IntroductionWelcome| 00:04 | Welcome to Blackboard 9
Essential Training For Students.
| | 00:07 | My name is Patrick Crispen and for the
past 10 years I've supported Blackboard
| | 00:10 | at three of the five largest
universities in Southern California.
| | 00:13 | In this course, I'm going to take
you through all the basics you need to
| | 00:17 | successfully use the Blackboard
learning management system for your course.
| | 00:20 | I'm going to show you how to access
your Blackboard course site, how to view,
| | 00:24 | download, and even print files your
instructors uploaded to Blackboard.
| | 00:27 | I'll teach you how to upload
documents and submit assignments.
| | 00:30 | I'll teach you how the test tools work.
| | 00:33 | I'll even throw in some tips and
tricks to help you avoid some obstacles that
| | 00:36 | students sometimes encounter in Blackboard.
| | 00:39 | As you can see, we've a lot to cover.
| | 00:41 | Again, welcome to Blackboard 9
Essential Training For Students.
| | 00:44 | Let's get started!
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| Configuring your browser to work with Blackboard| 00:00 | To be able to use Blackboard well,
you're going to need three things:
| | 00:04 | a reliable and pretty fast Internet
connection, a common modern computer
| | 00:10 | operating system, Windows 98 and
Mac OS 9 just won't cut it, and a
| | 00:13 | reasonably recent web browser.
| | 00:16 | So what specific operating system
and web browser should you be running?
| | 00:19 | That depends upon the specific version
of Blackboard your institution is running.
| | 00:24 | There are different versions of
Blackboard 9, each with its own unique operating
| | 00:27 | system and browser requirements.
| | 00:30 | For the most part you need to be
running Windows XP or later, and that includes
| | 00:35 | Windows Vista and Windows 7, 32-bit,
64-bit, Ultimate, Home, Premium, it doesn't matter.
| | 00:41 | You just need to be
running Windows XP or later.
| | 00:45 | To find out what version of
Windows you're running, go to Start.
| | 00:49 | I'll actually open up my Start menu here,
and then either go to Run or in this
| | 00:54 | little Run box type the word winver.
| | 00:59 | That's Windows Version.
| | 01:00 | What will pop up is a screen telling you
what version of Windows you're running.
| | 01:06 | If you use a Mac for the most part,
you need to be running Mac 10.5 Leopard,
| | 01:12 | or 10.6 Snow Leopard.
| | 01:14 | 10.7 Lion may cause some problems.
| | 01:18 | At the time of this recording Lion
is only been out for a few weeks and
| | 01:21 | institutions and
Blackboard are still catching up.
| | 01:25 | To find out what version of Mac OS
you're running, click the Apple menu and then
| | 01:29 | choose About This Mac.
| | 01:31 | As for your web browser you need to
be running a reasonably up-to-date web
| | 01:35 | browser such as Internet Explorer,
Mozilla Firefox, Google Chrome, or Apple Safari.
| | 01:41 | By the way, a tip for Internet
Explorer 9 users, log in to Blackboard and then
| | 01:47 | in Internet Explorer right-click somewhere up
at the top of the screen and choose menu bar.
| | 01:54 | You're going to turn on the menu bar
just temporarily. And then go to Tools
| | 02:00 | and Compatibility View.
| | 02:03 | Websites are displayed as if you're running
the previous version of Internet Explorer.
| | 02:06 | You only have to do this once, so the
next time you come to Blackboard Internet
| | 02:10 | Explorer will automatically show
it to you in the Compatibility View.
| | 02:14 | I'm actually going to
turn off this menu bar now.
| | 02:17 | By the way, just because your computer
came with Internet Explorer or Safari
| | 02:23 | doesn't mean you cannot
use some other web browser.
| | 02:26 | Most savvy Internet users
have multiple web browsers.
| | 02:29 | If they encounter a web site that just
doesn't work in one web browser, they just
| | 02:33 | try it again in another web browser.
| | 02:36 | To download and install Mozilla
Firefox it's absolutely free. Just go to
| | 02:40 | getfirefox.com and click on the
green Firefox Free Download button.
| | 02:47 | To download and install Google Chrome,
just go to google.com/chrome and click on
| | 02:55 | the blue Download Google Chrome button.
| | 02:58 | Finally, some institutions
provide a browser check, usually on your
| | 03:02 | Blackboard login page.
| | 03:04 | Do not rely on some other
institution's Blackboard browser check.
| | 03:09 | That institution may be running
a different version of Blackboard
| | 03:12 | than your institution.
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| Understanding Blackboard versions and campus customization| 00:00 | In this title, we're going to be using
a version of Blackboard that may look a
| | 00:04 | little different than what
you see at your institution.
| | 00:06 | We're running Blackboard 9.1 Service Pack 5.
| | 00:09 | It's been available since April 20th, 2011.
| | 00:12 | Your institution may be running
an earlier version. That's okay.
| | 00:15 | I'll make sure to point
out what's new or different.
| | 00:18 | With relatively few exceptions, so
long as your school is running some
| | 00:22 | version of Blackboard 9.1 you should be able
to do almost anything you see in these movies.
| | 00:27 | Your institution's helpdesk can tell you
what version of Blackboard they're running.
| | 00:31 | The other thing you'll notice is that
my Blackboard screens may look completely
| | 00:37 | different than the Blackboard
screens you see at your institution.
| | 00:40 | You see, each institution has the
ability to completely customize Blackboard.
| | 00:45 | They can customize login
screen, the colors, and layout.
| | 00:49 | Let me actually log in.
| | 00:50 | Once you get into Blackboard they can
customize the tabs, they can customize the logo.
| | 00:57 | We've got the State University logo.
You can have different tab names.
| | 01:01 | The tabs could be on the left side of the
screen, the middle of the screen, the
| | 01:04 | right side of the screen.
| | 01:05 | Have a complete different color scheme
and the layout of these modules may look
| | 01:09 | completely different on your screen.
| | 01:12 | Just because what you see in these
movies doesn't exactly match what you see on
| | 01:16 | your institution's Blackboard
site, don't let that throw you.
| | 01:19 | For the most part Blackboard is Blackboard.
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1. Navigating Within BlackboardLogging in and accessing forgotten passwords| 00:00 | To login to Blackboard you're going
to need to go to your institution's
| | 00:03 | Blackboard homepage.
| | 00:04 | It's usually Blackboard, dot, your
institution's name, dot, edu, like
| | 00:09 | blackboard.princeton.edu, or courses,
dot your institution's name, dot edu.
| | 00:15 | If that doesn't work, check for a
link to Blackboard on your institution's
| | 00:18 | website or student portal. You can
also search Google for the name of your
| | 00:22 | institution and the word Blackboard.
| | 00:25 | Your institution's Blackboard login
page probably looks completely different
| | 00:29 | than what you see here.
| | 00:30 | That's okay. Logging in is logging in.
What you do is you key in your username and
| | 00:35 | your password or you look for a Login button.
| | 00:37 | Most institutions assign
you a username and password.
| | 00:42 | If you cannot remember your
username you've got to check with your
| | 00:45 | institution's helpdesk.
| | 00:47 | You can usually find a link to the
helpdesk on your institution's website.
| | 00:51 | Another way is by searching the web
for your institution's name, the word
| | 00:55 | Blackboard, and the word help.
| | 00:58 | If you cannot remember your password,
see if your institution's Blackboard login
| | 01:02 | page has a Forgot Your Password
link and you can click on that.
| | 01:06 | Don't be surprised though if you
don't see this. Many institutions actually
| | 01:10 | turned that tool off and require
you to go through the helpdesk.
| | 01:14 | If you are in primary or secondary
school, kindergarten through 12th grade here
| | 01:19 | in the States, you may also
consider checking with your teacher.
| | 01:23 | Your elementary middle school or high
school teacher may have the ability to
| | 01:28 | reset Blackboard passwords
or even create new accounts.
| | 01:31 | However, if you are in college, do
not contact your instructor about your
| | 01:36 | password. Your instructor can't help you.
| | 01:39 | One word of warning about your password: keep
it safe and do not share it with anyone else.
| | 01:46 | If you share your password with someone
else, that person will be able to log in
| | 01:50 | to your account, see your individual
assignment and course grades, and even
| | 01:54 | submit bogus homework assignments.
| | 01:56 | This could hurt your grades.
| | 01:59 | Once you've entered your correct
username and password, I'll type mine in, click
| | 02:04 | the Enter or Return key on your
keyboard or click the Login button.
| | 02:09 | There are two common problems you
may encounter when you try to log in to
| | 02:13 | Blackboard. The first one is
that you have an incorrect username.
| | 02:17 | In fact, I'm going to type my username here
and I'll actually just add some garbage here.
| | 02:21 | Now I'll type my correct password.
| | 02:24 | What you're going to see is that
Blackboard is going to throw up a message
| | 02:27 | saying an error occurred while the
system was processing this login request.
| | 02:31 | By default Blackboard's usernames are
not case-sensitive. You can type them in
| | 02:35 | uppercase or lowercase or mixed case.
| | 02:38 | However, some campuses
usernames are case-sensitive.
| | 02:41 | The solution to this error almost
always is just to retype your name.
| | 02:46 | If I type Crispen and my
correct password I can get in.
| | 02:51 | The second type of error you can get
is if your username is correct, but your
| | 02:55 | password is incorrect.
| | 02:57 | Let me actually type in the incorrect
password here, and I click on Login.
| | 03:01 | I'm going to get a different
type of error message here.
| | 03:03 | It's going to say Could not login.
| | 03:05 | Valid authentication
credentials were not provided.
| | 03:08 | That always means it is a password
issue, and it almost always means that your
| | 03:12 | Caps Lock on your keyboard is on.
| | 03:15 | If I type in the correct
password I can get in successfully.
| | 03:20 | How do you log out of Blackboard?
| | 03:22 | Well, the top right hand corner
there's this button that says Logout.
| | 03:25 | If you click on Logout,
| | 03:26 | you're logged out of the system.
| | 03:28 | However, you have to click the
Logout button and close your web browser.
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| Finding and accessing your course| 00:00 | So we've successfully logged into
Blackboard and the first thing you're
| | 00:03 | going to notice is that this version
looks completely different than the one
| | 00:08 | used by your institution.
| | 00:09 | We've got different colors.
| | 00:10 | Different logo or tabs are
over on the left-hand side.
| | 00:13 | Your institution might have the tabs
in the middle or over on the right.
| | 00:17 | You have got different modules or
boxes on this homepage. That's okay.
| | 00:20 | Even though what you see here looks
different than what you're used to,
| | 00:24 | all versions of Blackboard 9 work
pretty much the same sort of.
| | 00:27 | What you're going to do is look for the
home or the My Institution tab. It's usually
| | 00:34 | the first tab you see when you login to
Blackboard, and what I want you to do is
| | 00:38 | look for a module named
My Courses or My Courses+.
| | 00:42 | This module lists all of the courses to
which you have access. This may not be a
| | 00:48 | list of all the courses
in which you're enrolled.
| | 00:51 | If you've login to Blackboard and
don't see a particular course, don't panic.
| | 00:55 | That's actually quite normal.
| | 00:58 | Even if a course does not appear on
Blackboard, that does not mean that you're
| | 01:02 | not enrolled in that course in the real world.
| | 01:05 | Check with your instructor in class to
see if he or she is using Blackboard and
| | 01:09 | has made the course available to students.
| | 01:12 | If your instructor confirms that the
course exists and is available and the
| | 01:16 | course still doesn't show up, contact
your institution's helpdesk. You can
| | 01:20 | usually find a link to the
helpdesk on your institution's web site.
| | 01:24 | What would you do if your My Courses
list contains a wrong course, a course in
| | 01:28 | which you know you were not enrolled?
| | 01:31 | Well, first make sure that that course
is actually wrong and not just a course
| | 01:35 | from a previous academic term.
| | 01:37 | Some institutions automatically disable
student access to completed Blackboard
| | 01:41 | courses once the academic term is completed.
| | 01:44 | However, if the instructor chooses to
make that old course available to students
| | 01:48 | once again, it's going to
show up on your My Courses list.
| | 01:52 | If that's the case, contact the instructor.
| | 01:55 | If the course is actually wrong, you
know for a fact you've never enrolled in
| | 01:59 | that course, contact your institution's
helpdesk immediately, not the instructor.
| | 02:04 | By the way, if your institution does
disable student access to completed
| | 02:08 | Blackboard courses once the academic
term is completed, how could you access old
| | 02:13 | course materials and
individual grades on course assignments?
| | 02:17 | Simple. Contact the course's instructor
and request that he or she either email
| | 02:22 | you a copy of the content you wish to
access or manually makes his or her old
| | 02:27 | Blackboard course available to students again.
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| Hiding and unhiding a course menu| 00:00 | To access a Blackboard course, click
the course's name under My Courses.
| | 00:04 | I'm going to get into my
Educational Technology course.
| | 00:07 | And I want to show you a feature of
Blackboard that sometimes causes some confusion.
| | 00:13 | It turns out that Blackboard 9
offers a feature that lets you temporarily
| | 00:17 | hide your Course menu.
| | 00:19 | this gives you some extra space on the screen.
| | 00:21 | That's really helpful if you were on
a netbook with a really small screen.
| | 00:25 | Unfortunately, once you've hidden the
Course menu, you can't get into any of the
| | 00:28 | links in the course.
| | 00:29 | So I want to show you this.
| | 00:31 | To the right of the Course menu there
is this little less than sign. If I click
| | 00:37 | on that I've hidden the Course menu and
the Course menu is going to stay hidden
| | 00:40 | until I expand it again by
clicking on this greater than sign.
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| Using the course tools| 00:00 | In the next chapter, we're going to
talk about ways that you can view, download,
| | 00:03 | and print your course content.
| | 00:05 | Before I get to that though, I want
to take you on a quick tour of some of
| | 00:08 | the hidden tools that may or may
not be available to you within your
| | 00:12 | Blackboard courses.
| | 00:13 | We've got a Blackboard course open up here.
| | 00:15 | I've got the Course menu down in the
left-hand side. And some of your courses
| | 00:19 | may have a link to Tools on the Course menu.
| | 00:22 | Now your instructor can choose whether
or not this link is available to students.
| | 00:26 | So if you don't see a link to Tools
on your course that doesn't mean that
| | 00:29 | your course is broken.
| | 00:30 | it just means that your
instructor is chosen to turn this area off.
| | 00:34 | However, if you do see this link,
click on it and you'll see a collection of
| | 00:38 | course tools specifically designed for students.
| | 00:41 | Now just like your instructor can
choose to turn on or turn off the Tools area,
| | 00:46 | your instructor can also choose to
turn on or turn off specific tools.
| | 00:51 | What you see here may not exactly
match what you'll see in your Blackboard
| | 00:54 | courses, but that's okay.
| | 00:55 | Let me give you a quick tour of some
of the tools that are available here.
| | 01:00 | Announcements take you to a page that
shows you just your course announcements.
| | 01:05 | So it's a really good idea to go and
check that every now and then, just to see
| | 01:08 | if there's something new.
| | 01:10 | Some institutions have a
link to a Blackboard Help menu.
| | 01:13 | This actually opens up a new window
and is a searchable web-based help system.
| | 01:18 | I'm going to close that.
| | 01:20 | Blackboard does have a Blog tool.
| | 01:21 | Your instructor can tell you more about that.
| | 01:23 | There may be a course calendar.
| | 01:25 | Not a lot of instructors use that, but
check that just to see if your instructor
| | 01:29 | has posted any important dates.
| | 01:31 | Collaboration tools are pretty
much live virtual classrooms or a live
| | 01:36 | online chat session.
| | 01:38 | They're actually a pretty powerful tool
but your instructor is going to tell you
| | 01:41 | whether or not your course is going to use that.
| | 01:43 | There's a Contacts list here
that's actually for your instructor.
| | 01:47 | If you are in college, your instructor's
probably put the contact information in
| | 01:50 | his or her syllabus.
| | 01:52 | However, if you're in a primary or
secondary school, the contacts will give you
| | 01:56 | information about your instructor.
| | 01:57 | In this case, it's empty.
| | 01:58 | I'm going to click back on Tools. Scroll down.
| | 02:01 | The Discussion Board, this is
actually a really helpful tool.
| | 02:04 | We'll talk more about this later on
in this movie, but if you ever get into
| | 02:08 | Blackboard and you need to get into the
Course Discussion Board and it turns out
| | 02:12 | there's not a link to the Discussion
Board on the Course menu, remember that you
| | 02:16 | can always go to Tools and then
scroll down. There should be a link to the
| | 02:20 | Discussion Board there.
| | 02:21 | The Glossary is something optional.
| | 02:23 | Your instructor can create a
glossary of really important terms and their
| | 02:27 | definitions that are used in your course.
| | 02:29 | The Groups tool is a quick way for
you to collaborate with other students.
| | 02:33 | Going over to the right-hand side,
Blackboard has a built-in Journaling tool.
| | 02:38 | You've the ability in
Blackboard to send messages internally.
| | 02:42 | Most instructors and most
students don't use the Message tool.
| | 02:45 | Instead they use Send Email.
| | 02:47 | We'll talk about that in a minute.
| | 02:49 | You also have the ability to view your grades,
if your instructor chooses to post grades.
| | 02:54 | We actually have a movie about that.
| | 02:56 | My Scholar is a social bookmarking site.
| | 02:58 | You can see your course roster.
| | 03:00 | The students who are enrolled in your course.
| | 03:02 | You go here and choose Not blank.
| | 03:06 | Shows me that I've got
three people in this course.
| | 03:08 | Really, it's just going to
give me the First Name, Last Name.
| | 03:11 | That's all it does.
| | 03:11 | We'll go back to Tools, scroll down.
| | 03:15 | Scholar Course Home are the social
bookmarks that have been posted by your
| | 03:20 | instructor for your course.
| | 03:21 | That's optional. And there's a Send
Email tool and we'll talk more about
| | 03:25 | that in a later movie.
| | 03:26 | And then finally Tasks and Wikis.
| | 03:29 | Remember, your instructor has the
option to turn on or turn off the Tools area.
| | 03:35 | So if you don't see a link to Tools
on your course menu, that's not a sign
| | 03:37 | that's Blackboard is broken.
| | 03:38 | It just means that your
instructor hasn't turned it on.
| | 03:41 | And if you have any questions about
how a particular tool works, check either
| | 03:45 | the Blackboard Help tool if that's available,
| | 03:47 | check the Help link at the top of the page--
| | 03:50 | there is a link right there to Help--
or contact your institution's helpdesk.
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2. Viewing, Downloading, and Printing Course ContentLocating course content| 00:00 | Your instructor has the ability to
upload or post a file from his/her
| | 00:04 | computer to Blackboard.
| | 00:05 | It could be a Microsoft Word file, a
Microsoft PowerPoint presentation, an Adobe
| | 00:09 | Acrobat file, a picture, a
sound file, a video, you name it.
| | 00:13 | Your instructor may post all of his/her
files at once or just one file at a time
| | 00:18 | throughout the academic term.
| | 00:20 | As a student, you can log into
Blackboard, access your course, and in this case
| | 00:24 | I will get in to my Educational
Technology course, and then click on that file's
| | 00:29 | hyperlink to view or
download a copy of that file.
| | 00:32 | But how do you find the file within your course?
| | 00:35 | Well, the easiest way to find a file
within your Blackboard courses is to click
| | 00:39 | the links on the Course menu on
the left side of your course site.
| | 00:43 | For example, I'm looking for a
PowerPoint presentation from my first class.
| | 00:48 | I think it was called Cognitive Art.
| | 00:50 | So I click on Homepage. No,
that's not going to do it.
| | 00:53 | I click on Information. No, not there.
| | 00:55 | I click on Content. No, not
seen it there. That was Week 1.
| | 00:59 | Let's see, and scroll down.
There it is, Cognitive Art.
| | 01:04 | If you cannot find what you looking for
in the course menu, I am going to show
| | 01:08 | you a little secret.
| | 01:09 | At the top of the course menu, there is
a little folder and if you click on this
| | 01:12 | folder view icon and click on the
Expand All, it actually shows you your entire
| | 01:19 | course contents as a folder and you
can then scroll down and say okay, I am
| | 01:24 | looking for something, hey, The
Cognitive Art of Educational Technology.
| | 01:27 | That's probably it.
| | 01:29 | To switch back by the way, you are
going to click back onto the List View.
| | 01:33 | Keep in mind though that while some of
your instructors may choose to post a
| | 01:38 | lot of files to Blackboard, some of your
instructors may choose not to post anything at all.
| | 01:44 | Don't be surprised if your
course is completely empty.
| | 01:47 | That usually just means of your instructor
hasn't posted anything to Blackboard yet.
| | 01:52 | Also keep in mind that your instructor
has the ability to remove or hide files
| | 01:57 | at any point in time
throughout the academic term.
| | 02:01 | It's not uncommon for a file to be
there one day and for that same file
| | 02:05 | to disappear the next.
| | 02:07 | For example, in this course I am
actually going to go back to Content.
| | 02:10 | I've got a Week 1 and Week 2 folder.
| | 02:13 | This instructor may actually choose to
hide the Week 1 folder and files once
| | 02:16 | Week 2 starts and once that happens
Week 1 is just going to disappear.
| | 02:21 | So if you can't find what you looking
for and you know the file is there, check
| | 02:26 | your class notes or syllabus for the
file's location or contact your instructor.
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| Downloading and printing course content and files| 00:00 | In the last movie, we looked at how
to locate your instructor's files in
| | 00:03 | your Blackboard course.
| | 00:04 | In this case, we clicked on Content and we
clicked on Week 1 and there are the files.
| | 00:09 | We also learned that your instructor
has the ability to remove or hide files
| | 00:13 | at any point in time.
| | 00:14 | But how do you download files from
Blackboard to your computer so that you
| | 00:18 | have your own copy?
| | 00:20 | While there is no way for you to batch
download all the files in your Blackboard
| | 00:24 | course to your personal computer at once,
you can easily download individual files
| | 00:29 | so long as that file is
still available to students.
| | 00:32 | If your institution is running a more
recent version of Blackboard 9, like say
| | 00:36 | Blackboard 9.1, just right-click or
Command+click on the file that you want to
| | 00:43 | download, and if you're using
Internet Explorer, choose Save target as.
| | 00:50 | If you're using Mozilla Firefox or
Google Chrome, choose Save Link As, and if
| | 00:55 | you're using Apple Safari,
choose Download Linked File.
| | 01:00 | This is actually going to say okay,
well where do you want to save it?
| | 01:03 | I'm going to save it on my
Desktop and it's now saved the file.
| | 01:06 | I actually have a little pop-up menu down
here at the bottom saying it's been saved.
| | 01:10 | I can confirm that by closing this
and there is the file on my Desktop.
| | 01:14 | So I now have a copy separate from
Blackboard sitting there waiting for me.
| | 01:19 | Now what happens if your campus is
running an older version of Blackboard 9,
| | 01:24 | like say Blackboard 9.0?
| | 01:26 | Well, right-clicking on the
file's hyperlink may not work for you.
| | 01:31 | In that case, click the file's hyperlink
just as if you were trying to open the file.
| | 01:36 | I'll actually try that here.
| | 01:38 | If you have a modern web browser, once
you click on the link, your web browser
| | 01:42 | should for most types of files ask you if
you'd like to either open or save the file.
| | 01:48 | If you have Internet Explorer, you may
need to click on that yellow security
| | 01:51 | warning bar and choose Download File.
| | 01:53 | In this case, I'll click on
Save and it's now saved it.
| | 01:57 | If I click on Open folder now, you can see
that it's downloaded the file to my computer.
| | 02:02 | So this is going to work for most
files with the exception of Acrobat files.
| | 02:08 | If I try to open up an Adobe Acrobat file,
a PDF, it's actually going to open it
| | 02:13 | up within the web browser itself.
| | 02:16 | I'm going to click on this useful_
sites and I want you to notice that it
| | 02:19 | actually opens it up within the web browser.
| | 02:23 | So when you click on a link to a PDF,
your web browser doesn't actually ask
| | 02:27 | you if you would like to open or save the file;
instead it just opens the PDF in a new frame.
| | 02:33 | To save a copy of this framed PDF to
your computer, click the Save button in the
| | 02:39 | top-left corner of the PDF, not your
browser Save button, but rather the Save
| | 02:45 | button on the PDF itself.
| | 02:47 | Click on Save and now save
where do you want to save it.
| | 02:50 | I'm going to put it on my Desktop.
| | 02:51 | I now have a copy of that on my desktop.
| | 02:54 | But how do you actually
print something from Blackboard?
| | 02:57 | Well, as silly as this may sound, the
easiest way is to download the file from
| | 03:02 | Blackboard to your computer,
| | 03:04 | open the file, and then print it from there.
| | 03:07 | One thing you don't want to do though
is go to File > Print in your web browser.
| | 03:13 | See, Blackboard uses something called
iFrames, which allows your web browser to
| | 03:17 | display multiple pages, such as the
content of your course syllabus and
| | 03:21 | Blackboard's navigation
menu, all at the same time.
| | 03:25 | The problem is that your web browser
doesn't know which frame of content you
| | 03:30 | actually want to print, and if you
ever try to print out a page and it
| | 03:33 | actually didn't print out,
| | 03:34 | that's what's going on.
| | 03:35 | Instead of going to File > Print, I'm
actually going to go back here into the Week
| | 03:40 | 1 folder and say I only
want to print this Week 1 list.
| | 03:44 | What I can do, I don't want to click
Ctrl+P or Command+P. I'm actually going to
| | 03:49 | right-click or Command+click on the
area that I want to print and then I'm
| | 03:56 | going to go and choose
Print in Internet Explorer.
| | 03:59 | In Mozilla Firefox, right-click
and choose This Frame > Print Frame.
| | 04:04 | In Apple Safari, right-click and
choose Print Frame, and in Google Chrome,
| | 04:08 | right-click and choose Print.
| | 04:10 | This actually prints a copy of what
you are seeing on your screen and it
| | 04:15 | won't actually include the State University and
the navigation bar down in the left-hand side.
| | 04:19 | Just the content that you want to print.
| | 04:21 | You're going to be downloading and
printing a lot in your Blackboard courses.
| | 04:26 | So feel free to come back to this
movie from time to time if you need a refresher.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Using and entering a publisher's student access key| 00:00 | In addition to being able to upload
files from his/her computer to Blackboard,
| | 00:04 | your instructor also has the ability
to add extra content from a third party
| | 00:08 | like your textbook publisher
into your Blackboard course.
| | 00:12 | Not always, but sometimes, this extra
content requires you to enter an access key.
| | 00:18 | This multi-digit key usually comes
bundled with your course's textbook.
| | 00:21 | In fact, look inside the front or
back cover to see if there's a key.
| | 00:26 | You may also have to purchase this key
from your institution's bookstore or from
| | 00:30 | the publisher's web site.
| | 00:32 | How can you tell if you need an access key?
| | 00:34 | Well, let's actually get
into my sociology course here.
| | 00:39 | So far so good and let me get in
here in I am going to click on Course
| | 00:43 | Documents, and it actually
asks me for an access key.
| | 00:48 | So the first time you try to access
Blackboard course content that requires a
| | 00:52 | special access key, Blackboard is going
to display a page asking you to, well,
| | 00:57 | enter your access key.
| | 00:59 | I actually have an access key here.
| | 01:00 | I am going to paste it in.
| | 01:03 | Every key is different.
| | 01:04 | So don't try to use this key.
| | 01:06 | It's not going to work for your textbooks.
| | 01:08 | Once you click Submit, it then
gives you access to that course content.
| | 01:13 | Once you enter the key you now have full
access to all of the publisher's course
| | 01:17 | content throughout the academic term.
| | 01:19 | You only have to enter this information once.
| | 01:22 | Some students may never have to enter
an access key while others may have to do
| | 01:26 | it in each course they take.
| | 01:28 | It really depends upon your instructor.
| | 01:30 | If Blackboard asks you to enter an
access key, that just means that your
| | 01:34 | instructor has chosen to add content
from a third party like your textbook
| | 01:38 | publisher into your Blackboard course.
| | 01:40 | You can usually find the key
bundled with your textbook.
| | Collapse this transcript |
|
|
3. Submitting Assignments and Taking TestsUploading and submitting an assignment| 00:00 | Your instructor may require you from
time to time to use Blackboard to submit
| | 00:05 | something for a grade.
| | 00:06 | This could be an essay, a term paper,
a small multimedia file, something that
| | 00:10 | you've created or written
as part of your coursework.
| | 00:14 | Submitting an assignment to
Blackboard is actually a three-step process.
| | 00:18 | First, you have to find the
assignment within your Blackboard course.
| | 00:23 | Second, you have to
carefully read and follow all of the
| | 00:26 | assignment's instructions.
| | 00:27 | And third, you have to get your content
in the Blackboard and submit it to your
| | 00:32 | instructor for a grade.
| | 00:34 | Let's say that our instructor told
us in class that we have to submit an
| | 00:37 | assignment, a paper on mobile learning.
| | 00:40 | So how do we actually locate that
assignment in our Blackboard course?
| | 00:44 | Instructors can place assignments anywhere.
| | 00:48 | Most of the time your instructor
will tell you where in the course an
| | 00:51 | assignment is located.
| | 00:52 | The instructor usually does this
in class, in an email message, in an
| | 00:56 | announcement, or even in the course syllabus.
| | 00:59 | Sometimes instructors also put links to
assignments in an Assignment folder on
| | 01:03 | the Course menu. And sometimes they don't.
| | 01:06 | In fact, in this case our instructor
didn't create an Assignments folder, so
| | 01:10 | we're going to have to browse through
the course and look for our assignment.
| | 01:14 | Just as with course content, the
easiest way to find an assignment within your
| | 01:18 | Blackboard course is to click
the links on the Course menu.
| | 01:21 | I'm going to click on Content.
| | 01:23 | I'm going to click on my Week 1 folder,
scroll down a little bit, we know we're
| | 01:27 | looking for the Mobile
Learning Paper, and there it is.
| | 01:29 | So we were able to find it.
| | 01:31 | If you can't find what you're looking
for on the Course menu, remember that you
| | 01:36 | can always click on the Folder View icon.
| | 01:39 | If I click on Folder View and then
click on Expand All, it actually shows me
| | 01:44 | everything that's within my course
and I am looking for my Mobile Learning
| | 01:47 | Paper, and there it is.
| | 01:48 | So if you can't find what you're
looking for by browsing through the Course menu,
| | 01:52 | you can actually go
into this giant Folder View.
| | 01:56 | I am going to go back to List View though.
| | 01:58 | By the way, if you still cannot find
your assignment, contact your instructor
| | 02:03 | and keep in mind that your instructor
has the ability to hide an assignment from
| | 02:07 | you after the due date to keep
you from submitting late work.
| | 02:11 | But in this case we found
our assignment. That's step 1.
| | 02:14 | Step number 2 is to carefully read the
assignment's instructions and to do that,
| | 02:19 | I am actually going to open up the assignment.
| | 02:21 | I am going to scroll down and in
the Assignment Information it gives me
| | 02:25 | the assignment name.
| | 02:26 | It gives me any instructions, and
notice that I've got three things I've got
| | 02:31 | to have in my paper, and it also says my paper
has to be written in APA format and see attached.
| | 02:39 | In this case it looks like the instructor
has given us a template we need to download.
| | 02:42 | To do that just click on the file's
hyperlink and it will say what do you want
| | 02:45 | to do, and I can open it or save it.
| | 02:47 | I am going to save it to my computer.
| | 02:50 | The final step is to get your content
in the Blackboard and submit it to your
| | 02:53 | instructor for a grade.
| | 02:55 | Now, let me minimize Blackboard for
just a minute. I want you to notice that I
| | 02:59 | actually have a paper on my desktop.
| | 03:01 | I actually downloaded the template that
the instructor gave me and I've written
| | 03:04 | my paper and I'm now ready
to submit it to Blackboard.
| | 03:07 | So I am going to get back into
Blackboard and I am going to scroll down here.
| | 03:12 | Now, I want you to notice that there
is a Submission textbox and you may be
| | 03:16 | tempted to type or even cut
and paste your content here.
| | 03:20 | Don't do that unless your instructor
specifically told you to put your answers here.
| | 03:26 | Most instructors prefer that you
leave the Submission box empty and
| | 03:30 | instead attach a file.
| | 03:32 | So I am actually going to scroll down and I am
going to Browse My Computer and attach a file.
| | 03:37 | I'll click on Browse My Computer, go to
my Desktop, I've got my crispen_paper1,
| | 03:44 | click on OK, and I've now attached it.
| | 03:47 | Some things to remember. Your filenames
cannot have any special characters in them.
| | 03:53 | If you have to hit the Ctrl or Alt
keys to produce a particular character or
| | 03:57 | letter in the filename, that most
likely it isn't going to work online.
| | 04:01 | Short filenames are always
better than long filenames.
| | 04:05 | And if you've got a Mac, remember that
you need to put the file extension for
| | 04:08 | the file so that your instructor
who may be running a PC can open it.
| | 04:13 | So if you actually have a Microsoft
Word document, remember to put the .doc or
| | 04:18 | .docx at the end of the filename
before you upload it to Blackboard.
| | 04:22 | And don't try to upload a big file.
| | 04:25 | Most institutions limit the size of
individual files that you can upload.
| | 04:29 | If you do not see a Browse My Computer
button, but instead see a button that
| | 04:35 | says Browse for Local File, that means
your institution is running an earlier
| | 04:40 | version of Blackboard and you have
an extra step to go through this.
| | 04:44 | You Browse for Local File, and once
you do that there is going to be one more
| | 04:48 | button that will show up. It says Attach File.
| | 04:51 | You must click that extra button.
| | 04:54 | If you don't, you haven't attached anything.
| | 04:56 | In this case we're running
Blackboard 9.1, so we don't have to do it.
| | 04:59 | But how can you tell that
you've successfully attached a file?
| | 05:03 | Look under Attach Files. Let me scroll down
a little bit and it says Attached Files.
| | 05:08 | If you see your file, you've
actually successfully attached your file.
| | 05:15 | If you haven't, if this Attached
Files areas is blank, you have not
| | 05:20 | attached anything else.
| | 05:23 | And if you've attached the wrong thing,
you can click on Do not attach. You can
| | 05:26 | then remove it and go through it.
| | 05:28 | Most instructors only allow one
submission attempt per assignment, so
| | 05:32 | double-check that you've
attached the correct file.
| | 05:36 | You can scroll down and there is this
Comments box. You can give your instructor
| | 05:41 | some comments, although that's
completely optional. Most people just leave that blank.
| | 05:45 | And then click on Submit
when you're ready to submit your paper.
| | 05:48 | This is actually going to upload a
copy of your file from your computer to
| | 05:53 | Blackboard and submit it to your instructor.
| | 05:56 | It gives me a Success box at the top
saying the assignment is complete, Review
| | 06:00 | Submission History,
and it gives me a receipt.
| | 06:03 | I actually would recommend
that you print this receipt out.
| | 06:06 | It's just in case your instructor says
that he or she didn't receive your file.
| | 06:10 | I am going to scroll down a bit.
| | 06:12 | I want you to see in the Attached
Files I can see that I attached a file.
| | 06:17 | If the Attached Files line is
blank, contact your instructor.
| | 06:20 | Let your instructor know that you
accidentally submitted a blank assignment and
| | 06:23 | ask if you can resubmit the assignment.
| | 06:26 | How will your instructor grade
and return your assignment to you?
| | 06:29 | Well, some will return the assignment
on paper in class, some will send you an
| | 06:34 | email, and some will upload your grade
in their comments back to Blackboard,
| | 06:38 | and you click on the Assignments link
after the grades have been posted to see your grade.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Taking an online test| 00:00 | Taking a test in a Blackboard course
is pretty simple, but there are five
| | 00:04 | obstacles that you need to be aware of.
| | 00:06 | The first obstacle is not
knowing where the test is located.
| | 00:10 | Your instructor may have posted an
announcement that lets you know where
| | 00:13 | the test is located.
| | 00:15 | If not, click the links on the Course
menu on the left side of your course site.
| | 00:19 | In this case I am going to click on Content.
| | 00:21 | I'm looking for my first test.
| | 00:23 | Click on the Week 1 folder...
and it's not showing up there.
| | 00:27 | Okay, we'll try some place else.
| | 00:29 | Let's go into my Week 2 folder. Again,
we're looking for Test number 1, there it is.
| | 00:33 | If I can't find my test that way, what
I can do is I can click on the Folder
| | 00:39 | View, click on Expand All.
| | 00:41 | The Folder View will actually show me
everything within my course, and there is
| | 00:44 | my Test 1 right there.
| | 00:46 | Remember to get back into the List
View, click on the List View icon.
| | 00:51 | If you can't find it by browsing
through the course content, contact your
| | 00:54 | instructor, not your helpdesk.
| | 00:56 | Remember, your instructor is
responsible for your course content.
| | 01:00 | So that's the first obstacle, not
knowing where the test is located.
| | 01:04 | The second obstacle is double-clicking.
| | 01:06 | Let me show you what I mean.
| | 01:07 | I am going to click on Test 1 and
I am now ready to begin the test.
| | 01:12 | Some people accidentally will click on
Begin, and instead of single clicking,
| | 01:16 | they'll double click.
| | 01:18 | Never double click to start a test.
| | 01:20 | The first time you click you're telling
Blackboard I'm ready to take the test.
| | 01:25 | The second time you click you're telling
Blackboard, hey, take that first test I
| | 01:30 | was taking, give me a 0 on that,
and let me take that test again.
| | 01:34 | And most instructors don't let
you take a test the second time.
| | 01:37 | I'll click on that once
and this opens up the test.
| | 01:42 | So I've got the instructions at the
top of the page. I can scroll down.
| | 01:46 | And this is pretty self-explanatory.
| | 01:48 | I've got a multiple-choice question.
| | 01:50 | I'm going to answer all these
questions and scroll down. I've got an essay.
| | 01:55 | I can then type in an essay
question or cut and paste it.
| | 01:59 | Although I really strongly recommend
that you don't cut and paste any essay
| | 02:03 | answers from Microsoft Word.
| | 02:06 | What ends up happening when you do
that is that it gets some really strange
| | 02:10 | formatting that comes over.
| | 02:12 | My recommendation is cut and paste it
into some text editor on your program.
| | 02:17 | Simple text or Text Editor on a Mac or
Notepad on your PC and then paste it from there.
| | 02:23 | So I've got an essay.
| | 02:25 | I'm actually just going to type
in some garbage here, scroll down.
| | 02:29 | And the next thing I've got here is
the ability for me to do just a pull-down list,
| | 02:33 | and I'll actually
get this one wrong as well.
| | 02:36 | The third obstacle is your scroll
wheel may actually change your answers.
| | 02:42 | Earlier versions of Blackboard 9, if I
had an answer highlighted, true/false,
| | 02:46 | multiple choice, or one of these pull-
down lists, and I actually scrolled my
| | 02:51 | mouse wheel down to scroll down the page,
| | 02:54 | it would automatically change my
answer. It would actually scroll to
| | 02:57 | the bottom of the list.
| | 02:59 | The fourth obstacle is leaving the
test before you have saved your answer.
| | 03:05 | This is kind of strange, but when I'm
viewing this page I am actually viewing
| | 03:09 | the page on my computer, not on Blackboard.
| | 03:11 | Blackboard doesn't know my answers yet.
| | 03:14 | It's not going to know my answers until
either I click Save Answer next to each
| | 03:19 | answer or I scroll down to the bottom
of the page and click Save All Answers.
| | 03:28 | So remember, save your answers before
you submit the test and I say that to
| | 03:33 | you because you can accidentally leave the
course before you have submitted your answers.
| | 03:39 | Try to avoid taking a test
on a wireless connection.
| | 03:41 | Use a wired connection instead.
| | 03:43 | You don't want your Internet
connection to drop in the middle of your test.
| | 03:47 | Also, close all other programs on
your computer before you begin a test.
| | 03:52 | You may accidentally go to close a
pop-up message or an instant message and
| | 03:57 | accidentally close your browser window and
that could end up counting it as 0 on the test.
| | 04:03 | Don't hit the Back or Reload buttons on
your web browser, and plan to complete
| | 04:08 | the test in one sitting.
| | 04:11 | Finally, save your
answers early, save them often.
| | 04:15 | You accidentally may leave your test
before you have submitted your answer.
| | 04:19 | To solve that make sure that you're
always saving your answers, just to make sure
| | 04:23 | that if your connection is
dropped, you haven't lost any work.
| | 04:28 | The fifth thing, and I've seen a lot
of students do this is, they'll save all
| | 04:32 | their answers, let me click on that
again, but they'll never actually save
| | 04:36 | and submit the test.
| | 04:37 | When you're done with your test,
click on the Save and Submit button.
| | 04:41 | If you have not answered all the
questions, Blackboard will automatically
| | 04:46 | pop-up a message saying you have not
answered these certain questions, and it
| | 04:49 | will give you the opportunity to go back, so
you're not actually completely turning it in yet.
| | 04:54 | Right now when I click on Save and Submit,
it's going to say are you really sure
| | 04:58 | you want to do this?
| | 04:59 | Tell you what, hit Cancel. I'll take
you back to the test, but if you're really
| | 05:03 | absolutely sure, click OK.
| | 05:04 | So you actually have to click on Submit
and then click on OK to submit your test.
| | 05:10 | And I have now submitted my test.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Viewing grades| 00:00 | Your instructor may or may
not post grades to Blackboard.
| | 00:03 | It's completely up to your instructor.
| | 00:05 | But if the grades are in
Blackboard, how do you view them?
| | 00:08 | If you log into Blackboard, under
tools there may be a link to My Grades.
| | 00:13 | If you click on My Grades, you will see
every course in which you're enrolled,
| | 00:17 | and if you click on the name of your
course, you will be taken to the Gradebook
| | 00:20 | for that particular course.
| | 00:22 | If on the My Institution tab
there isn't a link to My Grades, you can
| | 00:26 | actually get into the course, and
then under Tools click on My Grades.
| | 00:31 | Some instructors also put a My Grades
link on the Course menu itself, but in
| | 00:35 | this case I am going to click on My
Grades and this takes me into the Gradebook
| | 00:39 | for this particular course.
| | 00:40 | This information is completely private.
| | 00:44 | You can only see your own grades, not
the grades of other students, and other
| | 00:48 | students cannot see your grades. They are safe.
| | 00:51 | We've got a table here with some columns.
| | 00:53 | The first column is the
name of the particular item.
| | 00:55 | I've got the Weighted Total and the
Total, and then finally the individual
| | 00:58 | things in my course for
which I'm getting a grade.
| | 01:01 | The Details button, if I click on
that, it actually just gives me some
| | 01:04 | information that the instructor
entered when the instructor created
| | 01:08 | this particular item.
| | 01:09 | The next column over from
that is Last Student Activity.
| | 01:12 | It just shows me the last time I
interacted with that particular item.
| | 01:16 | For example, I submitted my
Mobile Learning Paper at 11:13 AM.
| | 01:20 | The next column over is going to show
me the last time that the instructor
| | 01:24 | interacted with that.
| | 01:25 | It may be the date and time that the
instructor graded that particular item and
| | 01:29 | that's what happened here.
| | 01:31 | The next column, that's the important column.
| | 01:33 | It shows me the grades.
| | 01:34 | So I've got my Total Grade.
I've got 200 out of 300.
| | 01:37 | That's Points Possible in
the column to the right.
| | 01:40 | I can see for my Mobile
Learning Paper I've got 95 out of 100.
| | 01:44 | Actually I got a pretty good
comment from the instructor there.
| | 01:47 | I feel good about that.
| | 01:48 | I've got 10 out of a 100
on Test 1. That's not good.
| | 01:51 | 95 out of a 100 for Quiz 2.
| | 01:54 | An exclamation mark, what does that mean?
| | 01:56 | Well, we'll talk about that in a minute.
| | 01:58 | Let me show you something.
| | 01:59 | I want to go back to my Mobile Learning Paper.
| | 02:02 | Notice that the Mobile Learning
Paper, it's blue and underlined.
| | 02:04 | That's a hyperlink.
| | 02:05 | If I click on that, it actually takes
me to my Submission History and shows me
| | 02:11 | not only my grade, but any feedback my
instructor has given to me, including a
| | 02:17 | return of my paper marked up.
| | 02:19 | Some instructors will return
assignments in Blackboard through the My Grades
| | 02:23 | tool and this is how you view it.
| | 02:24 | Let me go back now to My Grades, and
I've got Test 1, and I notice that I've
| | 02:30 | got 10 out of a 100. That's terrible.
| | 02:32 | Let me click on this and see what's going on.
| | 02:34 | I'm not getting much information here,
but notice under Calculated Grade it says
| | 02:38 | 10 and I can click on this.
| | 02:40 | Now, depending on how the instructor
has set this up, I might get a lot of
| | 02:44 | information when I click
on this or just a little.
| | 02:47 | In this case the instructor shows me,
not only the complete test that I took,
| | 02:52 | it shows me the correct answers, shows me
my answers, and even gives me some feedback.
| | 02:58 | The instructor could choose
any or all of those things.
| | 03:00 | So you might just see that you've got a
certain number wrong or you might just
| | 03:04 | see the incorrect answer, but not the
correct answer. It's up to the Instructor.
| | 03:09 | But I can now review this as I prepare
for my next test and say oh, I need to
| | 03:13 | reread something to get ready for my next test.
| | 03:16 | Let me scroll back, click on OK, get
back to the Grade Center, click on OK one
| | 03:21 | more time, and I'm now back to My Grades.
| | 03:23 | So that's pretty much the Grade Center,
except for that green exclamation mark.
| | 03:29 | What the heck does that mean?
| | 03:30 | Well, if I click on the Icon Legend down
here on the bottom left-hand corner,
| | 03:34 | it shows me that the
exclamation mark means Needs Grading.
| | 03:38 | Doesn't mean that I have to do anything.
| | 03:39 | It just means that I've turned in my
second paper, but the instructor hasn't
| | 03:43 | actually graded it yet.
| | 03:44 | So we just have to keep checking
back until my instructor grades it.
| | 03:48 | By the way, how do you view your
final grade, the grade that goes on your
| | 03:53 | official transcript?
| | 03:54 | Well, at many institutions Blackboard
is not the official gradebook of record.
| | 04:00 | At those institutions your final
transcript grade may not be posted to
| | 04:05 | Blackboard at all, but will instead
be posted to your institution's student
| | 04:09 | portal or Records Office website.
| | 04:11 | Remember, your transcript contains all
of the official end of term grades for
| | 04:16 | each course you have ever
taken at your institution.
| | 04:19 | Check with your instructor, your
institution's registrar, or your institution's
| | 04:24 | helpdesk if you have any questions
about viewing your official final grades.
| | 04:29 | How do you access individual
assignment grades from previous academic terms?
| | 04:33 | If the course is still on
Blackboard, access the course.
| | 04:36 | You can click on the hyperlink under My
Courses or you can click on My Grades, and
| | 04:40 | it should show up there.
| | 04:41 | However, if the course is no longer
on Blackboard, you're going to need to
| | 04:45 | contact the course's instructor directly.
| | 04:48 | How do you correct a
grading mistake in Blackboard?
| | 04:51 | Let me click on this and let's say that
I just absolutely think that this 10 is
| | 04:55 | not right. I think the
instructor has made a mistake here.
| | 04:59 | First, don't take the
grading mistake personally.
| | 05:02 | Instructors sometimes make
grading mistakes. It just happens.
| | 05:06 | Second, don't contact
your institution's helpdesk.
| | 05:10 | The content of your course, including
your grades, is handled by your instructor.
| | 05:14 | So if there is a grading issue, contact
your instructor immediately, not the helpdesk.
| | 05:19 | And if you're unable to get in
touch with your instructor, check your
| | 05:22 | institution's student handbook for tips on
how to handle grade disputes or challenges.
| | 05:27 | If you need to submit something late,
contact your instructor first and see if
| | 05:32 | he or she will let you do that.
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|
|
4. Communicating Using Email and Discussion BoardsSending email| 00:00 | Blackboard has a built-in tool that
lets you send email to specific people or
| | 00:04 | groups within a Blackboard course.
| | 00:07 | However, some institutions and some
instructors choose to disable this tool.
| | 00:12 | So don't be surprised if Blackboard's
Send Email tool is not available to you,
| | 00:16 | particularly if you're a student
in a primary or secondary school,
| | 00:19 | kindergarten through 12th grade.
| | 00:21 | If the Send Email tool is available to
you, you should find out link to it on
| | 00:25 | your My Institution or Home tab.
| | 00:27 | Under Tools you should see
something that's says Send Email.
| | 00:31 | Click on that, click on the course,
and then click on the recipients.
| | 00:38 | If you go into My Institution and you
don't see Send Email, you may be able to
| | 00:43 | find a link to the Send Email tool by
clicking on the name of your course under My Courses.
| | 00:48 | Some instructors add a link to
Send Email on the Course menu.
| | 00:52 | If not, click on Tools and then scroll
down and you'll see the Send Email tool here.
| | 00:59 | Either way takes you to the same place.
| | 01:01 | The next step is for you to choose to recipient.
| | 01:05 | You can choose to send it
to everyone in the course.
| | 01:07 | This is all users within the course,
not all of the users within Blackboard.
| | 01:11 | All the groups within the course,
all of the students within a particular
| | 01:14 | course, just the TAs or instructors or
the observers, or you can choose select
| | 01:19 | people to receive your message.
| | 01:21 | In this case I'm going to send an
email message to everyone in the course.
| | 01:24 | So I'm going to click on All Users.
| | 01:26 | I'm going to type in my subject line.
| | 01:28 | Notice that I don't have to know the email
addresses for the people enrolled in the course.
| | 01:32 | Blackboard does that automatically.
| | 01:34 | And I'll put in my message.
| | 01:36 | I've now created an email message to
everyone in the course telling them about a
| | 01:41 | study group that's coming up.
| | 01:42 | I want you to notice that the
formatting here is just text.
| | 01:47 | There is no way for you to
put in any colors or pictures.
| | 01:51 | Email messages that come out of
Blackboard are simply text-based messages.
| | 01:56 | You can scroll down if you
want to and attach a file.
| | 02:00 | I really don't recommend you do that.
| | 02:02 | Some peoples email accounts will
actually take any message that has an
| | 02:06 | attachment to it and
think its spam and delete it.
| | 02:10 | My recommendation is find some other
way to hand the file out, on a thumb drive
| | 02:15 | or something like that.
| | 02:16 | I'm now ready to send my email I click on
Submit and my message will be delivered.
| | 02:21 | Now I've got an error message here
saying an error or warning occurred
| | 02:24 | while sending this email.
| | 02:25 | Some or all recipients
may not receive the message.
| | 02:28 | I got that message because some of the
people in this fake course are actually
| | 02:32 | fake students with fake email addresses.
| | 02:34 | When you click Submit you
shouldn't see this error message.
| | 02:37 | So I'm just going to close it.
| | 02:38 | Now Blackboard doesn't actually keep a
copy of the email messages that you send out.
| | 02:44 | It's not actually an Inbox.
| | 02:46 | You're going to have to check your own
email inbox for a copy of what you just
| | 02:50 | set out, but Blackboard will send you a copy.
| | 02:53 | One word of warning.
| | 02:55 | Blackboard is an institutional
academic resource and using institutional
| | 03:00 | academic resources for any personal,
commercial, or political purposes is almost
| | 03:06 | always considered to be a violation
of your institution's acceptable use
| | 03:10 | policies and it is a sure-fire way to
get yourself into trouble with your fellow
| | 03:15 | students, your instructor, and
your institution's administration.
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| Navigating a discussion board| 00:00 | Blackboard's Discussion Board, like
other online Internet forums or message
| | 00:04 | boards, is a tool that allows you to
participate in asynchronous discussions on
| | 00:09 | a variety of topics,
usually chosen by your instructor.
| | 00:12 | What happens is your instructor
usually initiates the conversation.
| | 00:16 | You then chime in along with the other
students, and then your instructor jumps
| | 00:20 | in from time to time to offer
feedback and to guide the conversation.
| | 00:24 | So how do you access your
course's Discussion Board?
| | 00:26 | Well, your instructor may actually
add a link to the Discussion Board on
| | 00:31 | the Course menu itself.
| | 00:33 | So let me actually get into my
Educational Technology course. Hey look!
| | 00:37 | There actually is a link
to the Discussions there.
| | 00:40 | If you don't see a link to the
Discussion Board on the Course menu, click on
| | 00:43 | Tools and then scroll down.
| | 00:45 | There should be a link to the Discussion Board
within the Tool menu that takes you to the same place.
| | 00:50 | If both of those don't work, you're
going to need to browse through your
| | 00:53 | course and click on either List View or Folder View
and try to find the Discussion Board link there.
| | 00:59 | Your instructor can choose to put a link to
the Discussion Board anywhere within the course.
| | 01:05 | Once you get into the Discussion Board,
I want to give you a quick tour of what
| | 01:08 | you're going to see.
| | 01:10 | You're going to see Forums and
those are rooms in which a particular
| | 01:13 | conversation takes place.
| | 01:16 | And if you click on the forum name
or actually just click the button with
| | 01:19 | the two downward facing chevrons to the
right and click Open, both do the same thing,
| | 01:24 | it opens up the particular discussion forum.
| | 01:28 | Within that room you're going to see threads.
| | 01:30 | It's an individual post and then
any replies to that particular post.
| | 01:36 | Now this table allows you to sort by
date, alphabetically by thread name or I can
| | 01:42 | also sort by Author, Status.
| | 01:44 | I can see the number of Unread Posts.
| | 01:47 | It's actually a really dangerous number.
| | 01:48 | I'll show you why in a minute.
| | 01:50 | Right now, I'm in something called List View.
| | 01:53 | List View shows me a list of all the
different threads, the conversations
| | 01:58 | that are going on here.
| | 01:59 | If I click on Tree View, Tree View
actually shows me the list but then puts a
| | 02:05 | little plus sign to the left of it, and
I can now expand the conversation, and I
| | 02:10 | can see that Paul Stuart started the
conversation and Olivia Anderson has
| | 02:14 | replied to this conversation.
| | 02:17 | The view you choose is up to you.
| | 02:18 | Tree View or List View.
| | 02:19 | It's in the top right-hand corner.
| | 02:22 | For me this is kind of easier to
understand, but it's up to you.
| | 02:25 | Once I get into a thread--
and let me do that here.
| | 02:28 | I'm going to click on my Week 1 thread.
| | 02:30 | It opens up a new window, and
this actually shows me three parts.
| | 02:35 | The first part up here is called the Action Bar.
| | 02:37 | These are some things that I can do.
| | 02:39 | I can say that this has been read or unread.
| | 02:41 | I can collect them. Let's scroll down.
| | 02:44 | The next one is actually
going to show me the message list.
| | 02:48 | This is a first message, this is the
second message, and I can see that this is
| | 02:52 | a reply to the first
message because it's indented.
| | 02:55 | Down beneath that is the message window itself.
| | 02:58 | it's the current post, and I have the
ability here to click on Reply and we'll
| | 03:02 | talk about that in the next movie.
| | 03:04 | I can quote or I can set a
flag saying this is important.
| | 03:07 | I want to come back to it.
| | 03:09 | To the right of the subject line, is
this little sort of greater than sign and
| | 03:14 | that allows me to move to the next
message within this particular post.
| | 03:19 | So I can actually go back and forward in this.
| | 03:22 | Now let me give you some tips.
| | 03:26 | When you're dealing with a threads
and you get into the forum,
| | 03:31 | my recommendation is sort the threads
by date, just so you don't get lost.
| | 03:36 | So you want the oldest ones
first and newest ones last.
| | 03:41 | That's just easier to
follow and easier to understand.
| | 03:43 | The other thing I want to show you is
that you can at any point in time take
| | 03:49 | a particular thread.
| | 03:50 | For example, we've been now into the
Week 1 thread, we've read everything here,
| | 03:55 | but we could if we wanted to go here
and say no, I want to mark these as Unread
| | 04:00 | so that when I come back, they are available
to me again, just so I see them all the time.
| | 04:06 | Now let me get back to the
Discussion Board, because I want to show
| | 04:08 | you something here.
| | 04:10 | I have the ability to click on Unread
Posts and what that's going to do is it's
| | 04:14 | going to take me back into the Forum
and only show me the threads that I
| | 04:19 | haven't read so far.
| | 04:21 | You're going to think that's going to be
helpful, but those threads are going to
| | 04:24 | be removed from context.
| | 04:25 | You're not going to see what
came before it or after it.
| | 04:28 | you're only going to see what's new.
| | 04:30 | And it ends up becoming really confusing.
| | 04:33 | My recommendation is don't click on
Unread Posts. Click on the name of the
| | 04:38 | forum, get into the forum, and then just
start reading the threads one after the other.
| | 04:43 | Anything that's in bold is
something that you haven't read before.
| | 04:47 | Once you've read it, it
goes from bold to regular text.
| | 04:52 | In our next movie, we're going to show
you how to post reply and even add an
| | 04:55 | attachment to a Discussion Board post.
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| Interacting with discussion board threads| 00:00 | To reply to a Discussion Board post
or thread, open the Discussion Board.
| | 00:04 | I am going to click on
Discussions here on the Course menu.
| | 00:07 | You might need to actually click on
Tools and then scroll down and click
| | 00:11 | on Discussion Board.
| | 00:13 | Either way, get into the forum, which
is the room in which the conversation is
| | 00:17 | taking place, and then open up
the thread, the conversation itself.
| | 00:21 | I am going to click on Week 1 -
Motivation and Self-Efficacy, I am here in the
| | 00:25 | List View, and now I am going to scroll down.
| | 00:28 | I can see the message here from Paul Stuart.
| | 00:31 | He is the instructor.
| | 00:32 | I'm ready to give a reply to this.
| | 00:35 | So I can click on Reply.
| | 00:37 | Make sure that you are
replying to the correct post.
| | 00:40 | I can click Reply here or actually at the
bottom of the screen as well. Both are the same.
| | 00:46 | Now, I can actually go
and just paste in my answer.
| | 00:50 | Notice I have the ability if I want to,
I can make things Bold, I can make
| | 00:55 | it Italic and Underlined, I could change
the text color if I want to and choose red.
| | 01:01 | You have all these Formatting tools.
| | 01:03 | You do also have the ability to attach
file, and I'll talk to you in a minute
| | 01:07 | about why that's a terrible idea,
at least through this button.
| | 01:11 | One other thing to know about this text
editor. You might be tempted to cut and
| | 01:16 | paste your responses from Microsoft Word.
| | 01:19 | I really don't recommend you do that.
| | 01:21 | Microsoft Word has a whole bunch of
hidden formatting in it, and that formatting
| | 01:25 | tends to, well, just look terrible
when you cut and paste it into Blackboard.
| | 01:31 | It's up to you, but my recommendation is
don't cut and paste from Microsoft Word.
| | 01:34 | We'll talk about attaching files in a minute.
| | 01:37 | For now, I'll click on Submit.
| | 01:39 | Now, you can actually see that this is
my post down here at the bottom and it's
| | 01:45 | actually in reply to Week 1 -
Motivation and Self-Efficacy by Paul Stuart.
| | 01:50 | I can click on my post and
I actually see my message.
| | 01:54 | The other thing I want to show
you. I'm going to open up Olivia
| | 01:57 | Anderson's message.
| | 01:59 | By the way, I could have done that
by clicking on the Forward or Back
| | 02:02 | button here as well.
| | 02:03 | So I've got Olivia Anderson's
message here and I think she wrote a
| | 02:07 | pretty heartfelt message.
| | 02:08 | I want to reply to her.
| | 02:10 | Instead of clicking Reply though I am
going to click on Quote, because I want to
| | 02:13 | quote what she said.
| | 02:14 | I think this is actually
a pretty important story.
| | 02:17 | So I click on Quote.
| | 02:19 | It shows me her original post, and
then I can go in here and put in my reply.
| | 02:26 | I can also move things
around and format as well.
| | 02:29 | So it's pretty much what we've seen
before, the only thing that's different
| | 02:32 | is that it gives Olivia's original message,
and I have the ability, sort of, to edit this.
| | 02:37 | So I might want to take out the header
and just have her quote, so that she and
| | 02:40 | everybody else knows what I'm replying to.
| | 02:42 | I am going to click on Submit and
that's really how you reply to a Discussion
| | 02:47 | Board post or thread.
| | 02:49 | How do you create a new Discussion Board thread?
| | 02:54 | Well, I'm going to get back into the
Discussion Board and then I get into the
| | 02:58 | Forum and I may or may not see a
button here that says Create Thread.
| | 03:03 | Your instructor may disable this,
meaning that only your instructor can create
| | 03:08 | threads and you can only
reply to other people's posts.
| | 03:11 | Also remember, this button, Create
Thread, only appears if you are here in a
| | 03:17 | forum. If I actually get into a thread,
I am not going to see Create Thread.
| | 03:21 | I actually have to be in a
forum to create a new thread.
| | 03:24 | So let me click here and I'll just type
Help and I will paste in my quick brown
| | 03:29 | fox message, and submit.
| | 03:33 | I've now created my own new thread.
| | 03:36 | Rather than having you create new
threads, many instructors prefer you to
| | 03:40 | respond to a thread that they
started, or for you to respond to your
| | 03:45 | fellow students' thread.
| | 03:46 | So even if you see Create
Thread, use that carefully.
| | 03:50 | Make sure you're not just
creating threads for no reason.
| | 03:53 | Your instructor very likely is
going to want you to reply instead of
| | 03:56 | create something new.
| | 03:57 | Now, how do I go and attach a
file to a Discussion Board post?
| | 04:02 | Well, let me get into a Discussion Board post.
| | 04:05 | Actually, in this case I will reply to
my formatted quick brown fox. I am going
| | 04:10 | to click on Reply here.
| | 04:11 | Now, as I mentioned, you do not want
to click on this Attach File button.
| | 04:17 | There is a bug in some earlier
versions of Blackboard 9 where files that you
| | 04:22 | attach in the text editor
cannot be seen by your instructor.
| | 04:26 | The safest approach here is don't click
on this button, but rather scroll down
| | 04:32 | and click the Browse My Computer
button and find the file there.
| | 04:36 | In fact, I have a file on my Desktop
called group1 and I will just attach that.
| | 04:41 | If you do not see a Browse My Computer
button but instead see a button that says
| | 04:46 | Browse for Local File,
| | 04:48 | that means that your institution is
running an earlier version of Blackboard and
| | 04:52 | you have an extra step
that you have to go through.
| | 04:55 | Click Browse for Local File
and then click Attach File.
| | 05:00 | It's a separate button and you must click this.
| | 05:02 | When you're done, click on Submit.
| | 05:05 | Because your instructor may use
Blackboard's Discussion Board extensively
| | 05:09 | throughout the academic term, knowing
how to reply to threads, create threads,
| | 05:15 | and attach files to threads are
essential skills for your academic success.
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|
|
5. Working in GroupsAccessing and using group tools| 00:00 | Blackboard has the ability to create
separate private group areas within your
| | 00:04 | Blackboard course for you
and a small group of students.
| | 00:07 | Think of this like a project team area.
| | 00:09 | This group area is completely private.
| | 00:12 | Only you, your group members, and your
instructor can access this group area.
| | 00:16 | Within that group area you'll find a
collection of Blackboard tools like Blogs,
| | 00:21 | Collaboration, Discussion Board, you
can send email that only the group members
| | 00:26 | will receive, a File Exchange, you can
upload files that only members of the
| | 00:30 | group will see, and much more.
| | 00:32 | There are three possible
types of Blackboard groups.
| | 00:35 | The first are ones that you create as a
student and this may not be available
| | 00:39 | in your Blackboard course.
| | 00:41 | The second are ones where you can
choose to manually enroll in an existing
| | 00:46 | Blackboard group, and this
also may not be available.
| | 00:49 | And third, and these are much more
commonplace, are ones that your instructor
| | 00:54 | creates and automatically enrolls you in.
| | 00:56 | We're going to show you all three.
| | 00:58 | To access Blackboard's Groups area,
click on the Groups link on the Course menu.
| | 01:02 | Now, if you don't see a link to
Groups on the Course menu, click on Tools,
| | 01:08 | scroll down, and then
click on the Groups link there.
| | 01:11 | Let's show you how to
create a student created group.
| | 01:16 | I'm here on the Groups page.
| | 01:18 | I've got a button that says Create Group.
| | 01:19 | This button may not be available to you.
Many instructors choose to turn this off,
| | 01:23 | but if it is available
to you, click on Create Group.
| | 01:27 | I am going to type in the name of my group.
| | 01:28 | I am going to type in a Description.
| | 01:31 | This is actually really important.
| | 01:33 | You're going to see in a minute
it's going to ask you not only for the
| | 01:35 | Description, but it's also going to
ask you for a Sign-up sheet instruction.
| | 01:40 | My recommendation is put your
information in the Description, and put the same
| | 01:44 | information on what's called the Sign-up sheet.
| | 01:46 | When you create a group, you're going to
make it so that other people can choose
| | 01:51 | to enroll in your group.
You can't choose the members.
| | 01:54 | So I am going to do Study Group again.
| | 01:57 | Let me paste in the text here.
| | 02:01 | So it's just the same text.
| | 02:02 | I'm just kind of telling everybody, hey,
I'm going to be doing a collaboration
| | 02:06 | group for a presentation that's coming up
in Week 3, please sign up if you want to.
| | 02:10 | How many members are going to be in my group?
| | 02:13 | I am going to choose 5 and click on Submit.
| | 02:16 | Now, before you click on Submit, make
sure all of this information is correct.
| | 02:22 | You may not be able to edit this
after you click on Submit, and you will
| | 02:26 | absolutely not be able to delete this group.
| | 02:29 | Once you create a group, it's created
and remains for the entire academic term.
| | 02:34 | Only your instructor can erase a group.
| | 02:38 | So I am going to click on Submit
and I've now created the group.
| | 02:42 | I'm automatically enrolled in fact. If I
click on the name of the group, I can get into it.
| | 02:46 | When you get into a group, it will show
up here in My Groups, in this little area.
| | 02:51 | So if I want to get back into my
Study Group, I no longer have to enroll in
| | 02:54 | the group by going in the Groups and
then creating a group. It's there, I have
| | 02:59 | a link to it, and I can expand and
contract this folder to get into the Group Tools.
| | 03:03 | When I get into the Group Tools, I
have the ability to do Collaboration, File
| | 03:07 | Exchange, Group Blog, all those things.
| | 03:10 | We'll talk a little more
about this in the next movie.
| | 03:13 | So that's the first type of group.
| | 03:15 | It's a group that the student creates.
| | 03:18 | The second type of group is a self-enroll group.
| | 03:21 | It's a group where you
choose to enroll in a group.
| | 03:25 | Those things have already been created
by your instructor or by other students.
| | 03:29 | You'll see a button and the button that
you see is either going to say Sign-up
| | 03:33 | or View Sign-up Sheet.
| | 03:34 | I am going to click on this button,
and now it's going to allow me to choose
| | 03:39 | which group I want to sign into.
| | 03:40 | In this case it's a set of
groups that the instructor says.
| | 03:44 | It's kind of out of order here.
| | 03:45 | Friday, Monday, Thursday, Tuesday,
Wednesday, but I am going to sign-up for
| | 03:50 | the Monday Study Group.
| | 03:51 | When I click on Sign-up, I've now
added the Monday Study Group to my list.
| | 03:57 | By the way, how do I leave a group
or quit a group after I've joined it?
| | 04:01 | The answer is you can't.
You have to talk to your instructor.
| | 04:04 | And the last type of group is an
instructor enroll group, and you don't actually
| | 04:08 | have to do anything. The
group will automatically appear.
| | 04:11 | It will show up under My
Groups and you can get into it.
| | 04:13 | Let me do a quick tour of some
of these tools that are available.
| | 04:18 | I can click and expand this group and
go to a particular tool, or to the right
| | 04:22 | of the name of the group, if I click
this little button with the two greater
| | 04:25 | than signs, it actually
takes me into the Study Group.
| | 04:30 | I can see that I have Collaboration
tools, which is sort of live chat.
| | 04:34 | File Exchange allows me to upload files
from my computer to Blackboard and share
| | 04:39 | it with just the members of this
study group or whatever group I am in.
| | 04:42 | I have a Blog tool, I have a
Discussion Board, and the Discussion Board works
| | 04:46 | just like the Discussion Board we
talked about in the last chapter.
| | 04:50 | The only thing that's different here is
that the Discussion Board is private and
| | 04:53 | only the group members can see it.
| | 04:55 | You also have Journals, Tasks, Wikis,
a My Scholar Home, which is social
| | 05:00 | bookmarking, and the ability for you to Send
Email just to the particular group members.
| | 05:07 | And as the group members add,
you'll see their names here.
| | 05:10 | So that's a quick look at the
three types of Blackboard groups.
| | 05:14 | In our next movie we're going to show
you how to submit a group assignment.
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| Submitting a group assignment| 00:00 | Occasionally, you may need to submit an
assignment, not as an individual, but as
| | 00:04 | a member of a group.
| | 00:06 | To find a link to a group assignment,
the easiest way to do it is to actually
| | 00:10 | get into the group home page itself.
| | 00:12 | I'm enrolled in two groups here, My
Monday Study Group and the Study Group.
| | 00:17 | I'm actually going to go to the right
of the word, Monday Study Group, and I am
| | 00:20 | going to click on the button with the
two greater than signs, and that actually
| | 00:24 | takes me to the Monday Study Group home page.
| | 00:27 | And if I scroll down, under
Group Assignments, I see a link.
| | 00:31 | That's where you are going to find the
assignments for your group, under Group Assignments.
| | 00:37 | When I click on the link for the
Group Presentation assignment, it opens up
| | 00:41 | the Assignment tool, and this works
just like the Assignments tool anywhere
| | 00:44 | else within our course.
| | 00:46 | You might be tempted to put your
submission in the Submission box; however,
| | 00:50 | don't put anything in this text box
unless your instructor specifically told you
| | 00:54 | to put something there.
| | 00:55 | Most instructors prefer that you leave
this box empty and instead attach a file.
| | 01:00 | It turns out that attaching file is
similar to attaching a file to an email message.
| | 01:04 | Click Browse My Computer, find the
file that you want to submit, I've got my
| | 01:08 | group1 paper, and click on Open,
and I have now attached this file.
| | 01:14 | Remember that within the file name,
you cannot have any special characters.
| | 01:18 | If you have to hit the Ctrl or Alt
keys to produce a particular letter or
| | 01:22 | character in the name of your file.
| | 01:24 | That's just not going to work on Blackboard.
| | 01:26 | Make sure that your file names are short.
| | 01:29 | If you are uploading from a Macintosh,
please add the file extensions, the .ppt,
| | 01:34 | the .pdf, the .doc, so that people who
are on a PC can open your file as well.
| | 01:40 | And don't try to upload
anything that's really big.
| | 01:44 | Many institutions limit the size of
individual files that you can upload.
| | 01:48 | By the way, if you don't see a Browse
My Computer button and instead see a
| | 01:51 | button that says Browse for Local File,
| | 01:54 | that means your institution is running
an earlier version of Blackboard, and you
| | 01:57 | have one extra step that you have to
go through. Click Browse for Local File,
| | 02:02 | and then there is going to be one
other button that says Attach File and you
| | 02:05 | must click this button.
| | 02:07 | How can you tell if you've
successfully attached the file?
| | 02:09 | Well, look in the attach files line.
| | 02:12 | If you see a file there,
you've successfully attached a file.
| | 02:15 | If you don't, you haven't.
| | 02:16 | Now before you go and submit this,
make sure you've attached the right file.
| | 02:22 | Most instructors only allow one
submission attempt per assignment.
| | 02:26 | So make sure you got it right.
| | 02:28 | When you're done, click on Submit.
| | 02:30 | It's going to say are you ready to do this.
| | 02:32 | You are going to be
submitting it for the entire group.
| | 02:34 | Yup, click on OK, and you've
now submitted the assignment.
| | 02:39 | You might want to print this page out
for your records just in case there's any
| | 02:43 | question about whether or not
the assignments has been submitted.
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6. Modifying Your Personal SettingsUpdating your personal information| 00:00 | How do you update your personal
information on Blackboard like your name or
| | 00:03 | your email address?
| | 00:05 | Well, at many institutions you simply can't.
| | 00:08 | Your first and last names on
Blackboard usually come straight from your legal
| | 00:11 | name as it appears on your
official institutional transcript.
| | 00:15 | Changing that, well, that usually
requires you to contact your institution's
| | 00:19 | records office, not your instructor,
not Blackboard's helpdesk, and to fill out
| | 00:24 | a bunch of paperwork.
| | 00:25 | At many institutions your
email address is assigned you.
| | 00:29 | You can't change that either.
| | 00:31 | However, that said, some institutions,
not a lot, but some, do actually let you
| | 00:37 | modify your personal
informational on Blackboard.
| | 00:39 | Don't be surprised if your
institution isn't one of them.
| | 00:41 | This is kind of rare.
| | 00:43 | But on Blackboard under Tools
click on Personal Information.
| | 00:48 | By the way, if that's not there you may
also be able to go to My Places and then
| | 00:54 | click on Personal Information.
| | 00:56 | It takes you to the same thing.
| | 00:57 | In this case, I'm going to
click on Edit Personal Information.
| | 01:01 | Anything that has a star here is required.
| | 01:04 | You have to have your First Name.
| | 01:06 | You have to have your Last Name.
| | 01:07 | Be careful with name changes.
| | 01:10 | If you change your name to something
that you know, but your instructors don't,
| | 01:13 | you're going to confuse your instructor
and it could actually lead to creating problems.
| | 01:18 | Now scroll down and you have the
ability to change your email address.
| | 01:22 | Make sure it's a real email address
that has enough storage to receive your
| | 01:27 | messages and that's not going to
filter messages from Blackboard as spam.
| | 01:32 | The other information, like your Gender,
your Birthdate, your Education Level,
| | 01:36 | and things like that, are usually ignored.
| | 01:38 | I would strongly recommend not filling that
out unless you have a strong reason to do that.
| | 01:43 | So in this case, I'm going to
change my name from Patrick to John.
| | 01:46 | I'm going to confuse my
professors by doing that, but okay.
| | 01:49 | I'm going to click on Submit.
| | 01:51 | If you want to change your
name, try Blackboard first.
| | 01:54 | But if that doesn't work you're
probably going to have to contact your
| | 01:57 | institution's records office.
| | 01:59 | How can you change your email
address if you can't do it on Blackboard?
| | 02:02 | Well, contact your helpdesk and
see if they will let you change your
| | 02:05 | email address there.
| | 02:06 | If not, ask if your institution will
allow to set up what's called a forward.
| | 02:12 | A forward will allow you to send emails
that are delivered to your institution's
| | 02:15 | email address to be sent to an
external email address like Gmail and your
| | 02:20 | helpdesk will be able to set you
up with that, if that's possible.
| | 02:23 | How do you change your password?
| | 02:25 | Well, let's actually show you this.
| | 02:26 | I'm going to go back to the My Institution
tab. Click on Personal Information again.
| | 02:30 | I am going to click on Change Password.
| | 02:32 | Your institution may not allow you to
change your passwords through Blackboard,
| | 02:36 | particularly if you use the same
username and password to log into multiple
| | 02:41 | institutional resources.
| | 02:43 | In this case, let's check to see
what happens and hey, it does.
| | 02:46 | It allows me to type in a new password.
| | 02:47 | So just type in a new password, click on
Verify Password and I've changed my password.
| | 02:52 | If you aren't allowed to change it
through Blackboard, though check with your
| | 02:56 | institution's helpdesk.
| | 02:57 | Trust me, your helpdesk staff are
experts when it comes to passwords.
| | 03:02 | They receive more calls about
passwords than anything else.
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| Customizing your Home tab| 00:00 | So we are back here into the My Institution tab,
| | 00:03 | the default tab when you get in to
Blackboard, and I have got some modules here.
| | 00:06 | That's what each of these
little boxes are called.
| | 00:09 | Your institution will set up a default
set of modules and their layout on the page,
| | 00:14 | but you may be able to personalize
those modules, where they show up, what
| | 00:18 | color they are, and so forth.
| | 00:20 | To move a module, for example My
Announcement, I am going to click-and-hold my
| | 00:23 | mouse and I am going to drag it to
its new location and then just let go.
| | 00:28 | So I have the ability to
move things around the page.
| | 00:31 | Some institutions enable this, others do not.
| | 00:33 | So if you don't have that,
it's not that Blackboard is broken.
| | 00:36 | It's just that your
institution hasn't turned that on.
| | 00:38 | But you may have the ability to
customize where these modules are located on
| | 00:43 | the My Institution tab.
| | 00:44 | You can also in some
modules collapse the modules.
| | 00:47 | You can't close it, but you can make it smaller.
| | 00:49 | Let me click on this little
horizontal bar here and it says Collapse My
| | 00:53 | Announcements Module.
| | 00:54 | To close a module, to remove it from
your view, click the close button, the X.
| | 00:59 | For example, My Organization
I have got a little X here.
| | 01:02 | It's going to say okay, you're removing it.
| | 01:04 | It's not going to be permanently deleted.
| | 01:07 | That's good to know.
| | 01:08 | By the way, notice that there are some
modules that your system administrator
| | 01:11 | won't let you close or remove,
like the My Courses module.
| | 01:16 | Removing that would be a really bad idea.
| | 01:18 | How do I add a module to this page?
| | 01:20 | Make sure you're where you want to add
a module and then click Add Module and
| | 01:25 | it'll show you a list of
modules that you can add.
| | 01:28 | For example I might want to add a calculator.
| | 01:31 | I've now added a calculator.
| | 01:32 | I am going to scroll down and I'll
actually go and put back My Organizations.
| | 01:38 | I actually deleted that.
| | 01:40 | So scroll down, click on OK, and I've
now got a calculator, which I can move for
| | 01:46 | ever I want. My Organizations is now back.
| | 01:49 | You may also be able to change the
color scheme for the modules on your My
| | 01:52 | Institution tab if your
institution has enabled this feature.
| | 01:56 | If they have, you will see a
button in the top right-hand corner that
| | 01:59 | says Personalized Page.
| | 02:01 | Click on that and you have a color
palette that you can choose from.
| | 02:06 | Your institution may have as many as 15
different color palettes that you could choose from.
| | 02:11 | I am just going to choose
Fall and click on Submit.
| | 02:17 | Notice that my color scheme
is now drastically different.
| | 02:21 | I've completely changed the color scheme.
| | 02:23 | However, notice that the top bar,
the institution's brand, is unchanged.
| | 02:28 | You can't change that.
| | 02:29 | Now for the bad news.
| | 02:30 | Your institution's Blackboard system
administrator may need to reset your color
| | 02:35 | palette and the modules in the
module layout back to the default whenever
| | 02:40 | there's a major system upgrade.
| | 02:42 | Fortunately, if this gets reset,
changing it back is really simple.
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| Modifying Blackboard's notification settings| 00:00 | Blackboard has the ability to notify you
about specific changes or events, like a
| | 00:05 | new assignment or discussion board post,
within your Blackboard courses. Not all
| | 00:10 | institutions enable this feature.
| | 00:12 | However, if your institution has
enabled this feature, you can change
| | 00:16 | Blackboard's Notification settings by
clicking on My Places at the very top of
| | 00:20 | the page and then clicking
on Edit Notification Settings.
| | 00:24 | If that doesn't work or if you're
looking for an alternative way to get to this,
| | 00:28 | go back to the My Institution or the Home tab.
| | 00:30 | Click on Notifications Dashboard and at
the top of most of these modules there
| | 00:35 | is going to a button that
says Edit Notification Settings.
| | 00:38 | Click on that and that will also take
you back to the Notification Settings.
| | 00:42 | Let me do a quick tour of
what we're talking about here.
| | 00:46 | Blackboard is going to send me a
message any time something happens in my
| | 00:50 | course and I can tell Blackboard
how frequently I want to be notified of
| | 00:54 | changes in my courses.
| | 00:55 | That's what I do with the General Settings.
| | 00:57 | So right now, Blackboard by default on
this institution setup is going to send
| | 01:02 | me an individual email
message any time something changes.
| | 01:06 | I might want to change that
instead to a Daily Email Digest.
| | 01:10 | If there are a lot of discussion board
posts or lot of things that have been
| | 01:13 | uploaded, I don't want
hundreds of emails. I just want one.
| | 01:17 | That email usually comes out at
about 11 p.m. each night, although the
| | 01:20 | institution can change that.
| | 01:23 | I can also go down here and if
there's a due date coming up, I can have
| | 01:26 | Blackboard send me a reminder.
| | 01:28 | And right now it's saying it's going to
remind me seven days before the due date.
| | 01:32 | I'm going to say no, tell me
two days prior to the due date.
| | 01:36 | I also have the ability to change the
same settings down in Organizations.
| | 01:41 | These are like clubs.
| | 01:42 | If your institution is licensed to
Blackboard Community System, you'll have the
| | 01:45 | ability to have not only Blackboard
courses, but Blackboard organizations.
| | 01:49 | We'll actually put a due date
reminder here as well, and click on Submit.
| | 01:54 | So we've now changed the
frequency of these reminders.
| | 01:57 | What sort of reminders are we talking about?
| | 01:59 | Well, let me get into this course.
| | 02:01 | I'm going to scroll down and I want
you to notice that we have the ability for
| | 02:05 | Blackboard to give me a notification
anytime there's a new Announcement, a new
| | 02:09 | Assignment, a Assignment Due, and
Assignment Past Due, and Assignment Submitted.
| | 02:14 | All these different options.
| | 02:16 | But right now the way this is set up,
it's only going to show up on the Dashboard.
| | 02:21 | Blackboard is actually not going to
email me anything until I go in here and I
| | 02:25 | tell Blackboard, hey, send me email.
| | 02:28 | Now I can tell Blackboard to just send
me emails for certain things, but not
| | 02:33 | everything, or I can go and click on
the checkbox at the top and say send me an
| | 02:37 | email for everything.
| | 02:39 | It's going to default back to the
settings we made on the prior screen.
| | 02:42 | The Mobile sounds like a great idea,
but your institution actually has to be
| | 02:46 | subscribed and paying Blackboard for a
special add-on to be able to do this.
| | 02:51 | Check with your institution's helpdesk to see
if your institution can send you text messages.
| | 02:56 | I'm going to click on Submit.
| | 02:58 | So what I've done is I've turned on the
settings just for that one course, okay.
| | 03:03 | I can go and make those same
settings for all of my courses.
| | 03:07 | I can go over here, select the courses,
I'll choose these two courses, move them
| | 03:14 | over, and this is kind of strange.
| | 03:15 | I'm going to say I'm going to check my
Selected courses, move these two courses
| | 03:20 | over, and then we go back and I can say
I only want to know when there's a new
| | 03:24 | announcement, when there's a new
assignment, I want to know when something has
| | 03:29 | been graded. Send me an
email, everything else don't.
| | 03:32 | And that will be the new default setting
for all my courses, and click on Submit.
| | 03:37 | Now one thing to be aware of. If
the Blackboard administrator at your
| | 03:40 | institution has defined the
Notification Settings, those settings would
| | 03:45 | override your settings.
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ConclusionGetting help| 00:00 | Thank you for joining me for
Blackboard 9 Essential Training.
| | 00:03 | We've only scratched the surface of all
the tools that are built into Blackboard.
| | 00:07 | Where you can to get more information?
| | 00:09 | Well, the best resources is your
institution's helpdesk or central IT.
| | 00:12 | They're going to have handouts.
| | 00:13 | They may even have customized movies,
telephone support, drop-in support, maybe
| | 00:18 | even workshops and seminars.
| | 00:20 | You can usually find a link to the
helpdesk on your institution's web site or
| | 00:25 | if you are lucky, click the Help tab
at the very top of Blackboard and that
| | 00:28 | takes you there as well.
| | 00:29 | Another way to find a helpdesk is by
searching the web for your institution's
| | 00:33 | name, the word Blackboard, and the word Help.
| | 00:37 | With Blackboard used by thousands of
institutions around the world, lots of
| | 00:41 | Blackboard information and
support resources are available to you.
| | 00:45 | If you go to Google and search
Blackboard 9.1 wiki student, you're going to see
| | 00:50 | a bunch of resources on how to use
Blackboard 9.1's Wiki tool as a student.
| | 00:54 | Not only will this give you
information on Google, but if you go to YouTube,
| | 00:59 | which is also owned by Google, I
search for Blackboard 9.1 wiki students, I
| | 01:03 | have got videos that have been created just for
students on how to use these particular tools.
| | 01:08 | Keep in mind each campus has its own
look and feel and settings in Blackboard.
| | 01:13 | So what you watch in these videos may
not exactly match what is going on in your
| | 01:18 | version of Blackboard at your institution.
| | 01:20 | Finally, the folks at Blackboard
Incorporated have really been working on
| | 01:24 | resources over the past couple of years,
and if I go to help.blackboard.com and
| | 01:30 | click on Student I am actually going to
see sort of on-demand online knowledge
| | 01:36 | base that I can search.
| | 01:37 | It gives me some Frequently Asked Questions.
| | 01:40 | I can click on the Table of Contents and
actually browse through the Table of Contents.
| | 01:45 | For example, how to use email.
| | 01:48 | You can also go down here and
search for a particular topic.
| | 01:52 | What I've noticed about this search
tool is you kind of have to know what
| | 01:56 | you're searching for.
| | 01:57 | My recommendation is use the Table of Contents.
| | 01:59 | It's just easier to find things there.
| | 02:02 | The other thing to remember is
that this is generic information.
| | 02:06 | This is the information for all
Blackboard institutions and your institution
| | 02:09 | may have disabled some of the tools or
features mentioned in these help guides
| | 02:14 | here blackboard.com.
| | 02:15 | Thank you again for joining me.
| | 02:18 | Have a safe and productive academic term.
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