QEP: Guide for Online Students: Navigating Blackboard

The Announcements link contains information about upcoming class events, holidays, or campus closures. It also contains any information your instructor needs to relay about your course including upcoming assignments, due dates. etc.

Tips:

• Remember to review the announcement page daily

The Calendar Link gives you a monthly or weekly break down of all assignments with due dates. Not all courses will have this option because it varies by instructor. If it isn't available you can find due dates in your course schedule or assignment sheet usually located on the start here link.

The Lessons link contains all the course work, materials, links, and assignments for the course. It is divided up into sections, often called units or modules. Each unit or module will contain all the activities, readings, assignments, quizzes, and other coursework to be completed throughout the semester. Complete all coursework in a unit before moving to the next. Each assignment or module will be assigned a due date during your course.

The Discussion Board Link contains all the discussion forums where you will respond and reply to other students about the discussion assignment. Follow you instructors directions and expectations when completing a discussion. 

When completing a discussion click on the forum and then click on create thread when you are ready to respond to the discussion. You may or may not be able to see other students responses until you have submitted yours.

Tips:

• First always read and follow the directions and expectations of the discussion provided by your instructor. Make sure you understand what is being asked before writing your response. Some discussions may have a length requirement for responses and replies.
• Make sure your responses are constructive, thoughtful and relevant to the topic, just as you would in a face-to-face discussion in a classroom setting.
• Make sure you label responses with an appropriate title that reflects what you are writing for the discussion.
• Try to expand the discussion by adding additional information or examples when responding to others and don't simply reply with just "I agree". A good response should be at least a paragraph.

The My Grades Link is where you can look and see what your current grade for the course is, look at assignments that need to be submitted, what grades are in the process of being graded etc. Sometimes you may also see due dates for assignments as well. Depending on the instructor's settings, this tool might display the grade, the points possible, the class average, and the weight (percentage of total grade) for each entry.

When reviewing lessons and materials in your course you may come across titles that are underlined, it indicates a hyperlink. This means you will need to click the title to access additional material. 

You may also see "Attached Files" for items such as Syllabus, Course Schedule, some assignments, etc.  Click on the attachment to open/view it.  Some files may also be stored as a "pdf", please download and install Adobe Reader to view the Pdf Document.

Here are some basic Icons you will see along the way when navigating your course in Blackboard:

• Content Folder

Content Folders work just like folders on a computer. Inside content folders you may see several different types of items.

• Web Link

A Web link is a direct hyperlink to a location on the Internet. This can be a Web site your instructor wants you to research or any place accessible on the Internet.

• Module or Unit

  This icon represents a "Module" or "Unit" of instruction. This is a collection of information linking objectives, activities, and resources. (resembles a page from a spiral notebook)

• Exam

  A link to a test or quiz in Blackboard.

• Assignment

 An assignment in Blackboard that your instructor may refer to as a "drop box". These are used to submit homework in Blackboard, and they are usually graded items. Students can either upload files to the "drop box" or they can submit text to answer homework questions, depending on the instructions given for the assignment.(corner of icon is gray and lines are uneven).

• Discussion boards

 Discussion boards are similar to chat forums found on the Internet. Instructors usually pose a question and start a thread. Students then reply to the thread by typing their response.

• File

 A file is exactly as the name implies. It is something your instructor wants you to download to your computer or view in a web browser. Files commonly used in Blackboard include PDF (Adobe Reader files), PowerPoint presentations, Excel sheets, Word documents, and image files. (corner of icon is blue and lines are even)

• Content Item

 A Content Item is embedded content (text or image) that is displayed on the page on which it is created. You may also see "Attached Files" for items such as Syllabus, Course Schedule, etc. (icon contains a blue square and lines wrap around square)

My Grades Section Icons:

Icon	Description
-	No information is available. Item has not be submitted for grading.
	You completed the work, but no grade is assigned for items such as surveys.
	You submitted your work. This item is ready for grading.
Grade	After an item has been graded, select the title to review your submission. For  tests, after you select the title, the View Attempts page opens. Select the   grade  to review your submission.
	Your work is in progress, but you haven't submitted it yet.
	Your grade for this item is exempted. You don't have to submit work.
	An error has occurred. Contact your instructor.
	Your work was graded anonymously. Appears with submission where your   instructor assigned grades with student names hidden during the grading   process.
	Select to view feedback from your instructor.

The first thing you will need to do is save the document to a location where you can access the assignment at anytime or anyplace. Either save it to your onedrive, or an flashdrive before login out of the device. 

***Don't save a document or assignment to the desktop when using a computer on campus or when it isn't a personally owned computer because once you log out of the computer you will no longer have access to your document.***

Submit an assignment

• Open the assignment location in Blackboard
• Select the Create Submission link to enter your submission. 
• If your response to the assignment is in a separate file, such as a Microsoft Word document; Select Upload Files or click Browse My Computer at the bottom of page under the enter text box section to upload a file from your device, flashdrive, or a cloud service such as OneDrive.
• Select Submit.

***Don't save a document or assignment to the desktop when using a computer on campus or when it isn't a personally owned computer because once you log out of the computer you will no longer have access to your document.***

How to Save a Document or Assignment so you can access it later:

Save a document to your Flash drive: Make sure you have the flash drive inserted into the USB port on the computer before saving.

Click the “File” tab at the top left corner. 

From the drop-down, select “Save As.” 

Then click on browse and Select your flash drive from the list. The flashdrive can be located under USB drive (E:). Enter a name for the document in the “File name” field. Then click “Save.” 

Save a word document to Onedrive:

1. Select File > Save As.

2. Select OneDrive by double clicking on it. 

   Save personal files to OneDrive - Personal.  It will have your student email attached to it.

3. Enter a descriptive name for the file, and select Save.

You can also save the document to the desktop temporarily but before you log out of the computer you are using make sure you open Onedrive in your okta dashboard and attach file to your Onedrive. Look for the following item below in the dashboard:

Once you open the app click on add new then files upload. Locate the file you saved on the desktop and then click open. This will save the file to onedrive so you can access the document in the future.

Blackboard Videos & Links:

Blackboard Tutorials by Anthology Inc.

Blackboard Learn App Help