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Blackboard FAQ

Blackboard FAQ - Instructor Issues

This FAQ covers questions that the faculty have asked as they begin to teach with Blackboard.

For instructions in getting started with Blackboard, using Blackboard for communication, creating surveys and quizzes, using the gradebook, putting a banner on your main course page, archiving the gradebook, or linking to your E-reserves, see the various documents in the Computing and Technology software documentation pages

* Feel free to contact the Help Desk with any problems or questions you might have.
On-Campus: x7777
Off-Campus: 362-6538

Computing & Technology

Getting Started with Blackboard

Browser Setup

Username & Password FAQ

Discussion Board FAQ

Instructor FAQ

BB Troubleshooting and Error Messages

	How do I set up a new course?
	Why are there hyphens (-) in place of email addresses in my roster?
	Timed assessments - what happens if the student goes over the time limit?
	How do I add students to my class roster?
	What do I do if when I try to enroll students, their name isn't on the list of users?
	Why is there a lock in place of a grade in my gradebook?
	What can I do if students get to class and forget their password to login to Blackboard?
	Is there an easy way to print messages posted to the discussion board?
	Why do long messages on the discussion board get truncated?
	Why do messages I send to students not appear in the out box of my mail program?
	A student started a test and then exited before completing it. Is there any way to finish it?

How do I set up a new course?

Call Ellen Witt at x6020.

Hyphens in place of email addresses

Students have the opportunity to set Privacy Options. (After they have logged into Blackboard, they select Tools; Personal Information; Set Privacy Options). If they choose to make their email address private, it will show up as a hyphen (-) in the class roster and other visible places. The email address still functions. Instructors can see the email address by using the Control Panel and List/Modify Users. To reset privacy settings, users can select Personal Information from the Tools Menu on the My Institution page. Click on Set Privacy Options to make changes in what information is publicly available.

Using timed assessments

When you make an assessment available to the class, you have the option of setting a time limit for the assessment. If a student takes an assessment and exceeds the time limit, their score will show up in the grade book with a !. When you click on the ! to view their exam results, Blackboard will show a message stating by how much time the student exceeded the test limit. Instructors may adjust the grade if they choose or leave the score the student received.

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Adding Students to the Class Roster

Each instructor must enroll students in their course. Here are the steps to do that:

Login to Blackboard
Select your course
Control Panel
Enroll user
Type in first 4 or 5 characters of their last name and press Enter (or Search)
Click to put a check mark in the Add box beside the name of the student you wish to enroll and click on Submit (you may have to scroll down to the bottom of the page to see the submit button)

Students whose names are not on the list.

If you cannot find a student's name when you try to enroll them in a course, call computer services (Ellen Witt x6020) to have the student added to the Blackboard system.

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Locks in the Gradebook

A lock is placed in the gradebook while a student is taking an exam. It will be replaced with a grade or an ! (if there are questions to be graded by the instructor) when the student completes the assessment.

How to handle forgotten passwords

Students can reset this passwords as long as they know their username. See the changing password instructions. Also, as an instructor, you may quickly change their password. Steps:

Login to Blackboard
Select your course
Control Panel
List/modify Users
Search for the user
Click the Password button to the right of their name
Enter the new password in the password and verify password boxes
Click the submit bottom (at the bottom of the page)

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Printing Discussion Board Postings

From within your course, open the Discussion Board and the forum. Click the + beside EXPAND ALL to see all messages. If you do not see a series of icons above the message list, click on the Show Options tab to the far right above the messages. Click on the boxes next to the messages you would like to print. A check should appear in those boxes. Click on the "Collect" icon in the toolbar above the messges. All selected messages will appear at one time. You can print this page as you would print any web page (File menu; Print)

Maximum length for discussion board messages

The discussion board has a limit of approximately 3970 characters which is about one page. If users feel they will exceed this limit, they have the option of attaching a file to their message.

Blackboard messages don't appear in the out box of my mail program

When you send mail from BB, there is an option to send a copy to yourself. You can use this to keep copies of the messages you send to students. They will of course be in your Inbox folder rather than your Sent Items folder of your mail program. You could set up a folder in your mail program and move all messages you send to the class to that folder. That would make them easy to find.
How to send the message to your Outlook mailbox:
    In BB, select Communication;
    Send mail
    Select the recipients
    Type the Subject and Message
    Optionally Add attachments.
    Click Submit at the bottom of the page.
    You should receive a copy of each message you send out in you Outlook Inbox folder

Student needs to restart an assessment

The student cannot begin in the middle of a partially completed test through Blackboard. The professor may want to allow her to retake it. If a student opens an assessment and does not complete it by pressing the submit button, a grade is not stored. When the professor looks at the online gradebook, it will show a lock in place of the student's grade. This might happen if the student starts the test and there is some kind of computer failure or if the student opens the test and exits it by closing the window rather than hitting the submit button. To allow the student to take the test again, the instructor can click on the lock in the gradebook. This will open the incomplete attempt. On the right click the View Button. On the top right there is a Clear Attempt button. Clicking this will remove the lock from the gradebook, erase any work done on the test and allow the student to attempt it again.

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