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Contact Information

BlackBoard support is available at three levels:

  1. Start here: Basic "how-to" for instructors and students
    (Select Help Desk or call x3333 )
  2. More advanced "how-to" for instructors and students
    (Select Web Help )
  3. Advanced "how-to" and best-practices professional development for instructors
    (Select Instructional Design or call x4159)

ATUS Help Desk

Telephone: (360) 650-3333
E-mail: helpdesk@wwu.edu

Instructors and students experiencing basic technical problems, or who need basic how-to assistance with their BlackBoard course, or who are experiencing difficulties with their BlackBoard account should contact the ATUS Help Desk for assistance. In general the ATUS Help Desk is the best place to start. They are able to handle an ever increasing set of Blackboard issues. They will contact WebHelp directly if they cannot resolve your issue.

Office hours for Academic Year:
Monday through Thursday - 8:00am to 10:00pm;
Friday - 8:00am to 5:00pm;
Saturday - 12noon to 5:00pm;
Sunday - 12noon to 10:00pm.

Office Hours for Summer Quarter and Intercessions:
Monday through Friday - 8:00 am to 5:00 pm

Web Help

Telephone: (360) 650-3333
E-mail: webhelp@wwu.edu

For more advanced BlackBoard support, instructors and students can also contact Web Help when:

  • experiencing issues with adding or copying a course
  • requesting guest accounts for community members
  • a BlackBoard function (such as e-mail or GradeBook export) is having technical problems.

If unable to reach Web Help by phone, please send an e-mail to Web Help. If the issue cannot be resolved by the Web Help team within 24 hours, it will be referred to other specialists within ATUS for follow-up.

Instructional Design

Telephone: (360) 650-4159
E-mail: peter.agras@wwu.edu

Instructors who are new to BlackBoard, as well as experienced faculty interested in learning about new features, should contact the ATUS Instructional Designer for professional development support. Faculty can participate in small-group workshops or can schedule appointments for individual consultations.

In addition to advanced "how-to" sessions, Instructional Design support offers the following services:

Content Design

  • matching content to appropriate information design
  • designing for “multiple intelligences” and learning styles
  • designing for flexibility and accessibility (including re-use of your resources in multiple teaching and learning contexts)
  • designing “reusable learning objects”, for example:
  • searchable content repositories
  • archived student presentations
  • departmental test banks

Interaction Design

A review of options for synchronous and asynchronous communication and collaboration within BlackBoard:

  • faculty > student(s)
  • student(s) > student(s)
  • student > variety of content (text, auditory, visual, kinesthetic)
  • small-group and whole-class projects

Assessment Design

  • options for assessing your students’ knowledge after use of a BlackBoard resource
  • design of formative and summative evaluation such that your students will have opportunities to provide ongoing feedback
  • rubric design for BlackBoard's collaboration resources (such as Chat, asynchronous small-group and whole-class discussion)

Needs Requirements

We provide assistance in designing your BlackBoard course:

  • matching technology resources with your instructional objectives
  • identifying dependent tasks and project timelines
  • identifying and facilitating BlackBoard training in which you might wish to participate
  • determining instructional context and environment
  • evaluation of existing content
  • identification of new content needs
  • addressing Copyright and Intellectual Property issues
  • anticipating Accessibility issues (physical, cognitive, technical)

Development of Instructional Materials & Activities

  • full support for transitioning all, or part, of an existing course toBlackBoard
  • development of new BlackBoard courses

Grant proposal assistance for funding from BlackBoard and other online learning organizations

We provide support in the drafting of BlackBoard-based grant proposals:

  • prototype screens
  • flowcharts
  • detailed information on proposed functions
  • tools and resources
  • budget
  • scheduling
  • storyboarding and scripting

Interface Design

(moving beyond BlackBoard's "cookie cutter" default design)
(in collaboration with ATUS graphic, web and video specialists)

  • navigation options
  • graphic design (palette, “look-and-feel”)
  • customized graphics and icons

Multimedia Design

(integrating rich media and animation with text-based resources)
(in collaboration with ATUS graphic, web and video specialists)

A review of multimedia options available within BlackBoard:

  • audio
  • video
  • animation (simulation, scenarios)