Blackboard QuickStart Guide

Step 1: Request Course Creation

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Step 2: Develop Your Course

The wide variety of Blackboard tools makes it very easy for you to customize your Blackboard course to fit your specific needs. We have included below links to how-to guides and screen capture tutorials for some of the more commonly used tools to help you "jumpstart" the development of your Blackboard course.

 

	To introduce you to some of the fundamental functions of Blackboard, we have included several presentations below with specific information on using Blackboard at Texas Tech University. Please take a moment to watch these short presentations.
Navigating My Blackboard Watch Tutorial Guided Practice PDF Guide Exploring the Course Layout Watch Tutorial Guided Practice   Exploring the Course Tabs Watch Tutorial     Manage Course   Guided Practice   Uploading and Linking Your Syllabus   Guided Practice   Using the File Manager   Guided Practice   Using Action Links     PDF Guide Adding Content to the Home Page     PDF Guide Adding a Header or Footer to the HomePage     PDF Guide
	Use the Grade Book Tool to manage students, teaching assistants, additional designers, and students who are auditing the course.
An Introduction to the Grade Book Watch Tutorial     Creating a Column in the Grade Book for manual grade entry Watch Tutorial Guided Practice   Manually Enrolling Members in Your Course (Students, Teaching Assistants, Section Designers, and students who wish to audit only.) Watch Tutorial   PDF Guide Reordering and Hiding Columns in the Grade Book Watch Tutorial Guided Practice   Importing Grades from a Scantron file into the Blackboard Gradebook     PDF Guide Midterm and Final Course Grade Submission to Banner (automated)     PDF Guide Creating a Calculated Column (enter a formula to calculate a midterm, final, etc. grade)     PDF Guide
	Link to your syllabus using the Syllabus Tool. Once it is linked, you can use this tool to add additional locations to your syllabus inside your course - without worrying about replacing those links with a new syllabus document each semester. Just replace it in one place.
Uploading and Linking Your Syllabus Guided Practice PDF Guide
	Create online assignments where your students can upload one or multiple documents associated with a specific assignment. Easy management of assignment submission and grading - all from one screen!
Creating and Editing an Assignment Watch Tutorial Guided Practice Grading an Assignment Watch Tutorial Guided Practice   Submitting Assignment from Student View Tab Watch Tutorial     Checking Assignment Grade from Student View Tab Watch Tutorial
	Create online assessments (quizzes and exams). Blackboard has nine different types of question types - all of them except the paragraph type and short answer type can be automatically graded by Blackboard. This powerful tool also lets you randomize answers and questions to create powerful assessment and deter cheating in the online environment.
Assessment Chapter from Blackboard User's Manual     PDF Guide Creating Assessment Questions Multiple Choice Type Watch Tutorial     Creating Assessment Questions Paragraph Question Type Watch Tutorial   Creating Assessment Questions True/False Question Type Watch Tutorial Guided Practice   Creating an Assessment Watch Tutorial Guided Practice   Adding Question Sets and Parts to an Assessment Watch Tutorial Guided Practice Adding Single Questions to an Assessment Watch Tutorial Guided Practice   Creating Duplicate Assessment for ADA Students     PDF Guide
	Participate in in-depth online conversations with your students. This asynchronous tool makes online discussions convenient and easy. Documents can be attached and websites can be linked within discussions. Use the Group Manager to facilitate group discussions.
Creating New Discussion Categories and Topics Watch Tutorial Guided Practice   Posting and Replying to a Discussion Topic Watch Tutorial Guided Practice   Grading a Discussion Topic Watch Tutorial Guided Practice Netiquette for Discussions     View Tips
Recommended Chat Tool: Microsoft Lync (Windows or Mac)	MS Lync is a real-time communication tool, free to anyone with an active eRaider account. It allows you to participate in live conversation with your students and TTU colleagues - via either text, microphone, video, and share documents and computer screen. Use it for office hours, exam review, group discussions, and much more. To download, go to www.eraider.ttu.edu and click on the Software Download button. Select which operating system you use and choose MS Lync to download. For assistance with MS Lync, contact IT HelpCentral at (806) 742-4357 or email them at ithelpcentral@ttu.edu.
	Use this simple tool to make online announcements. The annoucement can be a pop-up that will open when students log in to your Blackboard course. You can also specify delivery to specific recipients in the course.
Creating an Announcement Watch Tutorial
	This email tool can help centralize all private communication with your students, no more junk or spam email, no size limitations, and you never have to maintain a list of your student's email addresses!
Creating and Sending Mail in Blackboard Watch Tutorial Guided Practice Organizing Mail in Blackboard Watch Tutorial Guided Practice
	This tool links to external websites that you wish to share with your students. They can access the websites from within the framework of Blackboard.
Linking to external websites Watch Tutorial
	The Learning Module Tool can help you organize your course content into a Table of Contents. This guide to the content makes it very easy for students to move sequentially through course material, discussions, assignments, quizzes, and any other tools you utilize in your course.
Introduction to the Learning Module Tool Watch Tutorial Creating the Learning Module Shell Watch Tutorial Guided Practice   Organizing Files for Your Learning Module Watch Tutorial Guided Practice   Adding Content to Your Learning Module Watch Tutorial Guided Practice
	Use the Group Manager Tool to organize your students into groups for assignments, projects, and discussions. Students can be manually grouped, randomly grouped, or self-assign into groups.
Introduction to Group Manager (older version created by webct.com, but still contains valid information about the Group Manager) Watch Tutorial
	The Selective Release Tool allows you to set release criteria for an assessment, discussion, document, etc.. based on Date, Member, Group, and/or Gradebook Criteria.
Introduction to Selective Release (older version created by webct.com, but still contains valid information about Selective Release) Watch Tutorial

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Step 3: Additional Things You Should Know

Blackboard Training:	Face-to-Face Blackboard Training Fundamentals (prerequisite for all other Blackboard Training) Assignment Tool Managing Students and the Grade Book Organize Course Content Using the Learning Module Tool Using the Communication Tools Using the Quiz Tool Grading Forms (Rubrics) Group Manager and Selective Release Tools	Enroll in Face-to-Face Training Enrollment is required for attendance!   New! Enroll in Online Fundamentals Training Upon completion, this training module fulfills the prerequisite training needed for the advanced Blackboard training modules.
Additional Resources:	Blackboard Designer and Instructor Reference Manual CE 8 (over 700 pages) This is the official User's Manual from Blackboard and may contain references to tools and functions that are not available on our version of Blackboard CE 8.
Troubleshooting Blackboard:	Troubleshooting Java Issues in Blackboard - having problems with the Chat Tool? Uploading files from your computer? Opening the HTML Editor? Blackboard Troubleshooting Checklist - click to see a complete list of options for troubleshooting Blackboard. Suggestions for fixing problems are given here. Verify or Update the Java Certificate Java "Error: Java has discovered application components that could indicate a security concern" Internet Explorer blocks my file downloads - see instructions
Blackboard Faculty Support Team:	Karissa Greathouse Blackboard Faculty Support Coordinator, Instructional Technology Support 806-742-0133 karissa.greathouse@ttu.edu or blackboard@ttu.edu