General course materials

This submodule is included in all new BIFX course repositories that contains general course assets. This is managed as follows:

• Addition of the submodule: git submodule add https://github.com/Hood-BIFX/general_course_materials general_course_materials
• Initialiation of the submodule (i.e. if the folder is empty after cloning the repository): git submodule update --init --recursive
• Update the submodule when changes have been made in the source repository: git submodule update --remote --merge

If git complains about file paths being too long, you may need to enable long paths in git with (this only seems to be an issue with Windows):

git config --global core.longpaths true

Rendering course websites

render and push changes to the origin-pages branch with

general_course_materials/publish.sh # Mac/Linux general_course_materials/publish.ps1 # Windows

for manual builds and/or previewing pages:

render/preview website with (default profile is "book")

quarto render quarto preview

render all slides with

quarto render --profile slides

render syllabus to Word with - this may require minor manual edits (e.g. to tables)

quarto render --profile docx

Render and post on Blackboard with:

quarto render --profile blackboard

Add office hours under Course Information

You can book a virtual or in person office visit with me at your convenience.

Inserting website on Blackboard

Often inserting a link is sufficient, but to insert a website on Blackboard (i.e. as a frame inside the document), follow these steps:

• Navigate to the desired content area in your Blackboard course.
• Click to add a new item and select "Create" then "Document".
• When you add a new content block, select "HTML" and insert the following code (after editing the url):

<style>
  .my-embed {
    width: 100%;
    height: 800;
  }
</style>

<iframe src="https://bifx551-26.github.io/CourseInfo/" class="my-embed"></iframe>

Blackboard gradebook

Use of the Blackboard gradebook is highly recommended. This gives students real-time feedback on grades and reduces the burden on the instructor when grades are due. Be sure to display grades as a percentage, as the default letter grades do not follow Hood College graduate school standard grade distributions.

Some grade categories that I frequently use include:

• Attendance: Tied to the Blackboard attendance. When a student is marked as "excused" for a class, that week is not included in the calculated grade. It is recommended to give students a makeup assignment in Blackboard for excused absences.
• Assignments: I typically use these for makup assignments for excused absences. Any ungraded assignment will not be included in the final grade. Thus, these can be assigned to specific students on a case-by-case basis without affecting other student grades.
• Homework
• Quiz
• Presentation
• Exam