Free stuff isn’t just about software you can download, there are also several free and useful online services.  In this issue I will share information about a service that I’ve been using for a while called Del.icio.us.

Del.icio.us is an online, social, bookmark management service. Before I started using Del.icio.us, I had two main problems with my bookmarks.  The first problem was organization – the folder system is too rigid for the wide range of topics my bookmarks covered.  The second was that I never had a centralized place for bookmarks. If you’re like me, you bookmark a lot of webpages, you use more than one computer, and several browsers. When I bookmarked a site it was only added to one browser, on one computer.  I was constantly re-finding pages with Google.

Del.icio.us solves the organization problem by using tags instead of folders. The advantage of tags is flexibility; using folders, you must place a bookmark in a fixed structure.  Tags act as keywords you can use to create structure as needed. You can filter by tags, having Del.icio.us only show you bookmarks that have one or more tags.  For example, when I bookmark the CIRT homepage with a browser I could place it in a folder called ‘faculty support’ which is in a folder called ‘UNF’.  The only way to get to the browser bookmark is to navigate the folder structure.  With Del.icio.us I could tag it with several tags including: UNF, facultySupport, and resources.  To find it I could tell Del.icio.us to show me bookmarks that have the UNF tag and the resources tag, or any combination of tags, in any order.    

Del.icio.us inherently solves the problem of centralization.  It’s an online web-based service, basically a webpage, so as long as I have a computer with an internet connection I can access my bookmarks. This also leads into the social aspect of Del.icio.us.  In Del.icio.us my bookmarks are a publicly accessible webpage, anyone can see them.  If another Del.icio.us user likes the pages I bookmark they can add me to their “network,” or subscribe to a RSS feed of my bookmarks.  However, bookmarks don’t have to be public; there is an option to make a bookmark private.

When I add someone to my network in Del.icio.us, a few things happen.  I can recommend websites to them, the webpages they bookmark will be added to my network page, and they will see me in their list of fans.

To use Del.icio.us, you first create an account on the Del.icio.us page, and then you install the toolbar in all of your browsers.  Once you have the toolbar installed, bookmarking a page is easy; you start by clicking the tag button.  When you click the tag button, a window appears that lets you add a description and tags to the bookmark. Del.icio.us will suggest tags based on how other people have tagged a page.  Once you have a decent sized bookmark library in Del.icio.us, it will recommend tags based on your existing tags.

Faculty can use Del.icio.us in several ways.  Del.icio.us is a great way to share information with students and colleagues.  It’s also a great tool for organizing information while developing courses or conducting research. Students can use Del.icio.us to share information with the class. Several people networked together can quickly compile a library of quality bookmarks.

• To create a Del.icio.us account go to http://Del.icio.us
• For more information about using Del.icio.us in higher education, see 7 things you should know about.....Social Bookmarking from the Educause Learning Initiative.
• View the Commoncraft-created short video explaining social bookmarking and how it is useful, titled Social Bookmarking in Plain English.
  
• Visit CIRT staff Del.icio.us pages:
• Dave
• Erin
  

Course Requests
Each semester, instructors at UNF need to request their Blackboard courses using the Blackboard Course Action Request (BbCAR) system. Summer 2008 courses are now available for request in the BbCAR system. Please note: the BbCAR system is now located inside Blackboard. To request your courses, please login to Blackboard: http://blackboard.unf.edu and select BbCAR from the Tools Menu on the My Institution tab. For complete instructions on requesting courses, please visit: http://www.unf.edu/dept/cirt/bb/faq/course_request.html.

All Term-based, DEV, and Group courses are now created immediately once a course request is submitted. The instructor user(s) listed in the course request will also be immediately added to the new course. All student users will be added to Term-based courses during one of the update periods (10:15 am, 2:15 pm, 5:15 pm and 10:15 pm). All NEW DEV courses will now be added to the Blackboard Production Server: http://blackboard.unf.edu Please note: All previous DEV courses will remain on BbArchive: http://bbarchive.unf.edu If you would like to move them to the Production Server, you may request a new DEV course and copy the materials from the previous DEV course into the new course using the New Course Copy Procedure http://www.unf.edu/dept/cirt/bb/bb7/new_copy.html

Bb Archive
In order to allow Summer 2008 instructors time to setup their Blackboard courses before the Summer semester begins, Spring 2008 courses will be moved to BbArchive during the intersession between the Summer 2008 and Fall 2008 semesters. 

Course Statistics
In order to maintain the improved performance of the Blackboard System experienced this semester, there has been a change implemented to reduce the amount of data kept in the system. Previously, Course Statistics were kept for a total of 180 days, but now will be kept for 21 days, after which time they will be automatically deleted. Course Statistics will be deleted on March 16, 2008 during the regularly scheduled Blackboard and ITS Maintenance Windows (2 am – 9 am). Instructors who wish to preserve their course statistics may download the statistics from Blackboard. Instructions for downloading Course Statistics and the Course Statistics Download Schedule are available on the CIRT website: http://www.unf.edu/dept/cirt/bb/faq/statistics.html

Final Exams in Blackboard
With the end of the semester and Finals week quickly approaching, there are a few things to consider when preparing your Final Exams for Blackboard:

1. Students should login to Blackboard using the Blackboard URL, not MyWings- Although students may access Blackboard from MyWings, they should use the Blackboard URL: http://blackboard.unf.edu when taking assessments on Blackboard in order to avoid the MyWings session timeout of 45 minutes which may lead to loss of an assessment attempt.
2. Blackboard Maintenance Window - Keep in mind that Blackboard undergoes scheduled maintenance from 2 a.m. until 5 a.m. every morning with an additional maintenance window from 5 a.m. until 9 a.m. on Sunday morning, which can include temporary service interruptions. Students should not attempt an assessment during this time.
3. Double check your assessment questions and answers - This step in the assessment creation process is often overlooked. It is much easier to change an answer before students take an assessment and proofreading on your part will prevent student confusion and mass emails during and after an assessment.
4. During an Assessment, students should not:
1. Use the back button - Never click the Back button in the browser window during an assessment. This will lead to Blackboard submitting your assessment; whether or not you have completed it.
2. Double click - Do not double click on the Save or Submit buttons during an assessment. Please be aware that sometimes it takes a while (up to several minutes) to Submit an assessment. Once you click Submit, do not click Submit again. If you do so, you may lose all of the answers for your test. Click once on Submit and wait for the submission to occur. Do not navigate away from the page during this time.
3. Use the scroll wheel on the mouse - If your mouse has a scroll wheel, do not use the scroll to navigate the page as you may unknowingly change some of your answers.
4. Use arrow and tab keys - Likewise, the arrow and tab keys on the keyboard will change your answers on assessment questions (in some web browsers).
5. Open other applications, browser windows and tabs - It is a good idea to close all other open applications and browser windows (including instant messenger windows, other web sites, email, etc.) before beginning an assessment on Blackboard in order to minimize the potential for losing your connection to Blackboard.

For more assessment tips, visit the CIRT website:
Tips for Faculty: http://www.unf.edu/dept/cirt/bb/support/assess_tips_faculty.html
Tips for Students: http://www.unf.edu/dept/cirt/bb/support/assess_tips.html

Course Event Tool
The Course Event Tool allows student users in a course to register for events created by the Instructor users of the course. Instructors may assign time and date criteria to an event and may also limit the number of users whom may register for a particular event. Blackboard courses may contain an unlimited number of Course Events and instructors have the option of limiting the number of events for which students may register to one event per course or they may allow students to register for unlimited events. Tools for viewing a list of registrants for each event are located in the Control Panel of the course. Once students register for events, the events are populated on the My Calendar tool displayed on the My Institution tab of Blackboard. For more information and instructions on using the Course Event Tool, visit: http://www.unf.edu/dept/cirt/testing/Course_Event/.

Use a Passphrase to Secure your Computing Account
When choosing a password, we have all heard that the more complex, the better. However, it is becoming evident that longer passwords are actually better.  It is recommended that UNF students, faculty, and staff use a password that is 15 characters or longer.  To make it easier to remember a longer password, use a nonsensical sentence or phrase. More...

e-academy: Inexpensive Software for Faculty and Staff
UNF has contracted e-academy to provide licensed Microsoft software to UNF faculty and staff for home use - at very little cost. Faculty and staff pay only a shipping and handling fee. More...