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Center for Innovative Instruction


Faculty Blackboard Tutorials

Getting Your Course Materials Ready

Converting Word Documents to RTF (for text files)

Converting Word Documents to PDF (for files with images)

Creating Math and Science Notation in Blackboard

Learn more: Creating Documents for Use on the Internet workshop


New Semester Course Site Preparation

Make Previous Semester Courses Unavailable for student use

Archive Your Course Site (optional)

Move course materials from a previously taught section into your new semester section via:

Change Your Course Title to reflect your last name and appropriate semester and year

View Student Enrollment in course sites

Remove Dropped Students that no longer are listed in your Portal roster

Make Your Course Available so students can view course materials

Manage Your Course Site List (coming soon) so you only see current course sites

Learn more: Moving Course Materials workshop


Setting Up Your Course Site

Learn more: Introduction to Blackboard workshop

Learn more: Adding Course Materials to Blackboard workshop


Adding Assignments

Copying Course Materials from one Blackboard site to another

Creating an Assignment Linked to the Online Gradebook (coming soon)

Adaptive Release: Part 1 - What Is It and Why Should I Use It?

Adaptive Release: Part 2 - Setup Information

Setting Up Statistics to track student use of course materials

Learn more: Moving Course Materials workshop

Learn more: Tying Assignments to the Online Gradebook workshop

Learn more: Adaptive Release workshop


Setting Up the Discussion Board

Creating a Discussion Board Forum (coming soon)

Linking a Discussion Board (coming soon) to your course materials area

Subscribing to a Discussion Board so you know when new posts have been added

Setting Up Discussion Board Grading that goes directly into the online gradebook

Learn more: Messages and Discussion Board Grading workshop


Creating Quizzes, Tests and Surveys

Creating Quizzes, Tests and Surveys (coming soon) tied directly to the online gradebook

Moving Quizzes, Tests and Surveys among Blackboard course sites

Learn more: creating Quizzes, Tests and Surveys workshop


Managing the Grade Center

Adding a Grade Column (Flash Video provided by UIC)

Removing a Grade Column (Flash Video provided by UIC)

Typing in a New Score/Overriding an Existing Grade (Flash Video provided by UIC)

Emailing Selected Students in the Gradebook (Flash Video provided by UIC)

Viewing Column Information in the Gradebook (Flash Video provided by UIC)

Exempting a Grade and Reverting Back to Original (Flash Video provided by UIC)

Changing a Grade Display to Letter, Percentage, Number or Complete/Incomplete (Flash Video provided by UIC)

Making a Column Reflect Weighting, Average of Scores or Show Minimum/Maximum Score (Flash Video provided by UIC)

Showing or Hiding Students (Flash Video provided by UIC)

Using the Gradebook Icons (Flash Video provided by UIC)

Setting Up Smartviews Based On Student Performance (Flash Video provided by UIC)

Creating a Grading Period (Flash Video provided by UIC)

Creating Your Own Grading Schema (Flash Video provided by UIC)

Creating Your Own Categories (Flash Video provided by UIC)

Organizing Your Grade Center (Flash Video provided by UIC)

Viewing Students' Grade History (Flash Video provided by UIC)

Adding Comments That Students Can See (Flash Video provided by UIC)

Uploading/Downloading the Grade Center (Flash Video provided by UIC)

Printing Out Grade Reports for Students (Flash Video provided by UIC)

Accessing SafeAssign Plagiarism Reports (Flash Video provided by UIC)

Learn more: Using the Online Grade Center workshop

Learn more: Special Tools in Blackboard (SafeAssign) workshop


Tracking Student Performance

Sending Internal Messages so students do not have to check email

Sending Email Via Blackboard (coming soon)

Using the Early Warning System to track student performance

Using the Performance Dashboard to track course access and student participation

Viewing Course Statistics to check student use of course materials

Learn more: New Blackboard Tools for You (Messages) workshop

Learn more: Performance Dashboard and Early Warning System workshop


Using New Building Blocks

Setting a Language (coming soon) for your site

Using SafeAssign (coming soon) to check for plagiarism

Using Self and Peer Assessment (coming soon) with students

Using the LockDown Browser (coming soon) to keep students from accessing other Web sites and materials when taking tests

Using Scholar (coming soon) to Locate Web-Based Materials

Learn more: Special Tools in Blackboard workshop


Helping Students Use Blackboard

Distance Learning Student Tutorial provides computer skill brush-up, Blackboard tutorials and readiness for distance learning for students

Harper Online provides technical readiness check-ups, learning readiness surveys, assignment help links and much more for students

Changing Your Blackboard Password tutorial for students

Forwarding Your Harper Email tutorial for students

Saving MS Word Documents as .RTF Files tutorial for students


Additional Information

Certified Internet Browsers for use with Blackboard Version 8

Important Technical Support Updates on issues when using Internet browsers and operating systems with Blackboard

"How Do I...?" weekly Blackboard issues and resolutions updates

Blackboard Version 8 Instructor Manual


Linking Library Resources in Blackboard

Full-Text Journal Article

e-Book (from campus computer)

e-Book (from off-campus computer)