The aim of this guide is to offer specific support for the use of features and tools within Blackboard. This guide includes information on:

Transcription

1 Blackboard Guide for Students The aim of this guide is to offer specific support for the use of features and tools within Blackboard. This guide includes information on: What is Blackboard Accessing Blackboard Printing/Saving course materials Digital drop box Discussion boards Online chat in Blackboard Calendar Online Grade Book Increasing the size of the screen Where to get help What is Blackboard? Blackboard is Aberdeen College s Virtual Learning Environment (VLE). Through Blackboard you will be able to access learning materials, information and communicate with lecturers and other students on your programme. Examples of what you might find there include: Course handbooks Lecture notes and handouts PowerPoint presentations Interactive materials Tests Questionnaires Discussion boards Web Links Announcements Accessing Blackboard You will be able to access Blackboard from any computer which has access to the Internet. For example, in classrooms, in the IT Centre and from home. Wherever you access Blackboard from, you will need an ID and password which will be the same as those allocated to you by your tutor for your College network account. To access Blackboard follow the steps out lined below. 1. a) If accessing Blackboard from home/work: enter the following URL into your web browser: You will then be taken to the Blackboard Login page (see below). b) If accessing Blackboard from an Aberdeen College computer: enter the following into your web browser: blackboard

2 2. Click on the Login Button on the left hand side of this page. 3. The Login screen will appear, see below. You will be asked to enter your username and password. This will be the same as those you use to access the College computer systems. 4. Now click on Login. You will see the My Institution page, with your courses listed on the right Click any course name to enter the course site Use the buttons on the left to navigate the resources If you cannot gain access, please and explain the problem you are having.

3 Printing/Saving Course Materials Printing/Saving a document opened in Blackboard may cause you to print or save the surrounding frame and other general Blackboard information. If you want to just print or save a document on its own there are two ways of doing this: 1. Printing a Document Once you have identified the document you want to print, one way of printing it out would be as follows: a) In Internet Explorer right-mouse click on the link to the file you want to print and choose 'Print Target' b) This should then bring up a Print dialogue box and you should be able to print out the whole document, or just a selection of pages. 2. Download and save the Document If you wish to keep a copy of the course document you can save it to a new location. You are then free to print it out as and when you need it: a) In Internet Explorer right-mouse click on the link to the file you want to save. When the menu appears, left click on Save Target as. b) When the Save As window appears, Select the location for your file to be saved to (e.g., Double click on the My Computer icon and then click on H drive) and click on Save. This will save the document to your College network drive. c) You can then read the document even when you are not logged into Blackboard and you can print the document as normal Using the Digital Drop Box The digital drop box is a way of transferring files from the student to the lecturer/student and vice versa. The use of the digital drop box is a two stage process. The Add File option allows you to store documents within Blackboard allowing you to access these documents from outside the College. Send File allows you to submit documents to your lecturer electronically. Make sure you add your student login number to the start of the filename before sending it to the digital dropbox. Add File 1. From within your course, click the Student Tools button and then Digital Drop Box 2. Click Add File. You can then give your file a title and description. 3. Click on the Browse button to locate the file for upload. 4. Press Submit and the file will be uploaded into your drop box. Only you will be able to access this file and you can do so from within or outwith the College. If you wish to submit a file electronically to your tutor, you will need to follow the Send File options. Send File 1. From within your course, click the Tools button and Digital Drop Box 2. Click on the Send File button. You can then give your file a title and description.

4 3. If you wish to send a file that you have previously added select the previously uploaded file from the Select file dropdown menu. 4. If you wish to send a file that isn't in Blackboard, click on Browse, and locate your file for upload. Click on the file once to highlight it, and then click on Open 5. Click on the Submit You cannot remove a file once it has been sent to your tutor. Only they can remove that file. This is to prevent a student from removing and altering any sensitive materials such as a test or assignment. This assures that the tutor has a chance to view and grade the file. Once your tutor grades or reviews the file and returns it to you, then and only then will the Remove button reappear and you can then delete that file from the digital drop box Using Discussion Boards A Discussion Board is a communication tool within Blackboard which will allow you to post messages which can be read and replied to by lecturers/other students on your course. The Discussion Board for each course can be found under the Discussion Board button or the Communication button. If you click the button for the board and see nothing, this means that your lecturer has not created a forum for you. A forum can only be created by a lecturer, and until this is done you cannot use the board. If there is a forum available, you will see its title and maybe a description: You can see that there is a message in this forum, which hasn't been read by the user accessing the page. To enter a forum, click the title. You will see a set of options at the top, which will help you to organise your viewing of the board when there are a lot of messages or 'posts'. Note the titles of messages running down the page, with the author's name next to each message. The indenting shows which messages are a reply to which other messages. Messages in grey have already been read by you. Messages in red are new, and will also have a image next to them: To read a message, click on its title.

5 The messages appear with the date, time, subject and author at the top, and the text of their message below. Use the Previous Message and Next Message buttons to follow the line of discussion or 'thread' through. You can also use the Current Thread Detail links which show up below the message you are viewing. To get out of the thread, scroll all the way down and click the OK button. Adding to the Discussion Just click the Reply button at the end of any message (Below your reply, you will see a copy of the message you are replying to.) Note that tutors can remove offensive or off-topic postings. Do remember that Blackboard keeps a record of your message and other members of your course (including the tutor) will be able to read them. NB You are reminded that the IT acceptable use policies of the College and the student code of conduct apply to your use of Discussion boards within Blackboard. You can add attachments to the message (if your tutor has allowed this) in the same way as you would with an message but think carefully about the size of file attachment You can preview your message to check the format, then use the Submit button to submit it to the board. If your tutor has split you and your fellow students into groups, each group may have its own board where you can exchange ideas and post files. Using Online Chat Your tutor may enable this feature for communication purposes within Blackboard. NB You are reminded that the IT acceptable use policies of the College and the student code of conduct apply to your use of online chat within Blackboard. Joining a Session To access an online chat Enter by clicking on the Communication button and then Collaboration If this is not available, this means your lecturer has disabled this option and you will not likely be using this on your course. If you can join, you will see names of the sessions you can join.

6 To join a session click on the Join button In order to be able to use online chat, users must have Java version installed on their machines. Users of the College public workstations should not need to make any changes to the computers. Java is available for download. (Choose Download J2SE v 1.4.1_04, Windows (all languages, including English) and then click on Download in the JRE column) Using in Blackboard Blackboard allows you to send to address. However, you cannot read sent from within Blackboard. All will appear in your Group Wise College account and when you reply to a message sent from within Blackboard it will go to the Person s personal address and is not available to read within Blackboard. Click on a course you are enroled in and you will be taken to the screen shown below. This is the screen you will see if you click on Communications > Send from within your course: The options shown here may change according to the way the course has been set up. Click the link for whichever group you wish to . Blackboard provides a form for creating your message which will be familiar if you have used web-based mail. Give the a subject and enter your message. The Send copy of Message to self feature does not work within Blackboard. You may add attachments to the . Please remember that if you are sending the to a large number of people this may use up a lot of resources, so keep any files you send to the minimum size possible. Click the Submit button when you are happy with your . If you cannot use the feature, it may be that you are on one of the few courses where has been disabled for system resources reasons. Using the Blackboard Calendar The calendar can be used by lecturers to provide students with dates/times/locations of events in the course. However, you can also use the

7 calendar to add your own personal calendar events. The events that you add are viewable only by you. Viewing the Calendar You can either view calendar events for a single course or all your calendar entries together. 1. To view calendar entries for one course, enter the your Blackboard course a. Click on Tools and then Calendar b. You will then see the calendar page for the current day. Use the tabs across the top to move around the calendar, or the Quick Jump button to find a specific day 2. To view all calendar events, click on the Calendar link on the main My Institution page. a. You will then see the calendar page for the current day. Use the tabs across the top to move around the calendar, or the Quick Jump button to find a specific day b. You can also filter the entries to see events from just one course. From the drop-down menu on the right-hand side of the screen, select the course you wish to view and press Go. Creating a Calendar Entry 1. From the My Institution page, click on Calendar. You will then see a diary page for the current day. 2. Click on the Add Event button 3. You can then add information about the event in section 1 4. In section 2 you can set the start and end date of the event. 5. Click on Submit and the event will be added to the calendar. You will then be returned to the calendar page. 6. To view events you can use the tabs at the top of the page. Click on event you wish to view and you will see the page for that day. 7. To change the details click on the Modify button; to delete the entry click on Remove. Using the Online Gradebook Note this is not the location for checking your official College results. It is for checking the results of any online assessments you complete within Blackboard. To view your Gradebook: 1. From within your course, click the Student Tools button and then View Grades. 2. You will see a list of assignments you have undertaken along with your score and normally the class average. Increasing the size of the screen You can increase the size of the screen by clicking on the red triangle in the top left of the screen. You can reactivate it by simply clicking on the red triangle.

8 Where to get help Can t get in? or having problems using your material. Please blackboard@abcol.ac.uk Can t see a course you think should be there? Ask your lecturer/class tutor what material has been made available for you and how it has been arranged. Access Problems? Blackboard is located at Note that you can log in to Blackboard from any computer with an internet connection - you do not need to be at a College site. What you need to log on to Blackboard: A computer connected to the Internet (inside or outside of the College) A version 4.0 or above browser with cookies and JavaScript enabled (check in your browser under Tools > Internet Options > Security tab and click the 'custom level' for cookies (IE5.5)) A computer login and password (the same one used to log in to services and Public Workstations) If you cannot log on, please check carefully that you are: Typing your username and password exactly as you would to access a public workstation. Your computing account must have been activated (contact your lecturer about this.)

9 If you are trying to connect from your own computer, please try it on campus (if possible) to see if you are able to log in that way. If when you click the 'login to Blackboard' link you receive a blank white page: Delete any extra text which appears in the address bar until the URL reads Then hit return and the page will display. If this is happening to you, you will also need to clear your browser cache (please note this step is only necessary if you are using your own computer to connect). In Internet Explorer this can be found under Tools > Internet Options. Click Delete Files under the temporary internet files area of the General tab. If you can log on but do not see any courses: Your tutors may not be using Blackboard. Your course/s may not have been made available to students yet. There may be a temporary problem with Blackboard. Please log out and log back in. If you still cannot log in/do not see courses that should be there, please blackboard@abcol.ac.uk and give us as much information as possible - where, when, how and what computer and browser you are using, and any error messages you see.