Ithaca College

An option for grouping multiple sections of the same course in Blackboard will be available starting Monday, August 17, 2009 at noon on the Blackboard Application page in the Homer system.  Instructors are strongly advised to review the Blackboard Section-Grouping Quick Guide to understand the pros and cons of grouping before selecting this option for their courses.

Grouping is optional: Instructors who have courses with multiple sections, but do not wish to group, may simply set their course sections to "Stand Alone" on the Homer Blackboard Application page. The "Stand Alone" setting will allow instructors to continue managing these course sections individually. Instructors who have already activated "Stand Alone" course sections are not affected by this change.

If you decide to group.....

Instructors who do choose to group multiple sections of the same course (“child” sections) will manage them from one “parent” section. After grouping, instructors will see only the parent section; child sections will be inaccessible.

ITS will provide a special transition phase from August 17 to 24, 2009 to give instructors temporary access to move course content from child to parent sections; this only applies to those who have already added content for Fall 2009 to course sections they wish to group ("child" sections).   Any content left in child sections will be inaccessible after noon on August 24, 2009. Instructions for copying content from child to parent sections are available in the Blackboard Section-Grouping Quick Guide. After August 24, 2009, instructors who need to recover content from child sections will need to contact ITS for assistance.

During this transition phase, instructors who choose the grouping option in Blackboard will not see student rosters in any of their course sections. Student course rosters will appear in parent sections of their grouped courses starting mid-day August 24, 2009. Course registration will not be affected.

See our Blackboard support pages or come to a training session for more information on these changes.

ITS Helpdesk
helpdesk@ithaca.edu
607-274-3282