Logging Into Blackboard

1. Go to http://blackboard.binghamton.edu
   
   

    
2. Enter your username and password. Initially, your username will be your Binghamton University email or Kerberos login name (the part of your email address before the @ sign); your password is your POD password.

My Bb@BU Page

Modules

The modules are the areas accessible to you and have been created by the System Administrator or the course instructor. They will show what courses you are teaching or enrolled in, what Organizations you are enrolled in, Announcements for classes you are enrolled in as well as system announcements put out by the Blackboard System Administrator, and a Report Card. There are other modules available through the control panel that instructors can add. I.e.: see "Internet News", "Today in History", and "Stock Prices" above. These optional modules can be manipulated through the use of the "Add Module" button in the upper left of the screen.

Tabs

The Tabs are created and maintained by the Blackboard Support Team and will not change. They include an Institution page (My Bb@BU), Courses, Organizations, Library, and Support.

Tools

Students can quickly access their course Announcements, course calendars, and more through these front-page tools.

• Click Announcements to see class announcements.
• Click Calendar or Tasks to review your personal calendar or tasks, plus the calendar or tasks for your classes.
• View Grades will allow students to see their grades for any "Available" class they are enrolled in, if the instructor has used the gradebook.
• Send E-mail will allow anyone to send an email to another user in any class, as long as they are enrolled and the class has been made "Available".
• User Directory can be accessed to find other users from Blackboard. Click SOOT Survey to request a SOOT Survey (Instructors only) or to take an available Soot Survey (Students).

Managing the "My Courses" Display

The “My Courses” module displays the courses you are teaching and/or the courses in which you are enrolled. Blackboard courses are left on the server for a period of 18 months from the last day of class. Because of this policy the list of courses in the “My Courses” module can become extensive and may contain courses from previous semesters. This view can be restricted to only the current courses.

1. Click on the Gear icon    in the upper right corner of the My Courses module.
2. Uncheck the courses that you do not wish to have displayed
3. Click Submit
4. Only the selected courses will be displayed.

Control Panel

The instructor uses the Control Panel to build and design a course.
 

The contents of the Control Panel can be accessed by click on the pull down menus and then click on the desired area or tools.

Adding an Announcement

1. To add an announcement click Announcements on the Control Panel. 
   
   
   
   NOTE: Be sure Edit Mode is ON.
   
   
    
2. Click the Create Announcement button.  
3. Complete the subject and announcement information. The toolbar at the top of the window acts just as it does in a word document.
4. Choose the duration of the Announcement.
5. Choose the dates for the announcement to be shown by filling in dates under Display After and Display Until.
6. You can also add a link to an announcement by filling in the URL.
7. Click Submit when complete.

Emailing Through Blackboard

1. To send email, click Send Email in the Course Tools menu on the Control Panel.
2. Select whom the email should go to by selecting any of the options given.
3. Click Submit when finished.
   

Adding Items to Content Areas

Adding Items to Content Areas
NOTE: if a content area does not contain any items it will not display for students (which, for an instructor, is how the course looks when the Edit Mode is turned off.)

Turn Edit Mode on.

Click on the area you would like to add content to.

To simply type text or upload a file, click the Create Item button and follow the steps on the next page that displays. The Submit button is still there. Don’t forget to click it once you’ve completed the steps.

The Build Menu: allows you to build content within the content area. Most items here are self explanatory but a few are new to this version of Blackboard.
 
1. Create a Learning Module: A Learning Module is a set of Content Items with an accompanying structured path for progressing through the items. The path can be set so that students must view content in sequentially or set to permit students to view the content in any order. Content within a Learning Module is added and managed just like content in a Folder. The Learning Module is a shell into which other content, such as files, tools, and assessments are added.

2. Create a Module Page: Module Pages are specialized content pages that present content in discrete boxes. The modules that appear on this page can be arranged in any order. The layout and modules available on the page are chosen by the instructor from a pool of modules managed by the administrator. Module Pages can be personalized by students if the Instructor permits it. Module Pages cannot have any other types of content included in them. The list below displays all modules available to Module Pages by default unless the system administrator has changed the availability of these modules.

• Alerts - Displays notifications of past due and early warning items for all the Courses relevant to the user.
• Calculator - Displays a calculator tool that can be opened in a new window
• Content Collection: Content  - Displays a Content Collections module for a user's Content
• Dictionary - Type in a word or term to access the American Heritage Dictionary. Access to the Thesaurus for the same term is available as well.
• My Announcements - Lists all announcements that are relevant to the user.
• My Calendar - Lists all calendar events for the user.
• My Tasks - Lists all tasks for the user
• Needs Attention - Displays all items that require some type of interaction.
• Report Card - Lists all grades for the user.
• Text Pad - An open area module where the user can enter plain text or HTML for display on the page.
• Thesaurus - Type in a word or term to access Roget's II: The New Thesaurus. Access to the Dictionary for the same term is available as well.
• To Do - Displays the status (Past Due/Due) of relevant work and tasks.
• What's New - Displays a list of new items in all relevant courses and organizations.

The Evaluate Menu: allows you to add tests or surveys which have been created using the Test or Survey Manager. Also choosing any of these three options will automatically create a column in the Grade Center where you will go to retrieve the results once the students have completed either the test, survey or assignment.

1. Create Assignment: replaces the Digital Dropbox which is no longer in Blackboard. This option allows the students to upload a file into Blackboard and you will go to the Grade Center to retrieve the file.
 

The Collaborate Menu: Is all about linking to other tools within Blackboard. Using the Control Panel and Course Tools you would first go and set up the Discussion Board, chat, blogs, groups etc… Then you can use this menu to link to those tools that you set up.

NOTE: Notice here it says “Create Chat” and “Create Journals”. This is not where you set up the Chat or Journals. These will only create a link to them.
 

The More Menu: Creating a Turnitin Assignment is found here along with Google Scholar, Wiki and Echo Content.

 

Discussion Board & Collaborative Tools

Discussion Boards

Discussion Boards make it easy to poll opinions on certain subjects. They are usually created with a specific subject, but do not have to have limitations. They work very well with students who have English as a second language and find it frustrating to speak in class.

1. To open, click Discussion Boards from Course Tools on the Control Panel.
2. Click on the name of the Discussion Board.
3. Click Create Forum to create a topic. Students can then respond to the topic or create a new thread.

Virtual Classroom and Chat

This area is a virtual classroom or for lightweight chat.

1. To open, click Collaboration from the Course Tools on te Control Panel.
2. Select Office Hours for the chat utility or Lecture Hall for the virtual classroom.
3. A new collaboration session can be added by clicking on Create Collaboration Session.

Editing the Course Menu

Editing the Course Menu
If you are creating a course from scratch you will notice that the old Announcement Page is no longer the default beginning page for your course. Now there is this modular page that contains many different ways for you to communicate with your students.

NOTE: Edit Mode is turned on.

1. This button allows you to add areas to the course menu.

2.  List View and Folder View: These two buttons allow you to change the look of the menu from a list which you see here to folders which use plus signs to expand and collapse.

3.  Opens the left hand side panel in its own window.

4. Refresh: updates the screen with any changes that have been made.

5. & 6. Re-order menu items: Option 2 brings up a window that will allow you to change the order of the menu items or with option 3 you can simply place your mouse on the double sided black arrows and drag the menu item to the position you would like it to be.

7. Contextual menus: Be on the lookout for these all throughout Blackboard 9. Whenever you see them there is a menu available.
 
Adding Menu Items

Click the grey plus sign button and then click the Create Content Area command in the menu.

Type a name for the Content Area. Decide if you want to make it available to your students and then click Submit.

Place your mouse pointer on the double sided black arrow in front of your new menu item and drag it into the position that you want it.

My Bb@BU Page

The initial "My Bb@BU" tab is the  initial page displayed after you log into Blackboard.

1. Add Module: Brings up a screen where you can choose more modules to appear on your BU/Bb page.

2. Personalize Page: Allows you to change the colors of your main BU/Bb page. This shots shows the ‘Sky’ color.

3. Layout: This button allows you to move the modules around. They are in three columns and you can change which module is in which column.  NOTE: You can also move the modules around on the page simply by dragging and dropping the title bar of a module.

4. Minimize button: This button allows you to minimize the module so all you can see is its title bar.

5. Manage Module Settings: This button takes you to different screens depending on which module you click on it in. If you click on it in the My Courses module you will go to the screen that allows you to turn the display of courses on and off. In Announcements you can choose to show announcements for today, the last 7 days, the last 30 days or all.

6. Close button: allows you to turn off the display of a module.
 
7. Notification Dashboard: This is a new feature in Blackboard 9 that puts any changes from your courses on one page. It is like an expanded Announcement section.
 

1. Double Arrows: Be on the look out for these arrows all throughout the new Blackboard 9 version. The arrows are to be clicked on and they will either expand/collapse a box or produce a “contextual” menu with more commands on it.

2. Open in a new window: This button will open the module in a new window.

3. Edit Notification Settings: Use these buttons found in each module to customize general notification settings such as email format, deletion schedule, and reminder schedule for courses and organizations.

 

The Control Panel

The Control Panel
The Control Panel is no longer a separate page in Blackboard Courses. Everything is now accessed through the lower left hand side panel in a course.

If your Control Panel looks like this click on the expand arrows to expand the Control Panel menu.

The Course Tab

The Course Tab
This displays the courses that you are enrolled in or teaching. It looks very much the same as it used to.

Gear button: Use this button to customize what courses display in the My Courses module and how they display.

This is very similar to the old set up for doing this.

Edit Mode and the Disappearing Left Hand Side Panel

1. Hide Course Menu: The circled button under the number one allows you to hide the left hand side bar. Then simply click it again to bring it back.

2. Edit Mode: This button is very important in the new version of Blackboard 9. Instructors, Teaching Assistants and Course Builders will be using this button to add content to the course. When Edit Mode is turned off, barring the Control Panel, this is how the students will see your class. When Edit Mode is turned on you will see all of the buttons to be used to customize your course.