Journal LX

is a Blackboard plugin which is available on the UC Riverside installation of Blackboard. It allowsyou to create a “rich media journal” as part of your Blackboard course. Journals can be created for use byindividual students, for student work groups and for the entire class and instructor. These journals can containtext, images, links, and some mathematical symbols. Entries in journals can have comments, a feature whichcan be controlled by the instructor. Journals are only accessible to course participants -- they can’t be seenby anyone else unless the instructor turns on guest access. Since these journals are part of the course, theywill not be accessible to participants once the course ends. The journal may be best for course-related activi-ties, for example keeping an individual or group learning journal or using the journal as a place to collaborateon a project. If you expect students to continue using the journal beyond the end of the course, it may be bet-ter to use a weblog on a website outside the course.The course weblog (or journal), which canbe used by the instructor and students, isavailable through the

Control Panel

. Under

Course Tools

, click on

Conﬁgure BlogTool

. You can set the options for whetheror not students can create entries or com-ment on the course blog. If you add thecourse blog to the course menu and use itas a place for students to reﬂect on whatthey’ve learned or report on their work, itwill be quickly accessible to everyone in thecourse. Another way you can incorporate weblogsinto your course is by using the

ExternalLink

feature. If you have an existing blog, forexample one on the Blogger platform, youcan incorporate the blog into your course bysetting up an external link which will display your blog within your Blackboard course. Students can interactwith your blog, leave comments, or create new entries depending on what permissions you have assignedthem. Blogs used inside your course in this way are still accessible to anyone on the Internet, and will con-tinue to exist once your course ends.By creating an external link to a blog, you can include the blog as part of your course content, or even use itas the ﬁrst thing students see when they visit the course home page.

How To: Set up and use a blog - Instructor

HOW TO:

USE BLOGS IN YOUR BLACKBOARD COURSE

Weblog fromwww.blogger.comembedded in course menu using the

External Link

feature. By making it the ﬁrst menu item, this is whatstudents will see when they access the course area.

How To: Set up and use a blog - Instructor

Locate the iLearn site using your web browser --http://ilearn.ucr.edu. Scroll down to

University Extension and Community Users

andclick the

button.

1. Add the blog

Enter your

Username

and

password

. Thepassword is case sensitive and when you enter it,you will only see asterisks instead of letters ornumbers: *******.

2. Fill in the blog form

If your

Username

or password are not enteredcorrectly, you will see an error message. Try again,making sure that you enter any lower case or up-per case letters in your password properly. If youcontinue to have trouble logging in, call 951-827-3555 for help.

3. Who’s blogging?

How To: Set up and use a blog - Instructor

Decide who can view the blog, who can commenton entries, and when the blog will be available.

4. Choose your options

If the blog entries will be graded, you can assign aname, category and the number of points to theblog assignment. If you don’t plan to grade theblog, leave this unchecked.

5. Add to Gradebook

Click OK to save your settings for the blog. Youcan come back later and modify them if neces-sary. The blog should show up in the course con-tent area where you created it.

6. Save your work