I love hearing everyone's comments about the new My Big Campus. This feedback goes to our development team so they can give you the features you want. I'm also happy (believe it or not) when people report problems with the site -- if something doesn't work as expected, we want to fix that as quickly as possible so you can get on with your work.
One new feature you may not have heard much about is the new online Help system, and today I'd like to take you on a quick tour.
Where do I find the Help?
We've moved the Help button to the menu that drops down from your username in the top right corner of the page. Hold the mouse pointer over your name to make the menu appear, then click Help.
What is a Knowledgebase?
We replaced the old FAQs and Community pages with a "knowledgebase" that works like a combination of the two. A knowledgebase is a database of knowledge that people can search to find answers to their questions.
How do I ask a question?
Just start typing in the box. The computer will start searching for help articles after you've typed the first few words of your question, and shows you the best answers. Click on an answer to read the whole article.
What are some other ways to find answers?
If you're looking for related questions and answers, you can browse the help articles by category. This is useful when you're looking for basic information about My Big Campus features and you're not sure what questions to ask. Start by looking at the categories, then click View All when you find a category that interests you.
To return to the list of categories, click Articles in the top right corner.
How do I get back to My Big Campus?
Click the Back button on your browser, or click the My Big Campus logo on the top left corner of the screen.
What if I can't find an answer?
We're always adding and updating help articles based on the feedback we get. If your question isn't in the knowledgebase, let me know by posting on my wall, or send me a message.
Once again, thanks for taking the time to let me know what you think about the new MBC. I'll see you around Campus!
The My Big Campus team will be on-site at the following conferences in the next two weeks. If we're traveling to your area, we encourage you to sign up for training sessions, and stop by our booth to say "Hi!" Click any of the links below to reserve your place.
CO TIE 2013, June 17 to June 20, Copper Mountain, CO
"Mobile devices, meet your new manager" - Presented by Scott Meeks from Lightspeed Systems
The My Big Campus team will be on-site at the following conferences in the next two weeks. If we're traveling to your area, we encourage you to sign up for training sessions, and stop by our booth to say "Hi!" Click any of the links below to reserve your place.
Hi everyone! I've been getting all kinds of great feedback from you about the new My Big Campus website, and I appreciate your patience and good humor as we work on the issues and feature requests you've mentioned so far. If you haven't tried the all-new MBC yet, I encourage you to take a look. This picture shows you how to get to the new website:
One common question I'm getting from teachers is about Schoolwork, and what they do and don't need to do to make sure their schoolwork will be available after June 30. First of all, this doesn't affect students -- your Schoolwork dashboard has been updated, but all your assignments are still there even with the redesigned MBC website.
Here are a few tips to help you determine if you still need to take any action before June 30.
Old Schoolwork
Old Schoolwork refers to the original Assignments, Quizzes, and Templates that have been part of My Big Campus for a few years now. The "Old Schoolwork" dashboard looks like the following picture. Click over to the Assigned by You tab to see if you have any existing quizzes or assignments that you want to reuse.
If there's nothing on that page, or if you've already imported your templates from the old interface, you're done -- there's nothing more to do. If there are any items on the Assigned by You page, follow these steps to convert the ones you want to keep and reuse.
New Schoolwork
New Schoolwork is the updated version we released in September 2012, with support for more question types, academic standards, time-limited and password-protected tests, question banks, reporting, and ExamView imports. If you've created all your schoolwork in either version of this interface, there's nothing you need to do -- all your work has been migrated automatically to the new My Big Campus and is ready to use.
I hope this clears up any confusion you may have had about Schoolwork in the new My Big Campus.
I want to thank everyone again for the great feedback we've received so far. As always, I welcome your questions and ideas related to this blog post. Leave me a note in the comments, or post on my wall. Have a great weekend, and I'll see you around Campus!
The My Big Campus team will be on-site at the following conferences in the next two weeks. If we're traveling to your area, we encourage you to sign up for training sessions, and stop by our booth to say "Hi!" Click any of the links below to reserve your place.
We've been working hard behind the scenes to get My Big Campus ready for Saturday's launch. Today, I'd like to go over the launch process, and provide some tips to help make the transition go smoothly for teachers and students.
For the month of June, the current version of My Big Campus will be running alongside the new version, so you'll be able to finish up work in progress without having to adapt to the new design all at once. And, everything you do on the "old" MBC will be added automatically to the "new" MBC. You'll see a link to the new website on the My Big Campus home page, or you can go directly to http://next.mybigcampus.com Your usernames and passwords will be the same on both sites. On July 1, the new website will be live at http://www.mybigcampus.com and the old site will be retired permanently.
Here's a video preview of the new website that was presented to our MBC Trainers group this week:
Old Schoolwork phased out
As I've mentioned in previous blogs, Old Schoolwork will be discontinued. As of this week, teachers can no longer create or assign schoolwork in the old interface -- you must use the New Schoolwork. You'll have until the end of June to migrate quizzes and assignments you want to keep. And, if you haven't already done so, you must export your grades from Old Schoolwork before the end of June. After June 30, you'll no longer have access to Old Schoolwork grades.
Shift into Drive
The biggest change you'll probably notice is the all-new Drive. Drive is where you'll find Your Stuff, your Bundles, and your MBC Documents -- everything you've created and contributed to My Big Campus will be there, neatly organized into folders.
More great stuff in the Library
It's easier than ever to find, share, and rate learning resources in the new My Big Campus library. You can search by content type and contributor origin (yourself, school and district). All items can be aligned with state and common core standards and grade levels. And teachers can now publish Bundles and Schoolwork to the library for other teachers (and optionally students) to share and reuse.
New apps are coming
You'll see all-new apps for iOS and Android during June. In the meantime, the existing apps will continue to work as they have on the existing MBC site.
The completely redesigned apps narrow the gap between app and website functionality, and they have a fresh new design.
My Big Campus will be unavailable between 10 PM and Midnight Pacific time, Friday May 31 while we prepare to upgrade to the newly redesigned version of the My Big Campus software.
If you plan to use any of these services, please take care to save your work and log out before the maintenance interval begins.
We appreciate your patience as we work to improve My Big Campus and related services.
The My Big Campus team will be on-site at the following conferences in the next two weeks. If we're traveling to your area, we encourage you to sign up for training sessions, and stop by our booth to say "Hi!" Click any of the links below to reserve your place.
Although I've blogged about the switch to New Schoolwork several times in the past few months, I noticed that there are a few teachers still assigning schoolwork in the old interface.
As we prepare for the upgrade to My Big Campus, we need to remind all teachers that the launch of the redesigned My Big Campus website also means the end of Old Schoolwork.
As a result, effective May 27, you will no longer be able to create quizzes or assignments in Old Schoolwork. All new items must be created in the New Schoolwork interface.
If you are still using Old Schoolwork, here are the steps you must take before June 30 to avoid losing access to grades, templates, and student submissions:
Export your gradesbefore June 30. After that date, grades for schoolwork assigned and submitted in the old interface will be gone permanently.
The My Big Campus team will be on-site at the following conferences in the next two weeks. If we're traveling to your area, we encourage you to sign up for training sessions, and stop by our booth to say "Hi!" Click any of the links below to reserve your place.
