Louisiana Tech University - Center for Instructional Technology

Type http://blackboard.latech.edu in the address bar of your browser. Then click "Go" or "Search," OR
Click the "Blackboard" hyperlink from the Louisiana Tech home page [http://www.latech.edu/] which can be found in the red bar under the campus name.

View an animated demo of Accessing Blackboard: http://latech.edu/cit/blackboard7/videos/accessing_blackboard_b.htm

Logging in to Blackboard

Once at the Blackboard site, click the Login button.

At the login page, enter your username and your password.

Note: Your username is the front part of your Louisiana Tech email address, before the @ sign. For example, if your Tech email address is bulldog@latech.edu your username is bulldog.

Your password is defaulted to your 8-digit campus wide ID, which is located on your Louisiana Tech ID card.

After you have entered your username and password, click the login button.

View an animated demo of Logging into Blackboard: http://latech.edu/cit/blackboard7/videos/logging_in_to_blackboard.htm

Navigating Blackboard

Inside Blackboard you will see a header frame that contains five links and tabs to common ares: Home, Help, Logout, My Blackboard, and Courses.

Common Area Image Links

Home: Returns to the Blackboard home page, http://blackboard.latech.edu

Help: Links to the online support site, https://support.blackboard.com/s/

Logout: Clicking the Logout button ends your Blackboard session.

The "My Blackboard" tab

The My Blackboard area contains tools and information specific to each user. This is the page you are sent to after logging in to Blackboard.

Here you will see the "Welcome" greeting, tools and contents.

The "My Blackboard" Tab contains:

My Announcements - Displays courses in which the user is enrolled, with announcements, calendar events, and tasks.
My Courses - Displays courses in which the user is enrolled.
My Tasks - Displays tasks that have been posted in each course.
My Calendar - Displays calendar events.
Quick Tutorials-New Product Enhancements - Displays short clips that demonstrate key features in different versions of Blackboard.

The Courses tab

Course Search - Search the Abailable Blackboard courses. Courses set as "unavailable" in the course settings will not show up in this Search.

Course List - Courses are listed into two categories:

Courses you are teaching
Courses in which you are enrolled

Click on a course to access that course Web site.

Course Catalog - Browse or Search only the Available Blackboard courses.

Customize Your My Blackboard View

Remove courses from your course list.

To remove underused courses from your Blackboard course list:

In the upper right corner of the "My Coures" module, there is a button to edit the "My Courses" module, as well as a button to miimize it. To edit your course list, click on the icon that looks like a pencil. You will be at the "Customize My Courses" page.
At the "Customize My Courses" page, you will see an area titled "Modify Courses List". In the "Modify Courses List, check or uncheck the check box under "Display Course" to control the courses you want to be displayed on your My Blackboard page. Note: Unchecking a course only removes the course from your view. You will still continue to have access to all of the courses in which you are enrolled or teach in.

Add or remove modules that appear on you My Blackboard page.

Select the modules you want to appear on the My Blackboard page. You can Add and Remove modules to add information or reduce clutter.

Click the "Modify Content" button on the right side of the content area.
At the "Modify Content: My Blackboard" page, check or uncheck the modules you want to appear on the My Blackboard page.
Click Submit to Finish.
Note: You may also remove modules by clicking the circle icon with the red "X" in it, located in theupper right corner of each module box.

Personalize the Page Layout and Choose a Color Scheme.

Click the "Modify Layout" button on the right side of the content area to access the "Modify Layout: My Blackboard" page.
You can Personalize your My Blackboard page layout and your theme. Follow the instructions to customize the placement of the modules under "Personalize Page Layout", and choose a color scheme that suits you under "Personalize Theme".
Click Submit to Finish.

The Tools Box

Announcements - View the Announcements of the courses you are participating in.
Calendar - View Calendar
Tasks - View Tasks
View Grades - View the grades in the courses you are enrolled
Send E-mail - Send E-mail to users of any of the courses you are participating in
User Directory - Search for Blackboard Users
Address Book - Create a List of Contacts
Personal Information - Edit Information about yourselfe

Edit Your Personal Information

To Edit Your Personal Information:

Click the "Personal Information" hyperlink in the Tools box under the My Blackboard tab.
Select the "Edit Personal Information" hyperlink
Edit the text boxes including your address, phone numbers, gender, education level, department, job title, et.
Click "Submit" to finish.

Formatting with the Textbox Editor

Formatting Text Box Content with the Text Box Editor

Blackboard now comes with a formatting toolbar called the Text Box Editor. The Text Box Editor appears when posting a new message or responding to a posted message. Use the Text Box Editor toolbar to make postings more attractive, interesting and informative and not have to learn HTML or CSS.

Tools available in the toolbar:

The toolbar is very much like the one available in MS Word.

Bold, italicize, underline, align (left/right/center), indent and add bullets.
Cut, copy and paste.
Redo and Undo options allows us to go back and forth to view the changes made to the document.
Insert a hyperlink with the Hyperlink option.
Coose mailto option from the drop down box when using the Hyperlink option, to add an email address to the document.
Search for a word or phrase in the text area.
Add a link to a webpage by selecting the default http:// from the drop down list, or add an email address link by selecting mailto:// from the drowp down list.
Create a table for tabular data with the Table option.
Insert a horizontal line.
Highlight text yo have already entered wiht color or change the Font Color.
Format your text with color.
Insert equations and math symbols with WebEQ and MathML.
Open the html editor <html> and add html content.
Preview your html content before submitting it.
Find out how the different tools in the toolbar work.
Attach a file.
Add an image to enhance your content.
Add MPEG or AVI video content
Add a fireworks image
Spell check your text. When Blackboard is spellchecking your work, a new window will pop up.

Note: To experience the least problems when you copy and/or paste from a Word document:

Create your document without formatting.
Save the document as plain text by selecting .txt or plain text from the "save as type" drop down box.
Once you have saved your document correctly, highlight and copy the content.
Return to Blackboard and paste your content into the text area, using the paste icon shown on the right. Finally, format your test in Blackboard using the text editor toolbar.

How to Enable or Disable Textbox Editor:

Click the "My Blackboard" tab
Find the Tools on the left and click Personal Information.
Click Set Text Box Editor Options
In the "Manage Text Box Editor" set the Set Availability option to "Available" or "Unavailable"
Click Submit to finish.

The Control Panel - Building Your Course

To begin building your course:

Click on the title of the course that you want to build from the list located under "My Courses" on the Welcome Page.
Click on the Control Panel in the left navigaiton bar.

Control panel overview:

The control panel comprises six areas:

Content Areas: Links to the areas of your course where you will add course material.
Course Tools: Setup or use communication tools and specially formatted areas of the course in this seciton.
Course Options: dCreate the perfect course for your needs by customizing the settings and options. This is also the area where you will make your course available to students.
User Management: Add or Remove users, view the student roster with "List/Modify Users", or set up groups.
Assessment: Create question pools,online assessments and surveys, or manage your grades.
Support: Contact the Blackboard Support Team, System Administrator, or view the Instructor Manual.

View an animated demo of Control Panel Overview: http://latech.edu/cit/blackboard7/videos/controlpaneloverview.htm

Adding an Announcement

To add an Announcement:

Click on the Course Control Panel.
Click Announcements under Content Areas on the Control Panel.
Select a time period from the tabs to view specific announcements.
Click Submit to finish.

View an animated demo of Adding an Announcement: http://latech.edu/cit/blackboard7/videos/adding_an_announcement.htm

Adding Staff Information

To add Staff Information:

Click on the course Control Panel.
Click Staff Information in Content Areas.
Click Add Profile. The Add Profile page will appear.
Enter the staff information.
Click Browse to search to find the path to a graphic file with a picture of the staff member.
Click Submit to finish.

View an animated demo of How to Add Staff Information: http://latech.edu/cit/blackboard7/videos/adding_staff_information.htm

Adding a Document and other Content

Click on the Course Control Panel.
Select a Content Area in the Course Control Panel.
Click Add Item
Enter a name and an optional description or text.
To Attach a file, click Browse to locate a file. The file will appear with the item as either a link or the actual file contents.
Choose optional date restrictions
Click Submit to finish

View an animated demo of How to Add A Document and Other Content: http://latech.edu/cit/blackboard7/videos/adding_a_document.htm

Enrolling Student Users

Click on the Course Control Panel.
Click Enroll User in User Management
Search for a user using the user’s last name or user name
Click the "search" button
Select the check box next to the name(s) of the user(s) to be enrolled
Click Submit to finish.

Note: Users who are already enrolled in the course will not show up in the Enroll User search.

View an animated demo of How to Enroll Student Users: http://latech.edu/cit/blackboard7/videos/enrolling_student_users.htm

Using "Quick Edit"

Select a course.
Click on the course menu buttons to select the area that you would like to edit.
In the top right corner of the Blackboard course screen, notice the text labeled "Edit View". Note: You may need to maximize the screen window.
Click on the "Edit View" link to cut directly to the control panel Edit mode.

Course Settings

Manage settings of a course and its contents, including:

Course Name and Description - Manages the course name, description, and subject type.
Course Availability - Lets you set course availability, when the course is to be available to Students.
Set Course Entry Point - Indicates which content area users view first when entering the course Web site. Typically the Announcements page.
Course Design - Manage the appearance of the course banner and design.

To open the Settings page, click Settings in Course Options on the Course Control Panel.

Making a Course Available to Students
Go to the course you want to make available
Go to the Control Panel
Click on Settings under Course Options
Click on Course Availability
Select the "yes" radio button
Click "Submit" to finish.

View an animated demo of Making a Course Available to Students: http://latech.edu/cit/blackboard7/videos/making_a_course_available.htm

Change Course Menu Appearance:

Go to the Course Control Panel and select Settings under Course Options
Click on Course Design. You will be taken to a page with two options: Course Design and Course Banner. Select Course Design.
You can select Button Type, Button Shape and Button Style. Also you can pick a color for the text over the buttons.
Click on "Submit".

To add an Image to appear on your course page above the announcements:

Click on Course Design.
Click on Course Banner.
Browse the image and click "Submit"

Manage Course Menu

To begin customizing the navigation menu bar:

Click Manage Course Menu in the "Course Options" area of the Control Panel.
From here you can customize the names of the buttons in the navigation area, remove superfluous buttons, add tool and content buttons and determine the order in which the buttons will appear.
add links to areas inside your course and external links

Add and modify course buttons that link to course areas. Link to up to 10 different areas for each course.

Tip: Link directly to the Discussion Board, Group pages, or another popular course area, and turn three clicks into one.

Click Manage Course Menu from the Control Panel to open the Manage Course Menu page.

Add Content Area. The Add New Area: Course area page will appear.
Add Tool Link. The Add New Area: Tool Area will appear.
Add Course Link. The Add New Area: External Link page will appear.
Add External Link. The Add New Area: Course Link page will appear.
Modify. Modify an area
Remove. This action is irreversible. Removes an area

To order Content Areas, click the drop-down arrow next to the Content Area and select a number. Course areas will appear in the Course Menu in the order selected.

Assignment Management

Assignments in Blackboard are a way of organizing files students upload to the Blackboard course.

Assignments are managed in the Gradebook and can be created in any content area of a course. All content management operations, including time-release options, are supported.

Instructors can provide feedback through the Web and through direct comments on students' assignments.

Assignments are tied directly to the Gradebook and are organized by Assignment and student - unlike the Digital Drop box or email, which store all files in one location.

Quick Summary: Steps to Add and Grade an Assignment

Add an Assignment
Select the Assignment from Gradebook
Select the first student paper
From a single page: Read, Grade, and Comment on the Assignment. Return the Assignment, Grade, and Feedback to the student.
The grade is automatically recorded in the Gradebook

Adding an Assignment

Begin in the control panel
Click on the content area you want your Assignment to appear.
In the content area, select Assignment from the pull-down menu on the right side of the tool bar
Click "Go".

View an animated demo of Adding an Assignment: http://latech.edu/cit/blackboard7/adding_an_assignment.htm

Fill in and view the following Assignment options:

Name
Choose Color of Name by clicking "Launch Color Picker"
Points Possible
Instructions
Make the assignment available
Track number of views
Choose date restrictions
File To Attach
Name of Link to File
Currently Attached Files:

Click "Submit" to finish adding the Assignment.

Batch Downloading Assignments

To view or grade student Assignments:

Click on the Control Panel,
Click on the Gradebook.
Locate the assignment column you wish to work with.

Tip: To download all student assignments in one convenient operation:

Click on the assignment title at the top of the column.
Click Item Download on the next page.
Use the checkboxes to download any and all assignments you want.

Note about zip files: The downloaded files come in a compressed .zip format that can be uncompressed with utilities such as WinZip.

Note: An additional text file containing student information and student comments is included in each downloaded zip file.

View an animated demo of Batch Downloading Assignments: http://latech.edu/cit/blackboard7/downloading_assignments.htm

Entering a Grade for an Assignment

In the Gradebook, a spreadsheet view with all the assignments and tests are listed across the top. The names of the students can be found on the left hand side.

A dash (-) indicates that the student has not submitted the Assignment.
An exclamation point (!) indicates that the student has handed it in, and the instructor needs to grade it. Click on the exclamation point to grade it.
A grade indicates the Assignment has already been graded.

After clicking on the exclamation point to grade an Assignment, a long, grey toolbar will give you the student's name, the assignment name, a box for you to put the grade in, the point value, and the exact time and date the student handed the assignment in. Click on the button that says "View" to view the complete Assignment.

The description and name of the assignment, as well as the comments made by the student
Link to their uploaded document to open their assignment.
Student feedback area. This allows you to make comments to the student about their assignment. There is a box above where you can type in the points you give to this assignment. This will be automatically dropped into the gradebook and calculated in to their class points.
There is also a box below that which allows you to add attachments.
Instructor's notes

View an animated demo of Entering a Grade for an Assignment: http://latech.edu/cit/blackboard7/entering_assignment_grade.htm

Additional Course Content Areas

Learning Unit: A structured path for progressing through the content within a course. Allows a student to view content as a slideshow, without having to click a link to open content.

Survey: Useful for polling purposes, evaluations, and random checks of knowledge.

Assignment: Assignments are linked to the Gradebook and list the name, point value, and a description for class work. Students complete the assignment in a separate file and send it back through the Course menu.

Turnitin Assignment: Turnitin is an online resource for educators and students concerned with developing quality writing and research skills. Turnitin prevents and detects plagiarism by comparing submitted papers to billions of pages of content located on the Internet and our proprietary databases.

Sending an E-mail to the class:

Click the Send Email in the Course Tools section of the control panel.
Make a selection as to whom the mail is to be sent from various options available. For instance click All Users to send a mail to everyone in the class or Single/Select User to send a mail to only selected persons.
Compose the message to be sent, add any attachments, if any, using the Add button available.
Click the Submit button to send the message.

View an animated demo of Sending an Email: http://latech.edu/cit/blackboard7/sending_email.htm

Group Management

The Manage Groups function enables you to divide students into smaller groups and provide this smaller group with a private environment for collaboration. The tools available to the groups include discussion board, email, file exchange and the Virtual Classroom.

Creating A Group:

From the "User Management" section of the Control Panel click on "Manage Groups"
Once inside the Manage Groups page, select "Add Group"
Now choose a name for the group, write a description, select your group options and submit.
Once you've set up your group, return to the "Manage Groups" page and click the "Modify" button to begin adding students.

Discussion Board

Forums can appear throughout a course, in any area where an Instructor chooses. Each group may also have a private Discussion Board with forums available only to those users that are a part of the group. All forums that are not a part of a group are accessible from various points in the course or by going to the Discussion Board tool. The Discussion Board tool centralizes all of the forums in the course.

Please keep in mind that when users open the Discussion Board tool they will only see those forums they can access. Unavailable forums can only be viewed by Instructors, Administrators, and other user roles with similar permissions. The unavailable status of a forum is displayed on the Discussion Board page, beneath the name of the forum.

Discussion Board Forum Basics

The Discussion Board is a communication medium for posting and responding to messages. When a discussion is started within a forum it is called a thread. Conversations are grouped in threads that contain a main posting and all related replies.

To open the Discussion Board page, go to the Control Panel, and click Discussion Board under Course Tools.

At the Discussion Board page, an Instructor can:

Add a new discussion forum, by clicking Add Forum. (The Add Forum page will appear.)
Access a forum, by clicking a forum topic link.
Modify a forum, by clicking Modify. (The Modify Forum page will appear.)
Remove a forum, by clicking Remove. (A confirmation box will appear. Removing a forum is irreversible.)
Change the order of forums, by clicking the drop-down list box and selecting a number. (The forums will appear on the Discussion Board in the order selected.)

View an animated demo of Discussion Board Forum Basics: http://latech.edu/cit/blackboard7/discussion_board_forum.htm

To enter the discussion board:

Click on the Courses tab,
then click the Communications link available, which has various other useful links along with the Discussion Board Link.

To Add a Forum

The Discussion Board is made up of Forums. Adding forums is accomplished on the Add Forum page.

Follow these steps to open the Add Forum page:

Open a course
Click Discussion Board. The Discussion Board page appears.
Click Add Forum. The Add Forum page appears.
Complete the required forum information fields and options.
Add or Modify Forum

Forums are used to organize threads. While Instructors must create new forums, they can enable other users to manage a forum once it is created. The fields on the Add Forum page and the Modify Forum page are the same. The Add Forum page opens with empty fields while the Modify Forum page opens with a forum already populated.

Initiate a Thread

Threads are a series of posts related to a similar topic. When creating a forum, the Instructor has the option of allowing or not allowing users to start threads. If threads are graded, users cannot start threads. Generally, the purpose of the forum will dictate whether or not users can start threads. A moderated, graded forum used to evaluate student performance will usually be tightly controlled. In this case, it would not be appropriate to allow users to create threads. Other forums are designed for users to share opinions and thoughts on tangential or unrelated topics. In this case, it is safe to allow users to create threads and spark discussions.

To start a thread:

Open a Discussion Board Forum.
Click Add Thread in the action bar. The Add Thread page will appear.
Enter a Subject and a Message. It is also possible to attach files to the post.
Click Save to store a draft of the post or click Submit to create the thread

Respond to a Discussion Board Post

Threads grow as users respond to the initial, and subsequent, posts. Replies build on one another to construct a conversation.

To reply to a post.

Open a thread in a forum.
Find a post.
Click Reply for that post.
Enter a Subject and a Message. It is also possible to attach files to the post. Only one file can be added using the Attachment function below the text box. When using the Visual Text Box Editor, multiple files may be added.
Click Save to store a draft of the post or click Submit to create the thread.
The post will appear in the thread underneath the original post.

Grading Discussion Board Participation

In a classroom setting, students are often expected to participate in class discussions and that participation is part of the equation when assessing performance. Within a classroom, participation performance can be ambiguous. It is sometimes difficult to differentiate the student who is active but does not advance the discussion from the student that speaks less frequently but with greater impact.

Student interactions with the Discussion Board are a permanent record of participation. The Instructor has the option to grade Students at the forum level or at the thread level. In this way the Instructor can accurately compare student participation to the expectations set forth

Grading options are enabled when the forum is created or by modifying the forum.

Click Modify on the Discussion Board for a forum to change its settings.

Once Grading has been enabled, a Gradebook Item is created and all the advanced management features that can be applied to the item should be managed from the gradebook.

The Grade settings appear at the bottom of the Add Forum Page and the Modify Forum page.

Select Grade Forum and enter a point value to evaluate participants on performance throughout the forum.
Select Grade Threads to evaluate participants on performance in each thread. When the Grade Threads option is used, a Points Possible option appears each time a thread is started. Keep in mind that users cannot create new threads if Grade Threads is selected for the forum.

Forum Managers can enable thread grading directly from the thread list (in a forum where thread grading is enabled). Follow these steps:

Click the Enable button in the Grade column for the appropriate thread and the Set Grade: page is displayed.
Enter a point value in the Points possible field and click Submit.
Grade User Participation in a Forum

Follow these steps to evaluate performance in a forum.

Open the Discussion Board. A list of forums appears. For each forum that may be graded, an icon appears in the Grade column.
Click the icon in the Grade column, or click Grade Forum in the action bar.
A list of users appears. Click Grade for a user.
A collection of the user’s posts in the forum will appear. Evaluate the posts and enter a Grade in the Grade field at the top of the page.
Click Submit to add the grade to the Gradebook.

Grade User Participation in a Thread

To evaluate performance within a thread.

Open the Discussion Board. A list of forums will appear. For each forum that may be graded, an icon will appear in the Grade column.
Open a forum and select a thread.
Click Grade Thread. This button will only appear to users with a forum role of Grader or Manager. A list of users will appear.
Click Grade for a user.
A collection of the user’s posts in the Thread will appear. Evaluate the posts and enter a Grade in the Grade field at the top of the page.
Click Submit to add the grade to the Gradebook.

Changing Discussion Board Grades

Follow these steps to change Discussion Board grades:

Navigate to the Grade: page.
Click the number in the Grade field or click Clear Grade to delete the existing grade.
Enter a new grade and click Submit.

Disable Grading for a Forum or Thread

Use the Modify Forum feature to change the grading option to select No Grading. If Grades have already been entered for the forum or its threads, a warning message will appear that changing the setting will remove the associated Gradebook Items.
Click OK to continue or click Cancel to preserve the Gradebook Items.

Peer Review Through the Discussion Board

A common learning tool in classrooms is providing feedback to other students on their work. Students prepare an essay, lab report, or presentation and share it with the class. Other students are asked to comment on the work and offer criticisms for improvement. This process helps the student improve their assignment, but is even more valuable to the students that review the work. Reviewing the work of another student enforces classroom learning and helps the reviewer practice important communication skills.

The Discussion Board is the perfect place in a course for peer review. Each student may start a thread and include their work in the initial post. Other students then review the work, assign a rating to the initial post, and include comments in a response. As users respond, the feedback expands as users reinforce and build on points made by other students.

Users can respond to a post using a 5-star rating system. To enable this feature, select Allow members to rate posts when creating the forum.

Rating a Discussion Board Post

Open a thread and view the posts. Each post has an Overall Rating field with five stars. The stars show the overall rating that the post has received from users. Click on the Rate this Post drop down list and select a rating from 0 to 5 stars. Your rating is now included in the Overall Rating and your individual rating appears in the Rate this Post field. A user may not rate the same post more than once.

Assessments

From this section of the Control Panel it is possible to create tests and surveys, manage the gradebook and run reports on the usage of your course site by participants.

In the assessments area of the control panel, you can create tests by clicking either "Test Manager" or "Pool Manager" (the Pool Manager is preferable if you wish to develop a pool of questions you can pull from and potentially randomize for your tests).

Create a test using the Test Manager or Pool Manager:

Click "Test Manager" or "Pool Manager" in the "Assessment" section of the Control Panel.
Click "Add Test" or "Add Pool"
Give your test a name, a description, and provide instructions for the students using the "Test Info" screen.
From the "Test Canvas" screen, click on "Creation Settings".
Select the required settings from the "Creation Settings" shown.
Click Submit.

On the test canvas, using the drop down box, select the appropriate question format (e.g. multiple choice, true or false, multiple answer, essay etc.) and click go.

Type or cut and paste the questions and answers, or make your selection from previous assignments or pools; insert math and science notation if needed.
Hit submit
Add additional questions and answers if desired.
Finally select the content area in which you would like your assessment to appear.
Return to the Control Panel and click on the content area in which you would like the test to appear. In this example we clicked on "Assignments" so that the test appears in the assignments content area.
Once inside Assignments click on "+ Test".
From the Add Test screen you can create a new test or select the test you just created and click submit.
Finally modify the test options to make the test available by clicking on Modify in the Assignments screen.
Next click Modify the Test Options on the "Modify Test" screen.
From the "Test Options" screen you can change the test information, test availability, feedback and presentation.

Deploying a Test

To deploy a test:
Go the your course Control Panel
Choose a Content Area to deploy the test.
Click on the Add Test button
Select the Test that you want to deploy. Click "Submit". Click "OK"
From the Modify Test page, select "Modify the Test options".
Make the test available by selecting the "Yes" radio button next to "Make the link available".
Optionally set the dates.
Click "Submit"

View an animated demo to Deploy a Test: http://latech.edu/cit/blackboard7/deploy_tests.htm

Reviewing Students' Test Answers and Modifying Scores:

Tests are automatically graded by Blackboard and the test results appear in the Blackboard gradebook.

To review the scores and answers:

Click "Gradebook" in the "Assessment" section of the Control Panel.

Click on the grade that corresponds to the student's attempt for the test in question.

On the View Grades page, you can either make a change directly to the student's grade in the Grade field or click on "View" to review the student's answers and if necessary edit the scores.

If a student has experienced a network freeze, or for some other reason needs to retake the test, clear the first attempt and allow the student to retake the test as follows:

Click "View" on the "View Grades" screen.

Click on "Clear Attempt".

Gradebook

Grades generated from online tests are posted to the Gradebook automatically. You can also manually enter columns into the Gradebook to track scores on other assignments. Students can check their grades from the Student Tools button in the course.

Accessing the Gradebook:

Click on "Gradebook" in the "Assessment" area of the Control Panel.

Once inside the gradebook, you will notice that each student has a row and each item in the gradebook has a column. When tests are created in Blackboard, a column is automatically created in the gradebook to record those test scores. To record scores for other assessed items, you will need to add that item to the gradebook.

View an animated demo to Access the Gradebook: http://latech.edu/cit/blackboard7/accessing_gradebook.htm

Adding an item to the gradebook:

Click "add item" at the top of the gradebook page
Enter the name of the item, select the category input the description, date, and points possible and how you would like the score to be displayed.
Finally determine whether or not the item should be made visible to students (useful if you create your columns ahead of time and do not want students to view them) and whether or not to include the item in the grade book score calculations.

View an animated demo to Add an Item to the Gradebook : http://latech.edu/cit/blackboard7/adding_gradebook_item.htm

Modifying Items in the Gradebook

Click the "Manage Items" button from the Gradebook.
Click the "Modify" button next to the Gradebook item you want to modify.
Change the desired fields, such as the name or point value.
Click "Submit" to finish.

View an animated demo to Modify Items in the Gradebook: http://latech.edu/cit/blackboard/gradebook_modifying_item_name.htm

Reordering Items in the Gradebook

Click the "Manage Items" button from the Gradebook.
Change the order of items by clicking the drop-down list box on the left of the item and selecting a number. This will change the item order automatically.

View an animated demo to Reorder Gradebook Items: http://latech.edu/cit/blackboard7/reorder_gradebook_items.htm

Saving A Copy of Your Gradebook

For backup purposes you may wish to save a copy of your gradebook. To do so:

Click the "Download Grades" button from the Gradebook.
Read the directions on the screen and then click the "Download" button.
Save the file to your computer.
Open the file in Excel.

View an animated demo to Save a Copy of Your Gradebook: http://latech.edu/cit/blackboard7/gradebook_download_copy.htm

Collaboration Tools - Lightweight Chat and the Virtual Classroom

The Collaboration Tools allow the Instructor and Students to participate in real time lessons and discussions and also view archives of previous Collaboration sessions.

The Collaboration Tools can be used to hold real-time, online classroom discussions, TA sessions, and office hour type question/answer forums.

Guest speakers and subject matter experts can also communicate with the class using the Collaboration Tools.

The following Collaboration Tools are available:

Virtual Classroom - Allows users to enter a real-time discussion with Instructors, Students, and colleagues; access the Web; and engage in question and answer sessions.
Lightweight Chat- The Lightweight Chat is part of the Virtual Classroom but can also be accessed separately. It allows users to open just the Chat function of the Virtual Classroom.

To find the collaboration area:

Click on the course Control Panel
Click on the "Collaboration" link under Course Tools

This will take you to the collaboration area where, if available you will be able to participate in either a lightweight chat or the virtual classroom.

Lightweight Chat

The Lightweight Chat is a text-based chat tool that allows a group of users to conduct an online session through text-based messages. This text-based tool can be used alone or in conjunction with the enhanced Virtual Classroom. The tool also includes a control panel, through which an Instructor or moderator may allow or disallow access to particular functions.

Some of the features of the Lightweight Chat include:

sending private messages
viewing user information
creating breakout sessions
advanced archiving controls

To participate in a Lightweight Chat:

Follow the instructions for entering the collaboration area.
Next click the "join" button to the right of the Lightweight Chat you would like to join. The Lightweight Chat will open in a new window (this may take a few moments).

Important: Pop-up blockers on many machines will prevent the Lightweight Chat from opening. To override a pop-up blocker, hold the "Ctrl" key while clicking "Join". Disabling the pop-up blocker is another solution.

To participate, type your message into the "compose" window at the bottom of the screen and click "send".

Virtual Classroom

The Virtual Classroom consists of all of the functionality included in the Lightweight Chat in addition to other features that may be used during an online collaboration session. The controls for these features, as well as the participation of users, are controlled by the Instructor through the session controls.

New features include:

the ability to use math equations and scientific notation in the chat window
a group browser where participants can collaboratively browse the web
class tours during which users can view course content and course tools

To participate in the Virtual Classroom collaboration session:

Follow the instructions for entering the collaboration area.
Next click the "join" button to the right of the Virtual Classroom session you would like to join. The Virtual Classroom will open in a new window (this may take a few moments).
To participate in the dialogue, type your message in the Compose dialogue box on the bottom right and then click the "Send" button.
To send a private message to a participant, highlight his/her name in the participant panel and then click on the Private Message button. A new window will appear where you can type and send your message.

The following additional features can be found in the Virtual Classroom:

Course Map: enables you to take "class tours" i.e. locate specific content in the course and view it along with the rest of the class.
Whiteboard: for creating and sharing text based information, diagrams and math equations.
Group Browser: for browsing sites as a group
Ask Questions: opens a box for asking questions
Question inbox: shows questions that have been sent to you.
User Info: for accessing user information.
Breakouts: for small group breakout sessions.

Tip: Set up a Course Menu links directly to collaboration meetings:

To set up a Course Menu links directly to collaboration meetings:
Go to the "Manage Course Menu" area of the control panel.
Add a "Tool Link"
Select "Collaboration" from the Type pull-down menu.
Click Submit

Tips and Tricks

When developing an activity that requires the Collaboration Tools, consider the following.

The Collaboration Tools are Java applications and may initially take a few moments to load into a browser window. Before developing assignments that require the Collaboration Tools, be sure that all Students have Java enabled browsers.
Due to the synchronous nature of the Collaboration Tools, multiple users must participate at the same time. Be sure to notify Students about a scheduled Collaboration session to ensure attendance.
Sometimes a Collaboration session can be overwhelming if there are too many users. Consider grouping Students into several small groups to keep the conversation manageable.

Note: It is important to remember that Collaboration Sessions are not recorded and archived by default. The leader of the session must start the recorder to create an archive. For more information, please see Record Menu.

Java Plug-in

The Java 2 Run Time Environment 1.3.1_04 or higher is required to use the Collaboration Tools. This plug-in may be downloaded from the page that appears when a user joins a Collaboration Session, or may be found at http://java.sun.com/products/plugin/index.html.

Users should take care to uninstall any existing Java plug-ins before installing a new version.

Collaboration Sessions

Manage the Collaboration Tools from the Collaboration Session page
Instructors can access all of the Collaboration Sessions for the course, including those that have already taken place and are archived and those that are scheduled for the future.
Instructors can schedule new Collaboration Sessions and make changes to those already scheduled from this page.

To find the Collaboration Sessions:

Click Collaboration in the Course Tools area of the Course Control Panel.

Default Collaboration Sessions

Each course and organization begins with two default Collaboration Sessions. The Lecture Hall is the default Virtual Classroom, and Office Hours is the default Lightweight Chat. These default sessions can be removed. Removing a session is irreversible.

Create/Modify Collaboration Session

Instructors create new Collaboration Sessions using the Virtual Classroom or the Chat from the Create Collaboration Session page.

Instructors can schedule sessions for specific dates and times and choose how long the sessions will be.

Follow the steps below to open the Create Collaboration Session page or the Modify Collaboration Session page.

Click Collaboration in Course Tools of the Course Control Panel.
Click Create Collaboration Session on the Collaboration Sessions page or click Manage next to a Collaboration Session to access the Modify Collaboration Session page.

Session Recordings

Session Recordings allow Instructors and Students to review the discussions and questions raised during a Collaboration Session. Sessions are archived by date and the option to remove an archive is available.

Follow the steps below to access the Session Archives page.

Open Collaboration in Course Tools on the Course Control Panel
Click Archives, next to a session that has archives.

View All Animated Videos: http://latech.edu/cit/blackboard7/videos.htm