Blackboard Tutorials

Adding New Members (Designers, Teaching Assistants, Students, Auditors, and additional Instructors) to your Blackboard Course

1. Log In to your Blackboard course

2. Once you have logged in to Blackboard, click on the Administration Tab.

3. Now that you can see the Administration Screen, click on “Michigan Technological University” at the top of the menu on the left to get a clean list of
the courses you are a course level instructor in.

4. Click on the course you wish to add a designer, teaching assistant, additional instructor, etc. to. It will be in grey on the menu on the left.

5. Now you will see the sections of the course you chose. Click on the section you wish to add a designer, teaching assistant, additional instructor, etc. to from the list of sections in blue in the main frame of the administration screen.

6. Click on the role you wish to grant access to (such as designer, TA, etc.).

7. You should very likely see yourself enrolled as a section instructor and section designer already. Now we can add someone else to help you in these roles. Click on Find Users to Enroll in the grey box.

8. Enter the user name of the individual you wish to enroll as, in this example, a designer, in the text box labeled “value.” The user name in Blackboard is the
same as our MTU ISO log in name. Then click “Run Query.” (See arrow)

9. Check to see if this is indeed the individual you wish to enroll.  If so, then click on Enroll.

10. Click the “OK” button when you see the screen depicted below.

11. Now you will return to the section roles screen, where you can see you now have 2, in this example, designers, enrolled in the section.

12.  You can click on the section role, in this example, Section Designer, (circled in the picture above) to see the names of the designers enrolled in your section.

You can use the Assignments Tool in your Blackboard (Bb) Course to allow students to submit work into a digital dropbox in your Bb course. If you are not interested in having your students submit their work digitally in Bb then you will probably not want to use, or even make available, the Assignments Tool in your Bb course.

Creating an Assignment:

Click on:
1. Build Tab
2. Assignments

3. Create Assignment button

4. Add a title in the Title Text Field
5. Enter instructions for students in the Instructions Text Box (not description, that's for you)
6. Choose ‘Text’ under Student submission format
7. Choose ‘All students individually’ under Assignment Recipients (for an assignment given to all students individually)

8. Set your due date and cut-off dates
9. Decide whether or not and how the assignment will be graded (you can always just grade it yourself later but the tool will automate this for you if you like)
10. Click the Save button

Back on the main assignments screen you can create a link for your assignment on the homepage or elsewhere by checking the box next to the assignment, choosing a location from the "Create Link on:" pull down menu, and clicking the Green Arrow:

Your students will now have a digital drop box within that assignment they can use to attach files or type into a text box and hand something in on Bb digitally.

You can review and grade student assignment submissions from the Assignment Dropbox, under Instructor Tools from the Teach Tab:

In order to save your Blackboard course in its current state, you can create a backup of it. Backups are saved in Class Files on the Blackboard server by default, and you can have up to five at any given time. You can also download backup files to your computer and save as many as you wish there. Then, if your course gets changed or altered in some way you do not like, you can restore your course from one of your backups.

This will take you to the Course Backups screen. Any backups you have made will be list here. If you haven’t made any yet, the screen will look like it does here.

Click the Course Backups button to make a backup of your course:

Once your backup has completed, you will see the screen to the right listing the backup. Click the OK button to complete the process:

While your course is being backed up the Status column will indicate “In the queue.” Once finished, the column will indicate “Completed.”

Saving a Backup as a File

You can save a backup as file in Class Files, your My Files area or download it for saving on your computer or network.

From the Course Backups screen, click the Action Links icon immediately to the right of the backup you would like to save, and select “Save as File” from the pull down menu.

This will open up the Content Browser window. From there you choose to save the backup as file in Class Files or My Files. You can change the file name in the text box indicated by the red arrow in the picture to
the left. Click OK to save as a file.

This will open a window showing the progress of the save:

Downloading your Saved Backup File

From the Build tab, Click File Manager from the Designer Tools menu.

This will open the File Manager and take you to the File Manager screen.

Click the Action Links Icon immediately to the right of the backup file you want to download and select Download from the pull down menu:

Log In to your Blackboard course. Go to the administration tab (1).

Click on the Michigan Technological University link in blue (2) in the upper left of the screen to get your full list of courses:

Click on the course you wish to change availability dates in. It will be in grey (3) on the menu on the left.

Click on the Action Links Icon immediately to the right of the name of the section in blue in the middle of the screen.

Select Edit Properties from that Pull down menu:

From the Edit Section Properties screen, scroll down the page to the sections labeled Dates and Term:

Make sure the term choice in the pull down menu is “Not assigned,” and enter the start and end dates and times of your choice by either typing them in the text box or using the clock and calendar icons.

The Combine Blackboard Sections Tool is accessed from the Course Tools web page

There is a link to the Course Tools page on your My Blackboard @ MTU page under Campus Bookmarks. You can also find a link to the Course Tools page, and a link directly to the Combine Sections Tool, on the Blackboard Support Website at: http://blackboard.mtu.edu.

Once on the Course Tools page, click on Combine Blackboard Sections:

From the Combine Blackboard sections page, click on the appropriate semester/track/term to begin combining sections:

Next, select the sections you wish to combine from the list of Blackboard sections available to you. This is done by first checking the box next to the sections you wish to combine, then selecting Yes or No in the Delete existing Blackboard section? column for each, then clicking on the Combine Selected Sections button.

Here’s some selections made with the option to delete set to yes:

You may also choose not to delete the original sections. You might want to choose this option if you had content in one of the original sections you wanted to be able to copy into the combined section and did not have any other source for that content. Otherwise, you should choose to delete the original sections to avoid confusion.

Next you’ll be given the opportunity to review your selections:

Note that you can edit a portion of your combined section’s title.

Click on the Create Blackboard Sections button to proceed.

The Combine Blackboard Sections Tool will then provide you with an on-screen confirmation:

and an opportunity to return to the beginning and create another combined section if you wish by clicking on the Combine Another Section button.

If you return to the Combine Blackboard Sections Tool after having already combined sections, the tool will automatically display the courses you have already combined into one Blackboard section:

If you have any questions, email Blackboard Support at courses@mtu.edu.

Log In to your Blackboard course. Go to the administration tab (1).

Click on the Michigan Technological University link in blue (2) in the upper left of the screen to get your full list of courses:

Click on the name of the new section (3) you want to copy into from the list on the left.

Click on the Action Links Icon immediately to the right of the name of the section in blue in the middle of the screen.

Select Edit Properties from that Pull down menu:

Scroll down to "Reassign Content to Section" on the Edit Section Properties screen, click the radio button next to "Copy content from another section," then click the "Select Section" button:

This will open a new window where you can pick the section you want to copy content from. First, click on Michigan Technological University in blue to get your full list of courses, then click the radio button next to the section you want to copy content from, then scroll down to the bottom of that window and click the "Select" button:

Now, back on the Edit Section Properties screen, scroll down to the bottom and click Save.

All the content, discussion categories, grade book columns, assessments and questions, etc. will now be in the new section.

Log In to your Blackboard course. Go to the administration tab (1).

Click on the Michigan Technological University link in blue (2) in the upper left of the screen to get your full list of courses:

Click on the course you would like to create a new section of from the list of your courses on the left in grey (3).

Click on the Create Section button and open the Create Section/Section Properties screen:

On the Create Section screen all you need to do is enter a title for your section:

Select whether you want to set up a blank section or copy content from another section, and click the Save button at the bottom of the screen:

You can find the grade book by clicking on the Teach tab. It is located under the Instructor Tools at the bottom of the left-hand menu
Click on the  Grade Book.

Creating a simple (alphanumeric) grade book column to manually enter grades

Click the Create Column button in top left of the grade book screen, circled in red in the picture above.

Select Alphanumeric from the drop down (Action Links ) menu.

This will open the Column Settings screen.

Your new grade book column will be placed on the right end of the grade book by default so scroll to the right if necessary.

Entering Grades or Column Values for a class

Click on the name of the column or its Action Links Icon  to reveal the Action Links pull down menu and select “Edit Values” to enter grades.

This will open the Edit Column screen.  All the students in that section of your course will be listed vertically here.  Enter their grades in the first text box under the heading Change to.  (If the column already had grades they would be listed under Current Value) Then click the Save button at the bottom when you have completed entering grades.

To export your Grade Book, first you click on the Export to Spreadsheet button on the main Grade Book screen. (Circled in red below)

That will take you to the Export to Spreadsheet screen.  Make the selections you choose by clicking on the radio buttons, and then click the Export button.

The export file will download to your computer and have a file name like “exportedcourse.csv.”  Blackboard does not export or import directly to Excel. It uses a standard format called .csv (comma separated values). This is a text file that Excel or any other spreadsheet will open and convert to spreadsheet (.xls, for example) format.  A spreadsheet must be saved as a .csv file in order to be imported into the Blackboard Grade Book. (Choose “Save As” and change the file type to .csv)  Most instructors who choose to use spreadsheets should save as .xls and .csv.

You can then open it up in a Spreadsheet program like Excel, print it, and import that file back into your Blackboard grade book or the grade book of other Blackboard sections using the Import from Spreadsheet button. 

Clicking the Import from Spreadsheet button will open a window where you can select the file you with to import from a spreadsheet.

Choose your exportedcourse.csv file (or the file name you assigned) from your compute and click the Upload button.  This will open up the Import File Screen.  Blackboard will attempt to match each column from your spreadsheet with the columns that already exist in your Blackboard grade book.

 A green box with a check mark will indicate those columns that clearly matched.

 A red box with an exclamation point will indicate those columns that do not clearly match.

You can choose:

•      To match a column with an existing column in your grade book
•      Do not import, or
•      Add as a new column

For each imported column by using the pull down menus for each column on the Import File screen.

This picture shows one of the column pull down menus expanded.  After you have finished matching columns, click the Import button.

If you click on My Settings (circled in red below) in the upper right of the My Blackboard @ MTU screen you see right after log in, you can set your mail tool to forward all messages to you and your students' @mtu.edu mail address. 

Once you get to the My Settings screen, click on the My Tool Options tab (circled in red below)

Then scroll down to the mail settings and check the box under Mail forwarding for "Forward all mail messages to the e-mail address in my profile."

Then e-mail messages generated within the mail tool of your Blackboard Learning System course will be forwarded to the e-mail address in your profile.  Your students will need to do this too so their Blackboard Mail will be forwarded to their @mtu.edu mail accounts.

You can edit your course list on your My Blackboard @ MTU page to hide and then show again courses listed there.  To edit your course list, click on the small pencil icon in the upper right corner of your course list.  This will take you to the Edit Course List screen.  From that screen you click the show and hide buttons to add or remove courses from your course list on your My Blackboard @ MTU page.  Scroll down to the bottom and click save when you are finished.

Deleting unwanted Blackboard Sections

1. Go to the administration tab. 

2. Now that you can see the Administration Screen, click on “Michigan    Technological University” link at the top of the menu on the left to get a full list of the courses you are a course level instructor in.

3. Click on the course you want from the list in grey on the left.  Once you do this the sections of that course will be listed in blue in the main frame of the browser/Blackboard window.

4. Click the box to the left of the sections you wish to delete and click the delete button below your list of sections.

Note: Be sure there isn't anything you want from these old sections and that any other instructors or designers do not want them anymore.