End-of-Semester Checklist

Course administration | Instructional review

Course administration

First, look at your course from an administrative viewpoint. Sites are created each semester with the current roster. However, because only active students are visible in blackboard it is still a good idea to download a copy of the final gradebook.

Approximately a month after the end of each semester all courses for that semester will be automatically made unavailable. Instructors may choose to make their individual sites available again, to give students access to course documents and reference materials.

One of the biggest benefits of Blackboard is its reusability - the ability to build a course site and transfer the material to new sites for upcoming semesters. So at the end of one semester, content can be transferrred to the new semester's site, then just edited from there, instead of having to create an entirely new site.

Instructional review

Now look at your course from an instructional standpoint. What worked and what didn't? Did your students have difficulty finding information? Was there limited participation in the Discussion Forums? Were important course materials missing? How could you make it better? Each semester that you use Blackboard you will learn something new. Use the time between semesters to fine-tune your course.