In the last post about the updates I forgot to write about one of the new features. Before we get into that here’s a reminder that the update to Blackboard and therefore Collaborate will be happening this weekend, on July 5th. Now for the bit I forgot.

Viewing Session Attendance

Previously the only ways of viewing session attendance were either by integrating with Grade Center or staff having to contact the system admin (me) and making a special request for the information. The first meant having to do some additional Grade Center work to avoid it effecting student scores and as the column in Grade Center would only be created after the session had started, it meant that this work could only be done retrospectively which was never particularity satisfactory. The later option meant there was always a delay between the staff making the request and getting the information due to the unnecessary extra layer of administration required.

The new version of the building block that links Collaborate with Blackboard has a new feature that allows instructors to access the Session Attendance information directly from Blackboard. When a session has been run the instructor will access the report from the context menu for the relevant session. A simple list is then displayed containing the attendee’s name, joining and leaving times.

This is one of those very small but extremely useful updates that could go towards making every bodies life just that little bit easier.