Thursday, June 16, 2016

Did you know...

...you can use the Course Copy tool in BOLT to save development time?

screenshot of the Copy Course Content widget on the course home page




If you’ve taught your course before, or if you’re teaching a course based on a specified curriculum, you can use the Course Copy tool to save development time. Course Copy will copy your old course into your new one.


You can find the Course Copy tool in the Copy Course Content widget on the right side of the course home page of your new course.

BOLT FAQ: Time Savers in BOLT

Save Time with These BOLT Tips


Combine multiple sections of a course.
If you are teaching several sections of the same course in a semester, consider combining them into one course offering.
Use the Course Copy tool.
If you already developed a course, you can use the Course Copy tool to copy it over to a new semester’s course. Remember to modify dates and documents with semester or new information!
Upload and add multiple topics.
Zip multiple files, upload the zip file to the Manage Files area, and unzip the file there. Select the files and click Add Content Topics to add them to Content at once.
Use Copy features where possible.
Did you know you could copy quizzes, surveys, questions, and content files? If you create a “template” item, you can copy it to create similar items in your course.
Use Bulk Edit to modify multiple items.
Using the Bulk Edit feature allows you to make multiple changes to multiple items at once. The feature is available in a number of tools in BOLT. You can change names of items, dates settings, add conditions, or change the status of the items using Bulk Edit.

Improvements to Rubrics and Grades

On June 17th, instructors will be able to transfer the overall score on rubrics to grade items.


The rubric assessment interface has been updated to a modern look and feel as well.


To use this new rubric grading experience, instructors will:
1. Go to Manage Grades
2. Select Enter Grades a grade item's context menu
3. Click on the icon in the Assessment column of a student's row on the Enter Grades page.
screenshot of clicking the icon in the assessment column to use rubric grading


4. Grade using the rubric. Add feedback as you go.
5. Click Save and Record to transfer the overall score and feedback to the grade item.
screenshot of where to add feedback and the save and record button on the new rubric assessment interface

Improvements to the Groups Tool

Several improvements to the Groups tool will take effect on June 17th in BOLT.
 
Save time in BOLT with these improvements:
 

Automatic creation of discussion topics for new groups.

If you have set up discussion areas for groups in a category, and new groups are created as new students enroll in the course, discussion topics for those groups will be created automatically.
 

Automatic descriptive naming of discussion topics.

If you choose to set up discussion areas for groups in the Groups tool, topics will automatically be named in the format [Category Name] - [Group Prefix] #.
 
For example, if you have a category with 3 groups called Research Project and a Group prefix of Team, your discussion topics would be:
  • Research Project - Team 1
  • Research Project - Team 2
  • Research Project - Team 3

Course Announcements in Courses Only

Starting June 17th, course announcements will no longer be visible on the My Home page.


Course announcements will still be visible in the Announcements widget on the course home page.


Notifications settings will remain the same. If students have opted to receive announcements notifications, they will still receive them as usual.