1. Click the Course Tools menu on the Control Panel to expand, and select the Announcements link.

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1 Communication Blackboard 9.1 Introduction Communicating with your students, and them communicating with you, is very important in an online course. There are many Blackboard communication tools available to help you keep in touch with your students. The following communication tools are detailed in this handout: 1. Announcements 2. Discussion Board The Send tool is presented in a separate handout. Announcements Announcements post timely information critical to course success. The instructor can add, edit, and delete announcements from the Announcements page. This is an ideal place to post time-sensitive material. Note: 1

2 Accessing Announcements The Announcements tool can be accessed from the Course Tools menu on the Control Panel. If an Announcement tool link is available on the Course Menu, the tool can be accessed by clicking the Course Menu link. Creating an Announcement Follow the steps below to create a new course announcement. 1. Click the Course Tools menu on the Control Panel to expand, and select the Announcements link. Note: The Announcements link can be added to the Course Menu by clicking the Add Menu Item button, click Create Tool Link option, name the new tool area, select Announcements in the Type list box, check the Make Available to Users box, and click the Submit button. 2. Click the Create Announcement button on the Action Bar. 3. Provide a Subject and Message at the top of the Create Announcement page. 4. Select duration for the announcement. a. Select Not Date Restricted to keep the announcement visible until it is manually removed. 2

3 b. Select Date Restricted to limit the announcement's visibility by date and time. 5. If the announcement is Date Restricted, select the Display After and/or Display Until check boxes and use the pop-up Date Selection Calendar and the pop-up Time Selection Menu to select dates and times. 6. Select the Override User Notification Settings check box to send students an containing the announcement. The will be sent to all students, even those who choose not to receive announcement notifications through Optionally, link to a course area, tool, or item using the Browse button in the Course Link section. 8. Click the Submit button to save the announcement. 3

4 Editing and Deleting Announcements Instructors can easily edit and delete announcements using the contextual menu next to the announcement title. To edit an announcement: 1. Click Edit from the contextual menu of the Announcement you wish to edit. 2. Make your changes and click the Submit button. To delete an announcement: 1. Click Delete from the contextual menu of the Announcement you wish to edit. 2. You will see a confirm deletion message appear. Click the OK button for the confirm deletion message, The action is final and cannot be undone. Delete this item? (Note: This action is final and cannot be undone.) Reordering Announcements Announcements appear below the gray bar in the order posted with the most recent announcement appearing first. Course announcements can easily be reordered on the Announcements page using the Move button next to each announcement. Reorder an announcement: 1. Click and drag the Move button next to the announcement to the desired position. 2. Release the mouse button to drop the announcement at its new location. 4

5 Pin an announcement to the top of the list: 1. Click and drag the Move button next to the announcement above the gray bar New announcements appear below this line. 2. Release the mouse button to drop the announcement above the gray bar. 3. This will keep the announcement at the top of the list and prevent new announcements from superseding it. Discussion Board Building a sense of community among students is crucial for a successful online experience. The Discussion Board is an important tool for interpersonal interaction and can replicate the robust discussions that take place in the traditional classroom. Discussions can serve a range of purposes, such as: an online meeting place for social interaction among peers an additional medium for collaboration and the exchange of ideas a graded activity that demonstrates understanding or application of course material a medium to pose questions about homework assignments, readings, and course content a way to demonstrate the understanding or application of course material a record of discussion which can be reviewed at a later point 5

6 The Discussion Board tool allows for asynchronous interactions occurring over extended periods of time. This allows for more flexibility, as well as reflective communication. Asynchronous communication offers convenience and flexibility to all participants. The Discussion Board is also available as a group tool that is used by smaller groups within a course. Group discussion forums are available only to the members of a course group. Note: You can also use the Blackboard Journal, Blog and Wiki tools for discussions, collaboration, and interaction. Understanding Discussion Forums and Threads Just as it is critical that you plan and structure your course content, you also need to provide structure for online discussions. Forums allow you to group related discussions and help your students stay on task. You must first create one or more forums before message threads can be started. The Discussion Board page displays a list of forums. A forum is an area where a single topic or a group of related topics are discussed. Within each forum, there can be multiple threads. A thread includes the initial post and any replies to it. Accessing the Discussion Board Instructors can access the Discussion Board area through the Control Panel. Students can access the discussion board tool through the Tools link on the Course Menu. Additionally, the instructor may provide a separate link. 6

7 A. Click the Tools link on the Course Menu. On the Tools page, select the Discussion Board link. B. Click the Course Tools menu to expand it and select the Discussion Board link. From this link, you can access the course Discussion Board and any group Discussion Boards for the groups in your course. Discussion Board Page Components The Discussion Board page contains all of the course and group discussion board forums. On the Action Bar, you can create forums or use the Search function to search for Discussion Board content. The search field is collapsed by default to save screen space. A. To sort a column, click the column heading or caret. For example, if you sort the Forum column, the items appear in alphabetical or reverse alphabetical order. B. To view the posts, click the forum title. Forums containing unread posts appear in bold type. C. For each forum, view the total number of posts, the number of unread posts, and the number of users who have participated in the forum. For one-click access to the forum's unread messages, click the link in the Unread Posts column. 7

8 Creating a Forum 1. Go to the Discussion Board page. 2. Click the Create Forum button to create a new discussion forum. 3. On the Create Forum page, provide a Name and Description (and instructions) for the forum. 4. Under Forum Availability, select the YES option to make the forum available to users. 5. For Enter Date and Time Restrictions, you can set forums to display on a specific date and time and to stop displaying on a specific date and time. Select the Display After and Display Until check boxes to enable the date and time selections. Use the pop-up Date Selection Calendar and Time Selection Menu to select dates and times or type dates and times in the boxes. Display restrictions do not affect the forum availability, only when it appears. 8

9 6. Select the Forum Settings based on your requirements. a. Allow Anonymous Posts- students will have the option of posting replies or threads anonymously. b. Allow Author to Delete Own Postsstudents will be able to remove previous posts. c. Allow Author to Edit Own Published Posts- students will be able to edit their original postings. d. Allow Post Tagging- allow text label or tags to be used to group similar postings together for search purposes. e. Allow Users to Reply with Quote- students can include the text of the original message in any replies to that post. f. Allow File Attachment- students may attach files to their threads or replies. g. Allow Members to Create Threads- students may introduce a new subject to the forum. Otherwise, students will only be allowed to reply to the original thread. h. Allow Members to Subscribe- students can choose to receive e- mails when a new post is made to the discussion board or a specific forum. i. Allow Members to Rate Posts- students can evaluate posts based on a fixed, 5 point scale. j. Force Moderation of Posts- a designated moderator must approve all posts before they can be viewed by other students. k. No Grading in Forum- use this option if you want to enter the grades manually in a column or if the forum isn t going to be graded. l. Grade Forum: Points Possible- assign the total points possible for the entire forum. A column is created in the Grade Center automatically. m. Grade Threads- enable grading of individual threads within the forum. A column is created in the Grade Center automatically. 7. Click the Submit button to save the forum. 9

10 Edit a Discussion Forum As the discussion progresses, you can solve some discussion issues by editing forum settings. For example, if students are posting to the wrong topic, fine-tune the forum name or description to clarify the forum's purpose. Tip: You can create all forums at the beginning of the term and make them unavailable. When a forum is needed, edit the forum to make it available. 1. Access the Discussion Board and click the forum's Action Link ( ) to access the contextual menu. 2. Select Edit from the menu. 3. On the Edit Forum page, make the necessary changes to the forum's name, description, availability, and/or settings. 4. Click the Submit button. Delete a Forum or Thread When you delete a forum or thread, all content is permanently deleted. For a less permanent solution, you can make a forum unavailable. When deleting graded discussion content, you determine if the Grade Center column and scores are also deleted. 1. Access the Discussion Board and click a forum or thread's Action Link ( ) to access the contextual menu. 2. Select Delete to permanently delete the forum or thread's content. 3. Click OK in the pop-up window. 4. On the Delete Confirmation page, you have two options: Do not select check boxes: The graded forum or thread will be deleted, but the Grade Center column and scores you have assigned are retained. For example, you have graded all students' posts and want to keep the Grade Center column for 10

11 the final grade calculations. If you delete the forum or thread, yet retain the Grade Center column, you can delete that column from the Grade Center at any time. Select the check boxes: The grade column in the Grade Center and the forum or thread are deleted. For example, if you do not want to include the grade column for the discussion posts in the final grade, you can safely delete both. 5. Click the Remove button. Reorder Discussion Forums You can help students focus on the most relevant content by reorganizing your Discussion Board forum order. When you create a forum, it is added to the bottom of the list. You can move the current forum to the top or delete forums that are no longer relevant. There are two ways to reorder forums: Drag-and-drop function and the Keyboard Accessible Reordering tool on the Action Bar. OR 1. Access the Discussion Board page. 2. Click-and-drag the Reorder arrow next to the forum you want to move. 3. Drag the forum into a new location in the list. 4. Release the forum to place it in its new location. 1. Click the Reordering tool button. 2. Select the Discussion Board to move. 3. Use the arrows to reorder the list. 4. Submit to accept the changes. 11

12 Viewing a Discussion Forum When you access a forum, a list of threads appears. The following columns display information for each thread: Date: Displays the date the thread was created. Author: Displays the name of user who created the thread. Status: Indicates whether the thread is published, hidden, locked, unavailable, or a draft. Unread Posts: Displays the number of posts not yet accessed. Total Posts: Includes both read and unread posts. To sort a column, click the column heading or caret. Forum Features A. Use the breadcrumb trail to navigate to a previous page. Do not use the browser navigation controls because page load errors may occur. B. Use the Action Bar functions to perform various actions, including: Create Thread: Add a new thread to a forum. Search: Search for Discussion Board content. The search field is collapsed by default to save screen space. Grade Forum: Grade posts, if you have enabled grading for the forum. Thread Actions: Make a selection from the drop-down list. Edit the status of the selected threads and perform other actions, such as marking threads read or unread and setting or clearing flags. Flags mark threads for later attention. Delete: Remove selected threads from a forum. Deleted threads cannot be restored. Use the Make Unavailable function in 12

13 the Thread Actions drop-down list to completely hide threads from users without actually deleting the threads. Collect: Gather selected threads onto one page where posts can be sorted, filtered, or printed. C. Select one or multiple threads' check boxes or select the check box in the header row to select all threads for an action, such as deleting. D. Click a thread title to read the posts. Forum titles containing unread posts appear in bold type. E. Click Edit Paging to determine the number of items to view per page. Type a number in the box and click Go. Click the X to close the pop-up box. Creating a Thread 1. Click the Forum link in which to create a thread. 2. Click the Create Thread button to create a new discussion thread. 3. Provide a Subject and Message. 4. Click the Submit button to save and post the thread. Replying to a Thread 1. Click the Subject line of a thread to read the message. 2. Click the Reply button to create a new reply message under the original post. 3. Type a reply message. 4. Click the Submit button to save and post the reply. 13