Blackboard Cartridges for your Textbook

• What are "course cartridges"?
• Important information related to cartridges.
• Where can I see an example of a course cartridge?
• Where can I find cartridges for my courses?

What are "Course Cartridges"?

Course Cartridges (called "Webtutor" by Thomson elearning)  are pre-packaged course materials, ready to use in Blackboard 5. They contain a variety of materials that can include slides, documents, multimedia files, links to related websites, test banks, and quizzes, all of professional editorial quality. The cartridge materials often correlate to a textbook or eBook, although some cartridges are meant to be used stand-alone. All Cartridge materials can be customized once they've been downloaded to your specific course site.

You should be aware of the following related to cartrdiges:

• Install a Course Cartridge in an existing course by going to Control Panel --> Course Utilities and entering the cartridge access code provided by your book rep.
• Course Cartridges will not copy from one course to another, so if you need to use the cartridge in several courses, you will need to get a separate key from your book rep for each time you need the cartridge.
• The cost of course cartridges is added to the cost of the textbook that the student buys.  The student pays extra for the cartridge access code. 
• When the student accesses the section of the course that comes from the cartridge, he or she will be challenged for an access code.  This access code need only be entered the first time the student uses the materials.
  
  Example:
  

Where can I see an example of a cartridge?

Ask your book rep to provide you with access to view cartridges. To see an example of a cartridge, log in to Blackboard using the username/password cartridgestudent01/cartridgestudent01.  The access password has already been entered for this dummy student.

Where can I find Course Cartridges?

• Blackboard.com Course Cartridge Catalog -- search by discipline or by textbook
  •  (extensive) list of publishers included on the site
  • In the catalog, each publisher has provided a general description of each cartridge. In many cases, the publisher has also included information about demos, trials, and information on how to obtain a Download Key. Publisher contact information is included for each cartridge.
• Course Technology -- Available titles link.  There also is an Instructor Guide to the Blackboard cartridges prepared by Course Technology. Provides cartridge materials including
  • Suggested Syllabus
  • Student Lecture Notes
  • Objectives from the text
  • Topic Reviews - brief summaries of the objectives
  • Case Projects
  • Practice Tests
  • Course Test Manager Test Bank converted into Blackboard
  • Suggested Web links
• e.Thomsonlearning website -- search by discipline to check for Thomson titles available with "Blackboard Webtutor" cartridges
  • Course Technology
  • Delmar
  • Heinle & Heinle
  • Nelson Canada
  • Peterson's
  • Schirmer

  Even if Thomson doesn't have something in web tutor yet they have plenty of digital content that they can use to create course cartridges for Algonquin faculty who want to adopt their texts.  Contact Don Thompson.

• Irwin Publishing -- Visit their Classroom Connections site at http://www.emcponline.com/class_connection.htm, where there is a listing of Blackboard cartridges available (if you scroll down the page) or contact Courtney Kost ckost@emcp.com  for information about forthcoming titles.
   
• McGraw-Hill Digital Solutions Website
  • Canadian editions: http://www.mcgrawhill.ca/highereducation/digital+solutions/index.php
    Scroll down the page to see a listing of textbooks available with Blackboard cartridges.
  • American editions: http://www.mhhe.com/catalogs/solutions/blackboard.mhtml search by discipline (box at top right)

  Also, you can contact your publisher's representative for information about books for which cartridges are not yet available but for which there may be materials "in the works".

  • Business & Economics - Jamey Prince - Jameyp@mcgrawhill.ca
  • Hardside - Nick Morfopos - Nickm@mcgrawhill.ca
  • Softside - Keith Seymour - Keiths@mcgrawhill.ca
     
• Pearson Higher Education Website -- search by publisher for companion websites and other materials from
  • Addison Wesley
  • Allyn and Bacon
  • Prentice-Hall Canada
  • Prentice-Hall US
    • Companion Website Search Page
  • Longman
  • Benjamin Cummings

  Also, you can contact Tim McCleary, Director of Technology Solutions and Services at Pearson Education Canada, to ask about Pearson books for which materials have not yet been published as cartridges. There may be materials "in the works".