File Name Limitations

For students posting files to D2L - use letters, numbers and underscore or hyphens. Any other character in your file name could cause your submission to fail and it is up to your instructor to give you credit for late or failed assignments. 

For instructors - labels for Modules and Topics should be limited to letters, numbers, underscore and hyphens. Any other characters can corrupt your course content. 

D2L Course END DATE = Unavailable to students

PeopleSoft created some courses for Fall 2008 with start and end dates. So that means your course might now be unavailable to students to review their grades. 

Instructors can edit the End Date using Edit Course > Course Offering Information > edit the End date to be January 2, 2009 when grades are due. You could remove the check for Course has end date, but then you'll need to make the course inactive next semester or students will continue to see the link. 

Requesting Bb & D2L Courses for the Spring 09 Semester

Following is information for faculty wishing to use the Blackboard or Desire2Learn learning management systems for the Spring 2009 semester.

Reminder - LMS Transition
Spring 2009 is the last semester faculty and students will have access to the Blackboard LMS within the district. Faculty access to content on the Los Rios Blackboard LMS will end completely on June 30. At that time, Desire2Learn will be the learning management system for Los Rios online, hybrid, and web-enhanced courses. Many faculty have already been trained on and offered courses in Desire2Learn (D2L). Faculty are encouraged to take advantage of training opportunities at SCC. For more information about D2L Institutes and online self-directed D2L training options, please watch for additional details sent via e-mail, or consider attending the "Get Ready, Get Set, Get D2L!" flex activity on Thursday, January 15.

Blackboard Requests
Faculty using Blackboard for the spring semester must request that their course rosters be linked to their existing Blackboard course. This is a quick, online process that can be completed here. This site requires that you login with your employee ID and have your 5-digit class section numbers handy. Once your rosters have been added to the queue, students will be populated into your courses on January 12, 2009. If you have additional Blackboard support issues, please contact the Digital Learning Center by phone at 916-650-2726 or e-mail at blackboard@scc.losrios.edu.

Desire2Learn Course Requests
Each semester, faculty teaching classes in D2L must request to have new "course offerings" created in the D2L system. This applies even if the course has been previously taught in Desire2Learn. You must then copy your course content from a DEV (development) course or a previously taught course into the new course that has been created for the Spring 09 semester.
The request process uses the "D2L Faculty Request Interface" (FRI) that is automatically populated with your semester course assignments. Using the FRI requires that you log in to Peoplesoft, select the term, and indicate "Use D2L" for the courses you are requesting. There are also options available to combine multiple course sections into one D2L course offering. Instructions are available on the login page to the FRI. Please go here to use the D2L Faculty Request Interface.

FAQ: Can I make a request in both systems, then later choose the one I want to really use?
Yes. The Desire2Learn course that is created will not be visible or accessible to students until you make it "active." Blackboard course visibility can also be turned off. Therefore, you could make a request for both systems, then simply activate or make visible the course you really intend to use.

FAQ: What is this about copying content from one D2L course into another? I didn't think we had to do that before...
The way Desire2Learn is configured is different from Blackboard. In Blackboard, we created a course once, the instructor built the content, and then students were cycled through the same course semester after semester (with a recycle or "flush" of student data in between). In Desire2Learn, all courses are tied to a semester. Therefore, a course already taught in fall will not be re-used in the same way for the spring semester. Instead, an empty course is created for the new semester, and the instructor uses the "Copy/Import/Export Course Components" feature to import the content from a previously developed course (either a DEV course or an actual course). This is a quick process, and a "select all" option is available that makes it very painless. Once that copy is completed, the new course will look exactly like the one it was copied from.