Quick Navigation between Courses

An update to Blackboard has introduced the ability to quickly navigate from one course to another using the following method.

Locate the breadcrumbs that are always available from within a course.  Notice that the name of the course appears in a dark grey area.  (Clicking the course name here goes to the entry point for the course.)


Breadcrumbs with the course name circled.

There is now a drop menu next to the course name that allows quick navigation to your other courses.

Courses that have been recently visited are separated out into their own area, with all other courses appearing at the bottom of the list. 

Use this method instead of going back to the My Courses tab to navigate between courses.

Test Notifications

Would you like an email sent to you when students in your courses submit a test?  Blackboard Learn provides timely and actionable notifications of instructor's course information, including test submission, through email if an instructor requests the system to do so. To edit your email notifications settings for tests, please follow the directions below.

1. Log into Blackboard. At the top of the page, select My Places.



2. In the dialog box, under your profile picture area, click Edit Notification Settings.



3. In the Edit Notification Settings window find Bulk Edit Notification Settings. Click Courses I am teaching. 



4. In the Change Settings window, under section 1 “Select Course”, you will see a list of the courses you are teaching. You can select all of your courses or select only certain courses.



5. To select only certain courses – click on the Selected radio button. Then use the arrows to move items from the Items to Select area to the Selected Items area.  Please keep in mind that if you use the Selected option only items in the selected items area will reflect your changes.



6. In section 3 “Settings” there are 4 notification options available for Tests: Test Available, Test Due, Test Overdue, and Test Submitted.



7. Use the check boxes in the Email column (far right column) to select the desired test notification.



8. Click Submit in section 4 when finished selecting notification options.



9. A warning message will appear.  Click OK to accept the changes or Cancel to return to the Change Settings window.

If you have any questions, contact UHD Blackboard Support at 713-221-2786.

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Student View

Do you want to see and interact with your course as your students do? Blackboard has a built-in sample student in the Grade Center of your course to help you calculate your semester grades, practice grading, and taking assignments/exams.

Go to the Control Panel menu at bottom left, and click Course Tools. Among the options that expand, select Student View.

Student View allows you to view whether or not tests are available, what the My Grades tool looks like from the student perspective, and other course functions students use.

In Student View, the instructor's Control Panel menu is gone; it has been replaced by a single link at the bottom of the Course Menu called Teacher View.  If you click Teacher View, you leave the simulated student view to resume instructor use of Blackboard. 

 

Note: You must return to Teacher View after using the Student View function, or your Blackboard session will remain in Student View and you will be unable to access other courses.

Once you have returned to Teacher View, the student Demo User has been activated in the Grade Center.  This additional student allows you to become more familiar with the Grade Center, grading, and formulas without disturbing actual student grades.

If you would like to add the Demo User to a course group, follow the instructions found on a previous blog entry - http://uhdttlc.blogspot.com/2012/06/adding-demo-student-to-group.html

Contact UHD Blackboard Support at 713-221-2786 if you have any questions.  

Arranging the Course List

As new semesters begin, Blackboard users may want to rearrange their course list so that new courses are easily located. 

Blackboard courses are listed on two tabs, My Blackboard in the My Courses module, and the My Courses tab.  Both can be arranged using the same method, but they are independent of each other, so arranging one a certain way will not change the other.

In the above image, the new Fall course needs to go above the old Spring course.  Click the “flower” icon at the top right to get to the Personalize: Course List screen.

Use the arrows to click and drag courses into the desired order.  After clicking the Submit button, the courses will list in the assigned order.  The checkboxes can also be used to hide course info – unchecking the Course Name will hide the course entirely.