Blackboard Resources

For support, please contact your CTLT Liaison, e-mail or call 804-287-6860 (M-F, 9-noon,1-5). The CTLT also holds Blackboard workshops each semester. Please consult the CTLT Information page for details.

Please visit the UR Blackboard news site for updated news and information.

Nightly Maintenance Outage

The UR Blackboard system is unavailable every night for a 15-minute backup which begins sometime between 2:30 AM and 3:30 AM. More information is available at the UR Blackboard News Site.

Atomic Learning Short Video Tutorials (NEW)

Atomic Learning has short video clips on how to do various tasks in Blackboard (and they have similar content for many other apps like MS Office). You can pause, rewind, or navigate easily between video clips. The Blackboard-specific training is available using the link below, but general access to Atomic Learning is at the online training page.

Access the Instructors' Video Tutorials for Blackboard (NEW)

Instructor's Manual for Blackboard

The Blackboard instructor's manual is available online with a link from your UR Blackboard course sites. Follow the steps to access the manual:

Access one of your UR Blackboard course sites.
Under Control Panel on the left-hand side of your course site (below the course menu), click Help to expand the Help section.
Click the Guide link which should open a new browser window or tab that will take you to the online instructor's guide hosted at the Blackboard corporate web site.

The Center for Teaching, Learning, and Technology offer several workshops for faculty interested in beginning to use Blackboard or to advance what they can do with Blackboard to promote teaching and learning. Visit the CTLT workshops site to see the schedule and register for a session.


Take a Tour of the Course Environment		Viewlet
Edit the Menu		Viewlet

Add Content

Adding a Content Area Item (.doc, pdf, ppt, etc.)		Viewlet
Posting a Sound or Video File		Viewlet
Embedding a YouTube Video		Viewlet
Embedding Multimedia Content (other than YouTube)		Viewlet
Using Learning Units (Modules)		Viewlet
Create a Lesson Plan		Viewlet
Create Links Within the Course		Viewlet
Create Links to Course Tools		Viewlet
Create Announcements		Viewlet

Using Assessments (Blackboard Tests and Quizzes)

Getting Started Building a Test	PDF
Creating Different Types of Questions	Link
Building a "Pool" of Questions to Draw From		Viewlet
Adding a "Random Block" of Questions to a Test		Viewlet
Exporting or Importing a Test or Survey		Viewlet
Uploading a Quiz, Test, or Survey Created Offline		Viewlet
Sample Excel File for Offline Test Creation		XLS
Grading Assessments Question-by-question		Viewlet
Helping Students Prepare with a Sample Quiz	Link

Using Assignments

Getting Started with Assignments	PDF
Create an Assignment (and upload files)		Viewlet
Deploy and Grade a Group Assignment		Viewlet
Downloading Assignments in Bulk	Link	Viewlet

Using the Grade Center

Overview for "Getting Started"	PDF
Create a Grade Center Column		Viewlet
Create Grade Center Categories		Viewlet
Download and Upload your Grades to Work Offline		Viewlet

Discussion Boards

Discussion Board Overview		Viewlet
Adding a New Forum		Viewlet
Adding a New Thread to a Forum		Viewlet
Collecting All Posts to a Thread		Viewlet
Options (Discussion Board Settings)		Viewlet
Grade a Forum		Viewlet
Grade a Thread		Viewlet

Group Management

Overview: Getting Started with Groups	PDF
Adding Students to Groups		Viewlet

Blogs, Wikis, and Journals

Creating a Blog		Viewlet
Creating and Editing Blog Entries		Viewlet
Commenting on a Blog Entry		Viewlet
Creating a Wiki		Viewlet
Grading a Wiki		Viewlet
Creating a Journal		Viewlet
Commenting on a Journal Entry		Viewlet

Atomic Learning Short Video Tutorials (NEW)

Atomic Learning has short video clips on how to do various tasks in Blackboard (and they also support many other apps like MS Office). You can pause, rewind, or navigate easily between video clips. The Blackboard-specific training is available using the link below, but general access to Atomic Learning is at the online training page.

Access the Students' Video Tutorials for Blackboard (NEW)

Student Manual for Blackboard

The Blackboard student manual is available online with a link from your UR Blackboard course sites. Follow the steps to access the manual:

Access one of your UR Blackboard course sites.
Click the Tools link in the course menu.
Click the User Guide link which should open a new browser window or tab that will take you to the online student's guide hosted at the Blackboard corporate web s

Policies

Blackboard Policies for Faculty

PDF

FAQs

Requesting your Academic Course (and combining sections)		Viewlet
Requesting a Non-Academic Course (for committees and organizations)		Viewlet
Making a Course Available [none of my students can access my class]		Viewlet
Integrating Library Resources into Blackboard (some content is for Bb8)	PDF
Add or Remove a Participant [from a non-academic course]		Viewlet
Add a TA or Co-Instructor [from an academic course]		Viewlet
Copying a Course		Viewlet
Export and Archive your Course		Viewlet
Q: where can I find digital dropbox? A: Digital Dropbox is no longer available in Blackboard. Please contact your CTLT liaison and/or look into using Assignments which is a great alternative (see section below titled Using Assignments).
Q: Once I get to my BB course, I can't seem to get to assignments, grades, etc. What am I missing? A: The most probable cause is that you had inadvertently hidden the course menu. There is a UR Blackboard News post about this.
Q: I am an instructor, and I can't print student photos or the printout appears blank. What's wrong? A: Blackboard (as well as many other sites in the world) makes extensive use of web frames. The student photos are in a frame that you need to select to print. Here is a link to CSU-Pomona's page about how to print content in particular frames - http://www.csupomona.edu/~ehelp/broncodirect/printing.html