Removing courses from your Blackboard Course List

Need to clear away old or unused courses from your Blackboard course list? Blackboard has two areas where courses appear - the Course List Module from within the My Courses tab and the My Courses Module from within the My Blackboard tab. To hide courses you no longer need in each of these areas, follow these easy steps:

Hiding courses in the My Courses tab:

1. Navigate to the My Courses tab. 
2. From within the Course List area, click the link to Manage Course List Module Settings (small gear icon in the upper right) of the Course List module.




3. Uncheck the items beside the course(s) you wish to remove from your course list.










4. Click Submit to apply your grading changes to the module.

Hiding courses in the My Blackboard tab:

1. Navigate to the My Blackboard tab. 
2. From within the My Courses module, click the link to Manage My Courses Module Settings (small gear icon in the upper right).






3. Uncheck the items beside the course(s) you wish to remove from your course list.







4. Click Submit to apply your grading changes to the module.

Reordering modules in the My Blackboard tab

Modules on the My Blackboard page can be arranged in an order of your choosing.  To arrange your modules you can: click and drag the modules or use the Reorder Modules link in the upper right.

To use the “click and drag” method:

1. Hover your mouse pointer over the title bar of the module you would like to move.


2. When your pointer turns into crossed arrows, left click and hold.













3. Drag your module to the location in which you would like for it to appear (dashed lines denote where the module will be placed) and let go of your mouse click. Your ordering changes should be permanent until you once again edit your modules.










Please note that the module column locations allow for different module window sizes. The location of the module can affect the visibility of module content.

To use the Reorder Modules link:

1. Click the Reorder Modules link (double arrow icon) in the upper right of the My Blackboard page.





2. Select a module and use the arrows to move it between columns.














3. Once you have decided your module order, click the Submit button to apply your changes.

Downloading discussion threads

Instructors that would like to gather their discussion threads into a document that can be easily viewed have the ability to do so. To download discussion threads:

1. Go into a forum containing threads.






2. Use the top check box to select all the forum threads. Next, click on the Collect button.







3. From within the collection area you will see the posts are organized in an easily readable format.  Click the Print Preview button at the top. 







4. Print Preview allows you to


• Print your collected posts to a connected printer.
• Save the file as an HTML file that can be saved to your local computer (different browsers have different options for this).
• If installed you can turn the collection into a PDF file that can be saved to your local computer.

Making a discussion forum gradable

Want to grade a discussion after a set number of posts? Follow these easy steps:

1. Navigate to the forum you wish to make gradable and click the drop-down to the right of the forum name.  Select Edit from the drop down menu.



2. In Section 3, Forum Settings you have the option to grade the forum as a whole or grade the individual threads in the Grade area.
• To grade the forum as a whole, select the radio button beside Grade Discussion Forum. 
• To grade the individual threads, select the radio button beside Grade Threads.




3. Both grading options allow you the option to determine how many posts will exist before the Needs Grading icon will appear in your grade center. To make this determination, click the check box beside “Show participants in “needs grading” status”. Then select from the drop down menu the number of posts you will require before the needs grading status will appear.




4. Click Submit to apply your grading changes to the forum.

Editing the appearance of the My Blackboard tab

Tired of the plain, old look and feel of your My Blackboard tab?  You are in luck!  Blackboard allows you to edit the color scheme of this page.  To do this you will need to:

1. Login to Blackboard and navigate to the My Blackboard tab.
2. Click the Personalize Page button in the upper right.





3. Select a theme from the Color Palette Library.  The Current Selection area gives you a sample view of the theme you have selected.




4. Once you have decided on a theme, click the Submit button.







5. Your My Blackboard area should now reflect your changes.

Message Replies and Attachments

When replying to a message, you do not have a button for adding an attachment.  The best option to reply to a message with an attachment is to copy/paste the original message into a new message.

To copy/paste the original message into a new message:

1. Open your message by clicking on the message subject in the Messages tool inbox.

2. Highlight your message text and select Copy, then click OK.

3. Click on the Create Message button.

4. Select your recipients, add a subject, and paste your message into the message body. 5. Scroll to the top of your message body and put your cursor above the original message.  Hit the enter button to bring down the original message. 

6. Type your message reply in the message body above the original message.

7. Add an attachment using the Upload Attachment area in Section 3. Click submit to send your message.

For more information about using the Blackboard Messages tool please visit:
http://www.uhd.edu/computing/ttlc/training/documents/bblearn/Messages.pdf

Need a custom Grade Center view? Use Smart Views!

Smart Views allow instructors to view their Grade Center using predefined filters.  All courses automatically have two Smart Views already: Assignments and Tests. 

Additional Smart Views can be built that quickly provide needed information to instructors.

Besides Assignments and Tests, there are several other prebuilt Smart Views readily available that can also be added to the Control Panel for easy access.  To view the Smart Views, mouse over Manage and click the Smart View link.
To make a permanent link in the Control Panel for a particular Smart View, click the star in the Add as Favorite column to turn it green.  If students have graded Discussions posts, then Discussion Boards can be selected in order to only show those scores.  Another available Smart View is Preview of My Grades, which will only show the columns visible to students in My Grades.

To access smart views, go to the Full Grade Center.  Inside the Full Grade Center, click the Manage button at the top and select Smart Views from the drop down list.

In the Smart Views window, Smart Views deployed in the course have a green star in the "Add as Favorite" column.  Smart Views that are available but have not been deployed have a grey star.

Creating a Custom Smart View
Smart Views can also be customized to show the data that you specify.  For this example, a Smart View will be built to identify the students that we classify as “struggling” based on their grades in specific columns.

1. Click Create Smart View.  Name the Smart View “Struggling.”  A description can be provided if desired.  Click the Add as Favorite checkbox.
2. Change the Type of View to Custom.
   
   The students that need to be identified have scored less than 70 on both Quiz 1 and the Midterm.  In the Select Criteria area, one criteria requirement is provided already, which can be used for Quiz 1.  Use the Add User Criteria to add another requirement for Midterm.




Since both criteria need to be true, there is no need to change the formula from “1 AND 2” so do not click Manually Edit.  Filter Results can be used to show additional columns; for this example keep the default Columns Used in Criteria.      
    

3. Click Submit.

Results for “Struggling” will look like this:

Paste from Word Feature

The new “Paste from Word” feature in Blackboard’s text editor reduces browser compatibility issues.

1.    Copy the text in Word that you wish to transfer into Blackboard.

2.    From the text editor’s formatting toolbars, click the mashup icon, which will produce a drop-down menu.

3.    From the menu, select Paste from Word.

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4.    A dialog box will pop up. Place your cursor in the large text box, right-click, and from the drop-down menu choose Paste.

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5.    Click Submit.

6.    Your Word text will appear in the text box. You may edit as you wish, and click Submit on your changes when you are finished.

Provide Mail in Main Menu (and Other Tools)

The “Messages” tool is used to communicate internally within a Blackboard course.  You can add this tool, and others, in the main menu by following these steps:

1. Inside your course, make sure edit mode is ON.

2. Click the blue plus at the top left, and select Create Tool Link.

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3. Type the name of the tool you wish to be displayed to the students in the left menu. For example, “Course Email.”

4. From the drop-down menu, select Messages.

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5. Place a checkmark beside Available to Users.

6. Click Submit.

Now you should have a main menu link to the messages tool.

Follow the same steps for any other tool you wish to add to the main menu, including common tools such as:
- Student Grades
- Announcements
- Calendar

New! Getting Alerts for Messages

The new My Messages module displays the number of unread messages that a user has for a course, and lets users jump directly to the Messages tool in that course.  This allows messages to quickly be checked without having to navigate to the messages tool in the course. The module is available to both students and instructors.

Instructors must place it inside their course in order for students to be able to see and use the tool.

1. To add the My Messages module, first go to any module page that displays the Add Module button at the top left.  (By default, Blackboard makes the "Home Page" a module page.)

2. Click the Add Module button.

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3. Scroll down to locate the My Messages tool and click the Add button to add the module.

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4. Scroll down and click the OK button at bottom right. The My Messages module box will appear in your module page. You will see only unread messages from this particular course.

Good to Know 

Users may also place the My Messages module on the My Institution page, which will display all unread messages from all the courses in which one is enrolled or instructing.

Set Grades as Running Totals

Making any calculated column set as "running total" will give students a more accurate grade because it includes only the assignments/quizzes that have been graded. If you were not to have this Running Total column available, the final grade column will calculate zeroes for columns that have not yet been graded. This can make grades appear artificially low.

In the Grade Center, you can create Calculated Columns, which can be used to do the following:

• Calculate the total points of other columns.
• Weight grades by column, category, or both.
• Calculate the average grade.
• Calculate a minimum or maximum grade.

Make a Calculated Column Set as a Running Total
1. At the bottom left in the control panel, click Grade Center and select Full Grade Center.

2. Either create a new calculated column by clicking the Create Calculated Column button, or click the drop-down arrow of an already present calculated column and select Edit Column Information.

3. Scroll down to the Select Columns section, and select the Yes radio button next to Calculate as Running Total.

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5. Scroll down and click the Submit button.