Online Module

• Blackboard Introduction

How Do I...

• Get Started in a Blackboard Course
• Communicate in Blackboard
• Complete Assignments and Assessments
• Get Help?

Blackboard Orientation

How Do I Communicate in Blackboard

Students are encouraged to communicate with fellow classmates and Instructors as part of the learning process. The CommunicationCenter allows users to:

• Send email
• Access course Discussion Boards
• Use the Collaboration Tools
• Access Student group pages
• Blog Tool
• Wiki Tool

Send Email

Users can access email functions for specific courses and organizations through the Send Email page. From this page users can send email to the following people in a course:

• fellow classmates
• Instructors
• Teaching Assistants
• Groups within a course

Click here to view the tutorial on Sending emails in Blackboard.

Discussion Board

The Discussion Board is another communication tool that can be used to enhance a course Web site. Topics are posted to the Discussion Board that course participants can reply to and converse about on-line. This feature is similar to the Lightweight Chat, but is designed for asynchronous use, meaning Students do not have to be online at the same time to have a conversation. An additional advantage of the Discussion Board is that Student conversations are logged and organized. Conversations are grouped into threads that contain a main posting and all related replies for easy retrieval.

Click here to view the tutorial on Creating a Discussion Board Post.

Click here to view the tutorial on Creating a New Discussion Board Thread.

Click here to view the tutorial on Replying to a Discussion Board Thread.

Click here to view the tutorial on Organizing Discussion Board Posts.

Click here to view the tutorial on viewing Discussion Board Grades.

Collaboration Tools

The Collaboration Tools allow the Instructor and Students to participate in real-time lessons and discussions. Examples of these sessions include real-time, online classroom discussions, TA sessions, and office hour type question/answer forums. Archives of previous sessions are also available for review. Guest speakers and subject-matter experts can also lead sessions using the Collaboration Tools.The Collaboration Session page is used to organize and access sessions. From this page users can search for and join Collaboration Sessions and view session archives.

The following Collaboration Tools are available in Blackboard.

Tool	Description
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. Users may also access the Whiteboard to display text and images.
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.

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.

Access Student group page

Group pages are where students work together privately on assignments or projects. Group pages include features such as a discussion board, collaboration session, file exchange, e-mail, blog and Wiki. These features are only available to members of the group.

Click here to view the tutorail on Working in Groups.

Blog Tool

The Blog Tool provides an online forum, diary or journal. An instructor can allow the entire class or selected individuals to access the blog and add new entries and comments.

Click here to view the tutorial on Creating a Blog.

Wiki Tool

The Blackboard Wiki Tool lets you create a self-contained, collaborative website within your course site. A wiki is a website that is collaboratively authored by a group of users. An instructor can allow the entire class or groups to add text, graphics, files and links to build the content of the site.

Click here to view the tutorial on Creating and Editing a Wiki page.

Click here to view the tutorail on Viewing My Contribution to a Wiki.