Playing with blocks
Faculty Guide To Building Blocks
Building Blocks are plug-ins or extensions that add new functions to Blackboard. Below are the Building Blocks currently installed and what they do. Note that it is possible when we upgrade to later versions of Blackboard that some of these may no longer work.
Discussion Grader 2.0.1 (Access through the Control Panel under Course Tools)
The Discussion Grader simplifies the process of evaluating a student's participation in Blackboard discussion forums by allowing an instructor to access to a single page with every message that a student has posted to a particular forum, number of words per message, and number of original messages and replies. After evaluating this information, the instructors can then easily enter a grade for the student which will be stored in the Blackboard gradebook for the course.
Merlot Search (choose Merlot Content from the dropdown Select menu on any content page when you are in the Edit Mode)
This tool will allow instructors to search for educational materials available through the Multimedia Educational Resource for Learning and Online Teaching (MERLOT) without exiting their Blackboard course. MERLOT (www.merlot.org), a free and open resource features more than 12,000 online educational materials and more than 25,000 members representing the higher education community. Blackboard Building Blocks are software applications which extend the Blackboard e-Learning platform.
MERLOT Search allows instructors to search the MERLOT repository directly from Blackboard, saving time and additional steps. Instructors can apply search results to select specific learning resources and embed links to them in their Blackboard course Web site.
Advanced Group Management (Access through the Control Panel under Course Tools)
This Course Tool extension appears in the instructor's control panel and provides an alternative to Blackboard's built-in group management tools. It includes the same functions as the built-in tools, with the following additional features: (1) summary display of all groups, their membership count, and enable features in one matrix; (2) ability to view/modify membership assignments to all groups in one display page, and thus more easily balance group assignment tasks; (3) random assignment of students to groups, whether overlapping membership or disjoint; (4) simultaneous multiple deletes of groups.
Blackboard Link Checker for Release 6 (Access through the Control Panel under Course Tools)
With this tool, instructors can validate the Web Links within the "External Links" area of your Course, turning off or correcting any that are no longer work.
Dictionary and Thesaurus (Available to everybody. It is found under the Tools Menu and opens in a separate window.)
This is the only Building Block that can be used by students. It allows the user to highlight any word in a Blackboard Course and lookup the dictionary or thesaurus entry for it. Utilizes the Blackboard Resources Center as the main data dictionary.
Document Unpackager (choose Document Package from the dropdown Select menu on any content page when you are in the Edit Mode)
The Document Unpackager allows instructors to upload a zip file containing folders and files to Blackboard. It is then unpackaged and course content items are created with the files attached. The directory structure within the zipfile is translated into folders within Blackboard. All content created by the Building Block is usable even if the Building Block is removed at a later time.
Open Standards Content Player (choose SCORM, INS, or NLN Content from the dropdown Select menu on any content page when you are in the Edit Mode)
The Content Player Building Block enables instructors to upload and play content that conforms to SCORM, IMS, or NLN standards to a course. This tool is available to instructors through the Control Panel. From an Instructor perspective they can use this tool within the content areas as they add/modify content items within their course. Instructors and Students interact with IMS, SCORM, and NLN content just as they would with other types of Content Items.
If you need help using a Building Block contact someone in the ACS Blackboard group.