Blackboard 9.1 Basics

Contents Introduction ........................................................................................................................................ 2

Login ................................................................................................................................................ 2

Open a Course or Community ........................................................................................................ 2

Viewing Your Course (Instructor View) ........................................................................................... 3

Viewing Your Course (Student View) .............................................................................................. 3

Working with Content ......................................................................................................................... 4

Adding Content Areas ..................................................................................................................... 4

Rearranging and Deleting Content Areas ....................................................................................... 5

Renaming Content Areas ................................................................................................................ 6

Create a Content Item with an attached document ....................................................................... 6

Emailing from Blackboard ................................................................................................................... 8

Assignments ........................................................................................................................................ 9

Creating an Assignment .................................................................................................................. 9

On line Assignment Grading ......................................................................................................... 10

Offline Assignment Grading .......................................................................................................... 12

Introduction This document is intended to give instructors new to Blackboard, a quick, visual guide to setting up their first course on Blackboard.

Login Go to blackboard.stthomas.edu. The Login to My UST (Blackboard) page displays.

Open a Course or Community Courses that you are teaching or enrolled in as a student are shown in the My Courses module on the My UST page. Communities are under My Organizations.

Viewing Your Course (Instructor View)

1. Navigation “Breadcrumb” shows location within the course structure. 2. Edit Mode allows you to toggle between an instructor view and a student view. 3. Content Frame shows the content in the selected course location. 4. Course Menu customizes the menu structure for your course. 5. Course Management Controls are tools for administering and adding functionality to your course.

Viewing Your Course (Student View)

Turning off the Edit Mode allows an instructor to see the course the way the student sees the course.

Working with Content This section will describe the basics of adding content to your Blackboard course.

Adding Content Areas Your content areas are “containers” to hold the different types of content you’ll be using in your course. The names of these containers will be the links you, and students, will see as clickable menu items.

Content areas often include:

Announcements – For posting announcements to students. This displays by default.

Syllabus – For posting the course syllabus.

Course Materials – For posting course lecture notes and materials which can be organized by subfolders if desired.

Assignments – For posting assignments.

Communication – For communicating via email, bulletin boards, blogs or wiki with instructors and classmates.

Groups – For setting up and accessing group assignment pages and tools.

Grades – For posting / viewing student grades.

Rearranging and Deleting Content Areas To rearrange:

OR

To delete:

Caution: Deleting the content area will delete the content of the pages except for any documents you have attached. These documents will still be available in the courses Content Collection.

Renaming Content Areas You can easily rename the Content Area menu items.

Create a Content Item with an attached document Common content items include:

Item. To create a content item on the page that can include text, attachments and embedded links or media files.

File. To add a link and simple description for an attached document.

Audio / Image / Video / URL. To add these file types and descriptive or instructive text in a content frame.

This example uses a Syllabus. Select the Syllabus content area you created, then click the Build Content button and select Create>Item.

The Create Item page displays in the content area. To complete this page:

Emailing from Blackboard In the Control Panel, choose Course Tools and then Send Email. Choose the recipients by group or individually.

Assignments

Creating an Assignment Select a Content area, click Create Assessment, and then Assignment.

1. Assignment Information: Give your Assignment a name. Add optional instructions. 2. Assignment Files: If there is a document associated with the Assignment, attach the file

(optional).

3. Grading: Indicate Points possible on this assignment. 4. Availability: Choose when the assignment will be available to students and how many

attempts they are allowed. 5. Due Dates: Submissions are accepted after this date, but are marked Late. 6. Recipients: Choose either All Students or separate Groups.

Online Assignment Grading In the Control Panel expand the Grade Center section and choose Needs Grading. Then select either Grade All or click on the name of the individual assignment you would like to grade.

1. Submission History shows you how many attempts have been made. 2. Review Current Attempt gives you a link to the uploaded document and any comments

the student made when submitting. 3. Add Grade points in Grade Current Attempt along with any feedback you’d like the

student to receive. 4. Instructor Notes are only viewable by the instructor.

Offline Assignment Grading In the Control Panel expand the Grade Center section and choose Full Grade Center. Click on the down arrow next to the Assignment to be graded and choose Assignment File Download.

Check the boxes next to the files to be downloaded and then click Submit. Checking the box in the title row will select all.