Blackboard Instructor Help

Administration and Tools

Topics

Click here for instructions on how to access the Blackboard multi-media tutorials.

Accessibility Guidelines

Basic guidelines:
  • Images: use the alternate text feature to describe each image after uploading.
  • Multimedia: provide transcripts for all audio and descriptions for all video.
  • Hypertext links: use text that makes sense when read out of context. Avoid "Click here" or "link to file."
  • Page organization: use folders and document titles appropriately. Organize materials in a consistent manner.
Useful Links:

Accessing a Course/Logging in

  1. Go to http://www.mc3.edu. From the Main website, click on the keyhold graphic pictured below.login to my
  2. Enter your username and password. Your username and password are the same as your network credentials. Click Login.
  3. Click the Courses/Blackboard link.
    Blackboard link
  4. Click the link for your course in the "My Courses" box on the right.

Adding a Document/Syllabus

Prepare your syllabus: Before attempting this task, you should already have your syllabus typed and saved in a common electronic file format, such as MS Word, Notepad, or another plain text word processor. Instructors should eliminate spaces of non-alpha numeric characters from file names. To prevent problems opening the file, only underscores should be used to space out file names. For example, "english_comp_101.doc" is acceptable, but "English Comp-101.doc is not. To upload your syllabus:
  1. Go to your course.
  2. Click the "Control Panel"
  3. Click on "Course Information" (or Course Documents for other documents)
  4. Click the Add Item button in the upper left corner.
  5. Type in the name of the document (e.g. Syllabus) in the Name field.
  6. Scroll down to the "Attach local file" field and click the "Browse" button to locate your syllabus (on your computer).
  7. Once you have located the syllabus on your computer, click to highlight the file and then click the "Open" button.
  8. Scroll to the bottom of the screen and click Submit to save your changes to Blackboard.
  9. You will receive a receipt letting your know that the upload was successful. Click the "OK" button to acknowledge the receipt.
  10. The next screen will allow you to test your document. Click on the linked file name to verify that the syllabus opens and displays properly.

See a multimedia demonstration of adding a document.

Course Copy

The steps below will allow you to copy the contents of one course - the Source - into another course - the Destination:
  1. Log into Blackboard and enter the Source course.
  2. Click to enter Control Panel
  3. In the Course Options section, click the Course Copy link.
    Course Copy option from Control Panel
  4. Click the only option, Copy Course Materials into an Existing Course
    • The Destination course must already exist for materials to be copied into it
  5. Next to the Destination Course ID field, click to find your Destination course. The new window looks like this:
  6. You can search by Course ID, Instructor, or Name/Description (and restrict the search the Created dates, if you wish).
    Some notes on using this Browse feature:
    • If you leave the search box blank, it will return all of the courses you are set to teach.
    • Only courses for which you are the instructor will appear in this search. This is to prevent you from copying materials into someone else's course.

      To filter your course list:
    • If you click the Instructor radio button and enter your username (not your real name, but your Blackboard username), you will see a list of every course you teach.
    • To get more specific search results, try clicking the Title/Description radio button and entering a word or phrase from the course title or description.
  7. Here I've entered "Blackboard" as a Name/Description search term. The result is two courses, the Source and my new section, the Destination
  8. Click next to your Destination course. It will be entered in the Destination Course ID field.
  9. Click the check boxes in the Select Course Materials field to copy specific areas of course content
  10. In the Enrollments section, make sure the check box next to Enrollment is unchecked.
    • You don't ever want to copy enrollment from one course to another.

  11. Click to complete and submit your selections.
    Some final notes on Course Copy
    • When you copy course materials it doesn't overwrite, or delete, anything in the Destination course. It just adds to whatever content already exists there.
    • This means that you can't use this to accidentally delete materials in the Destination course but it also means that you can't use Course Copy as a way of keeping various courses "up to date" or "in sync" with one another. Why not?
      • If, for example, you copy course documents, then make a change in the Source, then copy course documents again, the Destination will contain duplicates of everything. We want to avoid that.
    • Therefore, you should use Course Copy only once to bring the bulk of material into a new course, but manage and update each course individually from that point forward.

Deleting Discussion Messages in Batch

The steps below will allow you to delete multiple messages inside your Discussion Board Forums.
  1. Enter into your Discussion Board forum by clicking its title.
  2. Choose "Select All" and click on the "Go" button as shown below:
  3. Now all of the checkboxes next to the treads should be checked.
  4. Click the button to delete the messages.

Once the messages have been deleted, there is no way to retrieve them.

Exporting a Course

The Export Course feature creates a package of the course content that can later be imported into Blackboard and used to teach another course with the same content. It is important to note that, unlike the Archive Course feature, Export Course does not include any user interactions with the course—it only includes the content of the Course. Export Course is useful when course materials will be reused at a later time to teach a new set of Students. Archive Course is useful to maintain a record of a Course after it has been taught.

Export packages are downloaded as compressed .ZIP files and can be imported into Blackboard in the same format. Do not unzip an Export package or remove files from the package, otherwise the package will not be imported correctly.
Please Note: Depending the amount of content in your course site, particularly the number of large files you have in your content areas, AND your internet connection speed, this process could take anywhere from 5 to 30 minutes. Please be patient.

1. Go Control Panel.
2. Click "Export Course" under "Course Options".
3. Click the button.
4. Place a check in all of the boxes under "Select Course Materials".
5. Click "Submit".
6. An Export Course page will display saying, "This action has been successfully queued. An email will be sent when the process is complete."
7. Click OK and a similar screen should display.

6. Right-click on the export file and choose "Save Target As" or "Save Link As" (depending which browser you are using).
7. Choose a location on your computer to save the export file (you will need to remember where you saved it and the name of the file), and click "Save".
8. Click Close after the file saves.

To import the package to another course:

1. Click the course under "My Courses" in which you want to import the exported material saved in the steps above under "Export Course".
2. Go to Control Panel and choose "Import Package".
3. Use the "Browse" function to locate the export file saved on your computer from the steps above under "Export Course". (If you used the default name of the file, it will begin with "ExportFile_" followed by the Course ID, date and a random ID assigned by Blackboard.) Click "Open" to choose the file and close the "Choose file" window.
4. Place a check in all of the boxes under "Select Course Materials".
5. Click "Submit".
6. A receipt page will be presented that says "The action has been successfully queued. An email will be sent when the process is complete."
8. Click back into the destination course in which you just imported the content.
9. Check the content and make any needed changes.

Discussion Boards

To create a Discussion Board forum instructors must create a "forum" or topic that students can write about. To set up the Discussion Board, follow these steps:

  1. In the Control Panel, click on "Discussion Boards," and then click on the link for your course .
  2. Click the button and create a name for the forum (e.g. "Introduce Yourself").
  3. Add a brief description paragraph in the text box below.
  4. Select the settings you wish to use for the Discussion Board. We recommend that instructors not select the "Allow Anonymous Posts" option.
  5. Select one of the following options:

    Note: If you select Grade formu or Grade threads, you must enter the points possible and a gradebook entry will automatically be created.
  6. Click Submit to save your changes to Blackboard.

Gradebook: Adding Items

  1. Enter your course and click on the "Control Panel" button.
  2. Click on the "Gradebook" link.
  3. Click on "Spreadsheet view" link.
  4. Click on the "Add Item" button.
    Gradebook
  5. Give your item a name, assign it a type, specify a due date (if desired), and enter the total points possible.
  6. Click on the "Submit" button.

To add students' scores

  1. Click on the name of the item at the top of the column.
  2. Click on Item Grade List.
  3. Enter grades for each student in the Manual Grade column.
  4. Click Submit.

Prevent students from seeing the class average score.

  1. Access Control Panel.
  2. Select Gradebook.
  3. Click on Gradebook Settings.
  4. Click on the Column Settings link.
  5. Uncheck Display Average Score and click Submit.

Hiding old semester courses from your display list

For the sake of faculty who might need to go back to older courses for various reasons, Blackboard courses are kept for a period of one year. This can make for a very long list of courses, and since they are alphabetical order the older ones are listed first. The procedure below allows faculty to remove the display of courses from their "My institution" tab.

1. Click on the "Edit the my courses module", which looks like a pencil stub, in the upper right corner.


2. Uncheck the "Display course" and "Display Announcements" boxes for any course you do not want to see.

3. Scroll down, and click the “Submit” button.


Making your email address available

  1. Click on the "Tools" button.
  2. Click on the "Personal Information" buttonPersonal Information
  3. Click the "Set Privacy Options" link.
  4. Check the box next to Email Address.
  5. Click the Submit button.

Making your Course Available or Unavailable

When a Course is made unavailable, it is still visible to the Instructor, but hidden from all the students enrolled in the course. Note that by default, a course is unavailable until the instructor changes it!
  1. Control PanelGo into Control Panel. Note that all instructor activity is through this button. It is the one button that students do not see.
  2. In the "Course Options" box, click on the link for "Settings".
  3. Click the "Course Availability" link.
  4. Click on the "Yes" option to make the course available or "No" to make the course unavailable.
  5. Click the Submit button.

See a multimedia demonstration of making a course available (for 720x480).

See a multimedia demonstration of making a course available (for 320x240).

Making materials available or unavailable

  1. Go into Control Panel
  2. Click on the link for Course Documents
  3. Click the "Modify" button to the right of the the folder or item you want to make available or unavailable.
  4. Scroll down the page to the "Options" section. Choose the "Yes" or "No" option next to the prompt "Make the content available".
  5. Click the Submit button.

Posting an announcement

  1. Control PanelClick on the "Control Panel button
  2. Click the "Announcements" link under the "Course Tools" section.
  3. Click the Add Announcement button.
  4. Fill in the "Subject and "Message" fields.
  5. In the "Options" section, select whether or not you want this to be a permanent announcement and choose any date restrictions if desired.
  6. Select a Course link if desired.
  7. Click the checkbox next to "Email this announcement to all course users" if desired.
  8. Click the Submit button

See a multimedia demonstration of adding an announcement.

Printing student quizzes

  1. Go into the Control Panel.
  2. Click on "Gradebook."
  3. Click on the Blackboard quiz grade next to the student's name - this will bring up the quiz with the questions, the student's answers, and the correct answers.
  4. Click the browser's "File" pulldown menu.
  5. Select "Print".
  6. You will need to print out each student's quiz separately.

Disabling students from your class

If you have any students that were placed into your class by mistake, or have chosen to withdraw, you can easily disable them from your course by following the steps listed below:
  1. Click on "Control Panel."
  2. Click on "List/Modify Users."
  3. A search box will appear. Enter the last name of the student you'd like to disable, Click "A-Z, 0-9" to browse by name, or click on the tab that says "List All" to see all students.
  4. Click the "Properties" button next to the student you'd like to disable
  5. In the "Role and Availability" section, under "Available (This Course Only)," select "Yes" or "No" to enable or disable the student, respectively.

Reset Student quizzes

If a student's Internet connection was interrupted during a Blackboard test, or if a student forgot to click Submit when uploading an Assignment, a lock will appear on the Gradebook list for that student. An instructor can clear this lock, allowing the student to take the test or submit the assignment again. The lock can also mean In Progress, so it is best to check with the student to ensure you are not clearing a test which the student is currently taking. Note: the lock turns into a exclamation point after 3 days.

  1. In the Gradebook, click the lock or exclamation point icon for a student in the column under the appropriate test or assignment.
  2. Click View to verify the student has not completed the test. At this time you can print out a copy of the test and require the student to continue the exam at the question where they left off rather than completing the entire test. This requires that the test is hand graded.
  3. Click Clear Attempt. Notify the student they can take the test again.

Tool Availability

If you ever need to enable a tool that isn't visible go to through the following steps:
  1. Control PanelGo into Control Panel.
  2. Click on the Link for "Manage Tools".
  3. Click on "Tool Availability".
  4. Click in the checkbox under the "Available" column for the areas you wish to make available.