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.
  • Assignments - This section holds the assignments that a professor may wish his or her students to complete and submit through their Blackboard course and links to quizzes and tests.
  • Discussion Board – The discussion board houses the section in which students may communicate amongst their other classmates or with their course instructor.
  • My Grades – Grades for a student’s Blackboard courses are accessed in this section. This provides a useful tool to keep track of a student’s progress in their courses.
  • (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
  • Click on the Comment button underneath the entry to wish to comment on.

  • Type in a comment and then click Add.
  • Comments can be viewed for each entry by clicking on the words Comment: # located on the bottom left side of an entry.

written by Alex Gabriel

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May 11
  • To create an entry, click on the Create Entry button.
  • Choose a title for the entry and fill in the message. You may choose to add a file.
  • Click the Post Entry button.

written by Alex Gabriel

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May 11
  • From your course, click on the Tools link from the menu on the left side of the page.
  • Click on either Blogs or Journals.

  • Both Blogs and Journals have a very similar setup to the Discussion Board. You can create an entry and then you can comment on an entry. (We will be using Blogs for this tutorial)
  • Find the Blog or Journal that was set up by the instructor.
  • Click on it’s name.

  • Here is what the blog page may look like.

  • On the right side of the page is the information about the blog. It shows the author, type, entries, comments, and entry titles.

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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