May 13
- Groups in Blackboard, like in a face-to-face classroom, divide students into teams. Each team may be given tools to enhance their group work, including: Discussion Board, Virtual Classroom, File Exchange, and Email. Instructors may use groups to oversee work done by students and the paths taken to complete their work or utilize private forums to communicate with students.
- Look right underneath the menu on the left, you should see a heading called My Groups and under that is the name of your group. If you click on the name of your groups, a dropdown menu will appear with all the available tools for this group.

Here is description of some of the tools available to groups. Please note that your professor has access to disable any of these tools.
Group Discussion Board
- The Group Discussion Board is an active forum for your group and regulated by your teacher. Inside the Group Discussion link you will find a Forum where you can create a Thread and discuss different topics according to your needs. This is a very useful tool as the teacher has the option to grade the material that you present or discuss in the threads.
Collaboration
- The Collaboration function allows you to discuss with your classmates and share information in real time with a sophisticated chat room called Virtual Classroom or use the simpler Chat function. With the Virtual Classroom function you are able to ask questions, draw, record conversations, and have private chats with other group members.
File Exchange
- The File Exchange allows you to transfer group files in a single specified zone so that other group mates can access each others information.
- The File Exchange is a large storage area for your group files that can be easily accessed from anyone’s computer. To upload a file please follow these steps:
1.Click on your group’s name to access the group tools.
2.Click on File Exchange
3.Click on Add File
4.Name the file that you want to upload
5.Click Browse for Local File and navigate to the file you would like to upload
6.Once you found your file click Open
7.Click Submit
8.Now the file can be accessed from anyone in your group without any hassle.
Note: Uploads are limited to 20MB in size per file.
Send Email
- Send Email is almost exactly the same to the original Send email function discussed in the Messages and Email section of the tutorial
Group Homepage
- This gives basic information about your group including a list of all the people in a particular group.
written by Alex Gabriel
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May 12
When you access a course, you will find the navigation links or buttons on the left side of the page, which is called the Course Menu. The course menu indicates the different content areas of your Blackboard course, where instructors can place information like the syllabus, lecture notes, assignments, readings or other course materials. Each instructor can customize these buttons, so the names of the buttons may differ from course to course. Below are some of the major areas of the course Menu:

- Announcements - These messages are posted by your instructor and will display on the main page of your course. Messages will display for one week and will then be archived into a Announcement folder unless otherwise set by your instructor. Provides messages about upcoming tests, assignments or quizzes will be displayed. Provides an effective way to keep track messages from your instructor.
- Instructor Information - This section holds the instructor’s contact information, such as email, office hours, office location, etc.
- Content Ares (Syllabus, Course Information, Course Documents) – These sections, depending on the instructor’s preference, may hold course information like syllabuses, lecture notes, presentations, etc.
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(Course) Tools – Student’s tools like Blogs, Journals, Messages, My Grades, Course Calendar, User Manual… etc.
written by Alex Gabriel
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May 11
The Journal tool and the Blog tool are very similar. The Blog tool is a public discussion whereas the Journal tool allows the instructor and the student to communicate privately. The student can post messages to the instructor and the instructor can then comment back. If the instructor wishes, the journal can be made public but it does not allow other students to comment.
written by Alex Gabriel
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