Recently in Blackboard Category

There are several ways to navigate within your Blackboard course. One efficient way is to use the "breadcrumb trail" at the top of your course page. The breadcrumb trail is available on every page of your course and indicates the current page that you are on as well as the pages you accessed to get to your current page. Rather than using the "back" button in your Internet browser to return to previously accessed pages within your Blackboard course, it is generally better to use the breadcrumb trail because it is more reliable in pointing you to the desired course page.

In the example above, the title of the course is Tech Skills Dev and you are currently on the Activity #1 page (which appears in bold). You could return either to the Assignments page or to the Module 1 page simply by clicking on the name within the breadcrumb trail. So, it allows you to jump to a different page with one click.

When copying and pasting text from a Word document or other document type, it is best to remove the formatting before pasting into Blackboard. This is especially useful within the Blackboard Discussion Board when copying and pasting large amounts of text from Word.

Within Blackboard, the textbox editor includes many formatting options that you might find useful, including bold, italics, font color, bullet points, numbering, etc. You have two options to remove the extra formatting when copying and pasting:

• Copy and paste from Word into Notepad (available under the Accessories option in the Start Menu). Once you have pasted the text into Notepad, simply copy it again and paste into the desired Blackboard textbox editor.
• Copy and paste from Word directly into the Blackboard textbox editor. Then, select the markup validation tool, which will remove any conflicting code. The markup validation tool is highlighted in red below:

The SafeAssign tool in Blackboard allows faculty to check student papers for appropriate citations. In Blackboard, creating a SafeAssign assignment is very similar to creating a regular assignment. The main difference is that student papers submitted through SafeAssign are first checked against a database of papers to detect the possibility of plagiarism or instances where students may have forgotten to include appropriate citations. The tutorial below explains how to create a SafeAssign assignment and retrieve the report from your Blackboard course.

SafeAssign Tutorial for Faculty

At this point in the semester, near the midterm, faculty may be interested in obtaining student feedback on how the course is going so far. In Blackboard, faculty have the option of creating an anonymous survey to request student feedback that might help improve the course for the remainder of the semester. The process of creating a Blackboard survey is very similar to the process of creating a Blackboard test. The main difference is that survey responses are anonymous by default. Like exams, survey results can be obtained through the Grade Center. The tutorial below explains how to create a Blackboard survey and retrieve the responses in your course.

Creating Blackboard Surveys

The My Grades feature in Blackboard allows students to access their grades for any Blackboard course in which their instructor has made grades available. The tutorial below explains where to access the My Grades area in a course and how to use its features to view grades, due dates, feedback, and the status of assignments.

My Grades Tutorial for Students

Your instructor might create an Assignment within Blackboard to allow you to upload a document that is required for one of your course assignments. The tutorial link below will guide you through the steps of submitting your document through Blackboard to ensure that your instructor receives it.

Assignment Tool Tutorial for Students

The basic process involves you locating the link in your Blackboard course (your instructor should provide this information to you). Once you've located the link, you will click on the link and read any instructions that your instructor has provided. Finally, you will browse to locate your file on your computer and then select it. An important step to remember is to click the "Attach File" button below the name of your file that you have browsed and selected. Your file will not be attached to the assignment unless you click this button. You will also have the opportunity to send comments to your instructor on this page. The last step is to click the Submit button. You will retrieve your grade for the assignment and any instructor comments and feedback by going to the My Grades area in Blackboard. Check the blog next week for instructions on how to access My Grades and to learn more about its features!

Students and faculty have the option of hiding and displaying their view of the navigation menu in any Blackboard course in which they are enrolled. To hide the navigation menu, simply click the arrow  beside the menu. To display the menu again once it has been hidden, click the arrow again  .

To display a list of users enrolled in a Blackboard course or organization, follow the steps below:

1.Within the Course or Organization Management Control Panel area, click the heading Course Tools.
2.Next, click SHU: Download Class Roster.
3.Select the Table Format option (best for viewing or printing).
4.Click the Generate Selected List button.
5.Click the button that says Click Here to Print the Roster if you'd like to print this list.

• First, go to the old course that contains all of the materials you want to copy.
• Click Packages and Utilities in the Control Panel area.
• Click Course Copy.
• Complete the fields, and then click Submit.
• You should see a green bar at the top of the page indicating that the course copy request was successful and has been queued. You should receive an email when the course copy process is complete.

• Within Internet Explorer, click Tools on the main menu bar, and then click Internet Options.
• Click the Security tab and then click Custom Level.
• Scroll to the Downloads section of the list. Under Automatic Prompting for File Downloads, click Enable.

4. Displaying a list of users enrolled in a course or organization: Within the Course or Organization Management area, click the heading "Users and Groups" and then click "Users". Type the percent symbol (%) in the Search box and click Go.

The TLT Center has created many video tutorials to help you build your Blackboard course. On the right side of the page, you will see a "Training and Tutorials" area that links to several video tutorials.

In the default view of Blackboard, there is a module titled, "Courses: Quick View". It lists all of the courses you are either teaching or enrolled in. This list can be quite large as it goes back a number of years. The document below provides instructions on how to create your own list of Blackboard Courses.

Creating Your Own List of Blackboard Courses