eHelpPresented on this page are the most commonly used tools available to students within Blackboard along with their description. Some descriptions are taken from Blackboard User or Student Manual.
A B C D E G H I L M N O P R S T V
Users can store contact information in the Address Book. The Address Book is empty until the user enters contacts. Users must enter a profile for anyone they wish to add to their address book, even if the contact is a Blackboard Academic Suite user.
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 an 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.
Users can view important messages from Instructors or Leaders on the Announcements page. Announcements are organized and displayed by:
When accessed through a tab, all Announcements of interest to the user appear. These include Announcements from all courses and organizations the user is enrolled in and system-wide announcements. Users can sort the Announcements by category or post date. Use the drop-down menu to select a view or click on the tabs to view Announcements for a specific period of time. The default is View Last 7 Days.
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.
Assignments list the name, description, and attachments for class work. Students complete the assignment in a separate file and send it back to the Instructor. They may also include comments for the Instructor if they choose.
This Bb Support section contains several external links to resources such as:
A Learning Management System (LMS) used at Cal Poly Pomona, provides students with the opportunity to stay connected with their instructors and classmates. Blackboard may be a component of some or all of a student's courses as either a supplement to a traditional class, as an element of a hybrid course (partially face-to-face and partially online), or as the structure for na online or distance education course. Using Blackboard, staff, faculty, and students have access to a feature-rich, online, customizable classroom or organization.
Breadcrumb Links or Paths appear at the top of course pages. The links indicate the navigation path and are clickable to return to the previous page that led to the current page.
The Calendar tool allows users to view events by day, week, month, or year. Upcoming and past events can be viewed and organized into categories.
When the Calendar is accessed through My Blackboard tab users view all items on their Calendar and have the options to add and modify personal events. When the Calendar is accessed through a course or organization only those calendar items that relate to the specific course or organization will appear.
The Collaboration Tools allow users to participate in real-time lessons and discussions. Examples of these sessions include real-time, online classroom discussions, TA sessions, and live question and answer forums. Archives of previous sessions are also available for review. Guest speakers can also lead sessions using the Collaboration Tools. Users can search for and join Collaboration Sessions and view session archives. The following Collaboration Tools are available.
Note: The Collaboration Tools section in Blackboard student manual includes information on the Collaboration Tool features. The Blackboard student manual can be found if you:
This section is where you communicate with your instructor and classmates. Students can send email to fellow classmates or the instructor. Be able to view the class roster and student homepages. Take part in discussion forums and virtual chats.
These sections, depending on the instructor's preference, may hold course information like syllabi, lecture notes, presentations, etc.
The Content Collection provides an area for the user to load any files or documents digitally onto their Blackboard space. This is helpful when needed to transfer files into your Blackboard course or just to have an extra copy of a document accessible online through Blackboard. This is currently available to faculty and staff only.
A small file or part of a file stored on a World Wide Web user's computer, created and subsequently read by a Web site server, and containing personal information (as a user identification code, customized preferences, or a record of pages visited).
A message stored by a browser. The message is then sent back to the server each time the browser requests a page from the server.
Users click on a link from the Courses tab to access a Course. The page displays the list of all courses that users were/are enrolled and taught/teach; and the course catalog. Students would not be able to see any unavailable courses.
This section is an alternative method for web site navigation.
The side that contains links to materials and tools within the course. These links function simply like standard web pages so far as navigating them and reading them.
Student's tools like Digital Drop Box, Edit Home Page, Personal Information, Course Calendar, View Grades, and Student Manuals would be within this section.
The Digital Drop Box enables Users to exchange files with the Instructor. A file added to the Drop Box will not appear to the Instructor or Leader until it has been sent. Once a file has been sent to the Instructor or Leader, it cannot be removed from the Drop Box.
The discussion board houses the section in which students may communicate amongst their other classmates or with their course instructor. Additionally, the Discussion Board is a tool for sharing thoughts and ideas about class materials. The Discussion Board is made up of forums that may appear anywhere in the course but are also all centrally located in the Discussion Board tool. Students usually participate in forums with no administrative privileges. However, a Student may be granted some forum administration privileges within a group.
Below are the terms used to describe Discussion Board features.
The Cal Poly Pomona on-line, 24-hour-1-day, seven-days-a-week, self-service computer-user help line. The Blakcboard eHelp can be found at http://www.csupomona.edu/~ehelp/blackboard/index.html.
Groups enable Users to collaborate with each other. Groups usually consist of a smaller group of Users in a course or organization, such as study groups or project groups. From a Group page, users may do the following actions if allowed by the instructor:
Every enrolled User has a Homepage where they can post information about themselves. The Edit Your Homepage screen allows users to edit their homepages. The homepage is blank until the user edits the page.
To view a Homepage for a user in the course go to the Roster, located in the Communication Center. When an individual is selected from the Roster their Homepage will appear.
A blended course combining both face-to-face (F2F) and online learning.
This section holds the instructor's contact information, such as email, office hours, office location, etc.
Software that is used to design, deliver and manage an online course, such as Blackboard, WebCT, Moodle, etc.
The Messages feature gives each course or organization a private and secure system for communication that functions similar to email. Keep in mind that Messages cannot be sent or received outside of the users in the course or organization. Messages are usually accessed through the Communications area of a course or organization. Although, as with most features, the Instructor or Leader can restrict access or change the layout of the Course Menu or Organization Menu so that Messages are accessible directly.
The My Blackboard tab contains tools and information about each student's particular courses based on his/her personal preference. Modules are fully customizable depending on the student’s preference.
The My Grades page lists each user’s courses and organizations. Users then select a course or organization to access a grade report. Users can check their grades within a course or organization by accessing the View Grades page through the Course Menu or Organization Menu. The View Grades page includes information on the following, depend on how the setting set up by the Instructor:
Etiquette regarding internet communication; for instance “TYPING A MESSAGE IN CAPITAL LETTERS” is the equivalent of shouting
A course that is accessible and delivered through the computer over the Internet
The Organizations tab is used to access an Organization. This page displays the list of all available organizations that the users are managing and participating in.
Users manage personal data and privacy settings from the Personal Information page. Changes to Personal Information are reflected system wide. The following functions are available to users, if allowed by the system administrator:
Some web sites and courses require additional software programs for your Web browser called "plug-ins," that enable your browser to display various audio, video, or graphics.
A course instructor would post xxternal resources and links here.
Users can search the Roster and view a list of Users in the course or organization.
Users can access email functions for through the Send Email page. Users can send email to the following people in a course or organization:
Please note that the Send Email function and any options above maybe limited by the instructor.
Smart text should be used if the intent is to display the text in the exact way that it is typed in. Line breaks, tabbing, and other keyboard formatting will be retained with Smart text. Text written with HTML tags will display as rendered text; for example, if a word is typed with bold tags the word appears in bold. Do not use Smart Text to display the actual HTML tags.
Plain text strips any formatting from the text, except for line breaks. The result is completely unformatted text. This may be useful if the user needs to do a lot of copy and pasting of the content, or if the intent is to display code information. For example, if the user wants to show how to write something in HTML, Plain text should be used to retain the HTML tags in the content. Plain text does not work with MathML or the equation editor. Changing a text box that includes a mathematical formula to Plain text will make the formula unreadable.
The HTML option should be used if the user knows HTML and opts to type HTML tags into the Text Box Editor. The result will be content formatted by the HTML tags used.
Preview shows the user how the formatted text will appear when rendered in the browser. Features that appear in the Text Box Editor may include WebEQ (an easy tool to add an equation), MathML (an advanced tool to add an equation), and SpellCheck.
Note: The Smart Text and Plain Text options are only available if the Visual Text Box Editor has been disabled or if the user does not have a Windows Operating System and Internet Explorer Version 5.x or a later.
The Visual Text Box Editor has three rows of buttons. The first row is required and may not be collapsed. The second and third rows may be collapsed with the arrows to the left of the row.
