including the content, discussion board, and assessment areas within a course site. When a text box is displayed, a set of formatting buttons appear. Note: The WYSIWYG editor is currently available only to Windows users on Internet Explorer 5.5 or higher.

WYSIWYG editor view

Other features have been added to the system since the last release to make the system more useful to faculty. For example, course sites now contain an Advanced Group Management Tool which allows faculty to more easily organize students into private online environments, where members share discussion boards, exchange files and send group e-mail. Instructors can designate members of a group or the tool can randomly assign members to groups as well. This feature is available in the control panel of all sites.

The updated version of NU’s Course Management System will be available the afternoon of June 20 following the regularly scheduled Sunday maintenance window, 6:00 a.m. to noon. Students and faculty are advised not to use the system during this timeframe.

For more information about any of these features, please visit the Course Management System help and support site at <course-management.northwestern.edu>.