Blackboard Administrator Guide
Updated February 28, 2018
Contents
Introduction
LTI Integration with SoftChalk Cloud
Instructions for Enabling the LTI Feature
Advantages of SoftChalk Cloud
Install the SoftChalk Publish with ScoreCenter Building Block
Download the Building Block
Blackboard 9.1 SP8 (Service Pack 8) or Higher
Change from an http server to an https Server
Faculty Guides and Student Guide
Checklists
Previous Building Block
Troubleshooting Checklist
Help
Copyright Information
h1. Introduction
This guide is for Blackboard administrators whose institutions are using the DESKTOP VERSION of SoftChalk Create. The URL for this guide is below. As we update this guide, the URL will remain the same.
https://softchalk.atlassian.net/wiki/download/attachments/199721074/lms_bbadminguide.pdf?api=v2
(Please note that we have separate guides for faculty and students – see the section Faculty Guides and Student Guide.) If you have any questions for us, please feel free to email us at help@softchalk.com. Please identify yourself as a Blackboard administrator, so that we can give your request top priority in our help queue.
IMPORTANT: If you have some faculty using SoftChalk Cloud accounts and some faculty still using the desktop version of SoftChalk, you can enable BOTH the LTI feature in Blackboard and install our SoftChalk Publish with ScoreCenter building block.

LTI Integration with SoftChalk Cloud

Instructions for Enabling the LTI Feature

If you have faculty using SoftChalk Cloud accounts, then we recommend that you enable the LTI feature within your Blackboard server.
Details for enabling the LTI feature are found in the Blackboard and SoftChalk Cloud Integration Guide under the Blackboard Administrator section.
Once you enable the LTI feature, your faculty can easily paste in an LTI link for their SoftChalk Cloud lesson and the grades will go into the Blackboard Results Center. If you're unfamiliar with SoftChalk Cloud, we wanted to let you know about the following advantages of using SoftChalk Cloud accounts for you and your faculty.

Advantages of SoftChalk Cloud

Since our SoftChalk Create content authoring program is part of your SoftChalk Cloud account, you can work on your lessons from anywhere by logging into your SoftChalk Cloud account. No more "lost lessons" as you can save your lessons to your Cloud account. (You can also save your lessons to your local computer if you wish.)
Getting updates for SoftChalk Create is easy. (You don't have to worry about administrator rights to get updates.)
Update your lesson once in your SoftChalk Cloud account but link to it in all your courses. For example, if you are using the same SoftChalk lesson in multiple courses or multiple learning management systems, you can put the link of the lesson from SoftChalk Cloud into your courses.
Have student grades integrate with your Blackboard Results Center. Copy and paste the LTI link into Blackboard – for details, see the previously mentioned Blackboard and SoftChalk Cloud Integration Guide.
Save up to five versions of the same lesson in case you need to go back to a previous version of a lesson.
Collaborate with other instructors on SoftChalk lessons.
There is also the option to have an Enterprise SoftChalk Cloud set up for your institution.
For more details about using SoftChalk Cloud, please see the SoftChalk Cloud Guide and the previously mentioned Blackboard and SoftChalk Cloud Integration Guide.
Also please feel free to contact sales@softchalk if you would like to set up a private demo of SoftChalk Cloud.

Install the SoftChalk Publish with ScoreCenter Building Block

If you have faculty using the desktop version of SoftChalk, we recommend that you install our SoftChalk Publish with ScoreCenter Building block (see below).
The SoftChalk Publish with ScoreCenter building block will allow your faculty to save content from within SoftChalk to your Blackboard server.
To find the latest version of our building block, see the FAQ I am a Blackboard Administrator. What is the latest version for the SoftChalk Publish with ScoreCenter building block?
This building block contains the ScoreCenter feature that allows your faculty to collect reliable, detailed student scores in the Blackboard Results Center. We strongly recommend that your faculty use the ScoreCenter format for publishing lessons into Blackboard rather than SCORM. We do NOT recommend using the SCORM format as as we have seen many issues and inconsistencies with score reporting, especially in later service packs.
Below are the basic steps for using SoftChalk with Blackboard:

Install the building block mentioned below.
Within the SoftChalk Create DESKTOP application, a faculty member enters an access code to authenticate his/her connection to Blackboard. (For details, see the Blackboard Integration Guide for SoftChalk Desktop Users.)
Within the SoftChalk application, faculty can save content directly to Blackboard in a few easy steps (see the section Faculty Guides and Student Guide)

Download the Building Block

If you haven't done so already, please go to the following page to register and download your SoftChalk Publish with ScoreCenter Building Block:
[ http://softchalkcloud.com/services/registration/blackboard

]After you register, you will receive an email from SoftChalk with instructions on installing and entering information for your building block. When there is an *update to the building block, we will send out an email to each person who registered. If you have a previous building block, be sure to see the section Previous Building Block. Blackboard 9.1 SP8 (Service Pack 8) or Higher IMPORTANT: Please note that you must enter information and make adjustments in two areas after installing your building block (see below). Go to the Settings* area (System Admin tab/Building Blocks/Building Blocks/Installed Tools) (see below). If the Settings menu does not appear, make sure the building block is available and active (see below). Go to the Tools area (System Admin tab/Tools and Utilities/Tools) and the SoftChalk Publish with ScoreCenter area and change the settings to Always On and be sure to click Submit at the bottom of your screen to save your changes (see below). (You can leave the guest checkboxes de-selected. Change from an http server to an https Server IMPORTANT: Please do NOT register the https:// server. You should not have to make any changes. Please let us know if you run across any issues (contact us as help@softchalk.com). Faculty Guides and Student Guide Please let faculty and students know about the following guides. IMPORTANT: As these guides are updated, the URLs will remain the same, so *we recommend posting the URLs* and NOT the PDF files.
Audience	Title and Link
Faculty with SoftChalk Cloud Accounts	Blackboard and SoftChalk Cloud Integration Guide https://softchalk.atlassian.net/wiki/download/attachments/121929729/lms_blackboardcloud.pdf?api=v2 SoftChalk Cloud Guide https://softchalk.atlassian.net/wiki/download/attachments/129404604/cloudguide.pdf?api=v2
Faculty Using the Desktop Version of SoftChalk	Blackboard and SoftChalk Desktop Integration Guide https://softchalk.atlassian.net/wiki/download/attachments/129535122/lms_blackboarddesktop.pdf?api=v2
For all faculty (Cloud and desktop users)	SoftChalk Create User Guide https://softchalk.atlassian.net/wiki/download/attachments/129532299/createguide.pdf?api=v2
Students Taking SoftChalk Lessons	Please give the link below to your faculty to pass onto students for the Student Guide to SoftChalk Lessons. https://softchalk.atlassian.net/wiki/download/attachments/200114368/studentguide.pdf?api=v2

Checklists

The checklists below will help you troubleshoot any issues you may have with saving SoftChalk content (including a lesson in the ScoreCenter format) to your Blackboard server. Again, please feel free to contact help@softchalk.com with any questions you may have.

Previous Building Block

If you have a PREVIOUS building block:	Details
DELETE the previous building block BEFORE installing the new building block. To install the building block (see the section Install the SoftChalk Publish with ScoreCenter Building Block).	We've encountered issues if you try to install over the previous building block. Please be aware that once the previous building block is deleted (before the new building block is installed), your ScoreCenter connection for your institution will be inoperable. Once you install the new building block, your ScoreCenter connection will be working (be sure to run the Resolve Links Tool and the Access Migration Tools – see below).
Resolve Links Tool After installing the new building block, Run the Resolve Links Tool. System Admin tab/Building Blocks/Building Blocks/Installed Tools/ *Settings* button for SoftChalk Publish with ScoreCenter/*Tools dropdown menu – select Resolve Links to* *Previous SoftChalk Content and click the Resolve Links button*.	This tool only has to be run one time. (For instance, if you upgrade from building block 1.08 to 1.2.3). You won't need to run this tool for subsequent upgrades.
Access Migration Tool After installing the new building block, Run the Access Code Migration Tool. System Admin tab/Building Blocks/Installed Tools/ *Settings* button for SoftChalk Publish with ScoreCenter/*Tools dropdown menu – select Access Code Migration and click the Migrate button*.	This tool allows you to migrate your faculty access codes so that they will not have to enter new access codes for publishing.

Troubleshooting Checklist

Checklist	Details
If you are testing the File/Save to LMS or File/Publish Lesson feature within our SoftChalk application, make sure you have the *latest version of our SoftChalk application (see details at the right)* If you haven't purchased a SoftChalk license, you can download a free 30 day trial version at: http://www.softchalk.com	Normally, if you are connected to the internet when you start SoftChalk, you will be prompted to update if an update is available. If you have turned off the automatic update feature, then you can check for updates by choosing Help/Check for Updates (on a Windows computer) and File/Check for Updates (on a Macintosh). To find the latest version number, see our FAQ: What is the latest update for SoftChalk Create? How do I find out if I have the latest update?
Your *Blackboard server needs to be publicly accessible.*	If you have a test server that is NOT publicly accessible, then you must allow the SoftChalk ScoreCenter domain as an exception to your firewall (see below): https://www.softchalkcloud.com For more details about firewalls, see our Firewall FAQ.
*Copied / Imported Courses* – SoftChalk content (ScoreCenter or published lessons) does not come up in courses that were copied or archived/exported and imported. Please note that the Synchronize Copied Content tool will resolve links to lessons that were published within SoftChalk with the File/Publish Lesson method (or lessons that were packaged in the ScoreCenter format and uploaded under the Build/SoftChalk ScoreCenter Content menu). *If lessons were packaged in the Zip format within SoftChalk but uploaded manually into the Content Collection in the original course, then the links in a copied course may not work*.	Be sure to download the latest SoftChalk Building Block from http://softchalkcloud.com/services/registration/blackboard Run the *Synchronize Copied Content* Tool. System Admin tab/Building Blocks/Installed Tools/Click the Settings button for SoftChalk Publish with ScoreCenter. In the Tools dropdown list, select Synchronize Copied Content. Enter your course ID(s) and click Synchronize. Faculty can run this tool: Within your copied or imported course, at the left under the Control Panel for the course, select Course Tools. Then select SoftChalk – Synchronize Copied Content. Then click the Synchronize button.
A student clicks on a link to a ScoreCenter lesson and gets the error: *ScoreCenter: Connection Error* *This lesson could not connect to ScoreCenter. Please try again later.*	Be sure to run the *Synchronize Copied Content* Tool. See the info above. Also see the info below about your server time linked to GMT time.
One of the following issues occurs: In Internet Explorer, the Finish button does not appear at the end of the ScoreCenter lesson. There is a message that the lesson is not connecting to the ScoreCenter (see above) or There is no message that the lesson is connecting to the ScoreCenter. (Everything works fine in Firefox.)	Please make sure that the time on your Blackboard server is linked to GMT time (Greenwich Mean Time). Your server can be set on local time but must be the correct local time (not off by 5 minutes or more) Cookies are created in IE with ScoreCenter lessons. If IE gets a cookie that has the time expiration date before the time on the server or user's computer, it never creates the cookie. If *individual users are having issues, please tell them to: Make sure the time on their machines is correct. Make sure JavaScript is enabled. Check the Troubleshooting* section in the Student Guide to SoftChalk Lessons.
You have a previous building block and you're updating your building block.	See the previous section Previous Building Block
Make sure that the settings in the SoftChalk registration email match the Settings in your Blackboard Building Block (System Admin tab/Building Blocks/Installed Tools/ Settings button for SoftChalk Publish with ScoreCenter.) For instance, your *SoftChalk ScoreCenter domain* should be: https://softchalkcloud.com	If you registered early on, you may have received an older address for the SoftChalk ScoreCenter domain. Be sure to use the address at the left.
Register for each server address. Ex. https://myinstitution.blackboard.com versus https://myinstitutionpilot.blackboard.com *If you* *changed from an http server to an https server but the rest of your address is the same, then you do NOT need to do anything.*	If you are using a different server address after your initial registration (see the example at the left), then you will need to register your new server address. IMPORTANT: If you are changing from an http to an https server but the rest of the address is the same, please do NOT register the https server. (You don't need to do anything.)
Make sure the SoftChalk Publish with ScoreCenter Building block is *available*.	System Admin tab/Building Blocks/Installed Tools/Under both the Available Column and the Course/Org Default Column, set to Available For Bb 9.1 SP8 or Higher users, see the section Blackboard 9.1 SP8 (Service Pack 8) or Higher
*Blackboard 9.1 SP8 or Higher* - Trouble publishing or connecting to lessons	See the section Blackboard 9.1 SP8 (Service Pack 8) or Higher
I'm still not able to connect to the ScoreCenter after going through the above list.	You may have a *firewall issue*. Please see the following FAQ: I think my institution has a firewall that is preventing me from saving content to SoftChalk Cloud. What should I do?
Students access the tool area of a course and see a link for SoftChalk Publish with ScoreCenter.	Installing the latest building block will address this issue (i.e. students won't see the SoftChalk Publish with ScoreCenter).
Supported Operating Systems and Browsers	Please see our Syst ems Specifications web page.

Again, please feel free to email us at help@so ftchalk. com if you have any questions and we will be happy to help you by phone.

Help

Please visit our SoftChalk Support webpage. For purchase information, please contact sales@softchalk.com.