Hey,
So I'm a student at NDSU and all my course's use blackboard. The problem is I have six classes, each of those classes have as many as six document folders and each of those folders have as many as 20 documents. I have to spend over an hour a day just making sure I have all of the documents for that days class and it's extremely frustrating. The only way to know (for most my classes) if I need to print something off and bring it to class is to go on blackboard right before the class starts and compare every document in the course to the ones I have. The documents don't include dates of when they are posted, they are not listed in order of posting but rather in ascending alphabetical order and as I said before there are numerous folders with numerous documents for each course. It's an extremely frustrating daily occurrence that could very easily be fixed. I'm sure there is already the option out there but I just don't know about it? Is there a way to make it so documents I have not yet opened are flagged? I have been diagnosed with OCD so I'm sure that doesn't help matters; however, I have talked with many other students who have simply given up on trying to follow what is being posted because it takes up way to much time scanning through and finding out whether or not new documents have been added.
PLEASE HELP ME! If there is not an option for this yet then I'm sure a programmer could write one up in about 5 minutes I would pay up to $200 just to add the option as that is probably about the opportunity cost/per month of not having this option. Sorry if my tone is taken as a negative one (it kind of is lol) but this is just such an irritating problem that could so easily be solved and maybe it has but I just need educated in how to activate the option/application.
Thank you!
Tim,
I suggest you speak your instructor(s) about the issues you're having with keeping track of the course documents for your courses. By default, documents and content items are not arranged in alphabetically order, but are displayed in the order in which they are added, with the oldest items at the top and the newest items at the bottom.
However, the order is completely up to the instructor, and they can arrange things whoever they want, including grouping items together in folders by day/week, etc. An instructor may also choose to post announcements when now materials are made available. If you and other students are having trouble keeping track of the course materials, the instructor would probably appreciate knowing so they can decide whether or not to organize them differently.
There is also a Blackboard service called "Sync" which makes it possible to get notices on your Facebook account, your iPhone, or a web browser add-on toolbar when new materials are available. However, your school has to turn on the Sync service in order to make those tools work, and as far as I can tell, NDSU has not done that. You might contact the IT help desk at NDSU to see if they have any plans to enable that service in the near future.
Good luck,
Mike