Blackboard Guide For Students

Transcript

Student Blackboard Guide Learning Technologies Department July 2014 Blackboard Guide for Students 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 1 What is Blackboard? Technical Requirements How do I login to Blackboard? My Course site My Blackboard Overview Blackboard Mobile Blackboard FAQs General Contacts What is Blackboard? Blackboard is our Virtual Learning Environment at Cranfield Campus. Blackboard makes it possible to access learning materials over the internet, in lectures and at home. The software (Blackboard Learn 9.1) contains information about your course and modules and allows you to communicate with lecturers and other learners. You have access to learning materials, course notes, information and activities online. You can log in when you are off-campus so that you can easily catch up or revise materials covered in lectures. Some courses use interactive materials and streamed videos. Information and resources available in Blackboard can include:         Course announcements Manuals Timetables Lecture notes and hand-outs Discussion boards Online resources, Blogs, Wikis Lecture recordings Access to EVE Your course administrator or lecturer can give you further information about how Blackboard is used in your courses. Blackboard Guide for Students When you register for a course at Cranfield University you will automatically be enrolled onto the Blackboard(s) for that particular course. If you cannot see one of your courses listed see later in the section on ‘How do I login to Blackboard’. 2 Technical requirements What is Blackboard? You can use any computer which has access to the internet at our IT teaching rooms, PC Labs, personal devices and from home or at work. Blackboard is available 24/7. Wherever you access Blackboard from, you will need your Cranfield network username and password. When accessing Blackboard from home or work, we advise the following:  A broadband internet connection  Browsers o When using a PC, you can use Internet Explorer 8 onwards. The latest stable versions of Firefox and Google Chrome are supported by Blackboard Learn. o When using a MAC, Safari version 5.0 onwards. The latest stable versions of Firefox and Google Chrome are supported by Blackboard. For full details on recommended browsers please see the information provided by Blackboard: https://help.blackboard.com/en-us/Learn/9.1_SP_14/Student/015_Browser_Support Does Blackboard work with pop-up blockers, firewalls, antivirus, and browser toolbars? You may experience problems accessing and working in Blackboard if you have any pop-up blockers, firewalls, antivirus, and browser toolbars enabled on your computer. Make sure pop-ups are not blocked when using Blackboard as it uses these for announcements, discussion postings, and downloading links. We recommend you add our Blackboard Web site (http://bb.cranfield.ac.uk) to a list of “trusted sites” using the tools menu of your browser, and set the security level to a lower setting. This will automatically enable many features in Blackboard to work smoothly. Be sure only trusted sites are added to this list. Blackboard Guide for Students Contact the IT Support desk if you have problems accessing Blackboard (01234 75 4199) 3 How do I login to Blackboard? Blackboard can be accessed at https://bb.cranfield.ac.uk Enter your Cranfield network username and Password carefully in the ‘Username’ and ‘password’ boxes. Click Login Having trouble logging in? Blackboard Guide for Students 1) Check that you have entered your username and password correctly, note—password is case sensitive. If you enter it incorrectly three times you will be locked out. Leave it for ½ hour then try again. 2) Check Caps Lock is off 3) Do not access via the Extranet—use the URL https://bb.cranfield.ac.uk ONLY 4) Forget your password? Click on the Forget your password link to reset it. 5) Do you have a company firewall if you are external user? Contact your company IT department in the first instance for advice. 6) If you still cannot log in contact [email protected] (01234 75) 4199 4 After log in you will see the ‘My Learning’ home page with all your courses and modules listed in the ‘My Courses’ block. To relocate this block, left click on the blue header panel to drag to new position. Each course or module in the list (example circled in red) is a link to a separate Blackboard course site containing course specific information and documents as well as links to external sites, assessments and supporting materials. Can’t see all your courses or modules listed in My Courses? If you cannot see your course name in your list, contact your course administrator who may be able to enrol you manually. Otherwise contact [email protected] (01234 75) 4199. My course site After you have selected the course or module by clicking on the course link, your course site will open. You will see several links in the left side bar called the Navigation panel. They provide access to learning material content which opens in the main window in the right. For example, click on Lecture Material to view the course content material. Blackboard Guide for Students Note - these navigation link names may vary slightly from course to course 5 Within the content area there may be files to open by clicking in the name link (underlined in blue). Clicking on the file will display it (usually within your web browser). There may be also access to external web pages or video material. If any of these do not open or run correctly please contact your administrator. My Blackboard overview Click on your name at the top right of the Blackboard screen to access My Blackboard overview. The drop down menu lists your recently accessed courses. Use the icons down the left side to select different overviews (listed below). This overview screen is called the ‘Global navigation menu’ and shows a current overview of all your discussion posts, calendar items, grades, and notifications across all your courses / modules in one place. You can also interact; such as reply to discussions, comment on blogs, or change calendar items. Overview of the activity in all your courses and modules (Calendar and Posts only) Blackboard Guide for Students Stay up-to-date and engaged with all the conversations going on across your courses. The tool consolidates posts from all of your courses and modules – so posts from Discussion Boards, Journals, Wikis, and Blogs – as well as the comments and replies to those posts 6 Updated content –updates you on course announcements, when new content or assignments are added to a course, when an assignment or assessment is due (currently only non-Turnitin), and much more. My Grades consolidates all your grades from across all your courses into one view. There’s no need to go in and out of all your courses to check your grades (NOTE this does not show Turnitin marks unless your supervisor grades online) Calendar events (such as assignment due dates, timetable events) Blackboard Mobile Blackboard Mobile™ Learn gives you access to your courses and content on a variety of mobile devices, including iOS™, Android™, and Palm® webOS™ devices.        Receive push notifications of course activity Post to Discussions Attach files from Dropbox or your device Access documents in multiple formats Read Announcements View Assignments Comment on Blogs and Journals The Blackboard Mobile Learn app can be purchased at a small cost for unlimited access. It is free to download from online app stores such as iTunes and Google Play and you pay at point of use. You can already view your course in Blackboard without the Blackboard Mobile™ Learn app simply by using your mobile device's browser but the app has been designed to provide a better viewing experience. To access your course using the App on your mobile device  Enter Cranfield University into the search bar that automatically appears when you open the application. Type in your Cranfield network ID and password  To reduce the number of visible courses or modules you can edit and hide those not required Blackboard Guide for Students  7 More information at - https://intranet.cranfield.ac.uk/it/Pages/BBMobile.aspx Blackboard FAQs I have forgotten my password! Your Blackboard password is your Cranfield network password. Select the option shown in red and follow instructions. I can't see my course listed in ‘My Courses’ in Blackboard Ask your course administrator to check you are enrolled correctly and also if the course has been made available to students yet. I can't see the Navigation panel on the left of my screen! You might have accidentally minimised the panel. Hover your mouse down the edge of the left hand side of your screen to reveal a tiny little tab with a > sign on it. Click on the > to expand the navigation menu. Can I have an Avatar? Yes—Click on your name at top right of screen > My Learning tab > Tools module > Select Personal Information > Personalise My Settings > 1. Avatar image - upload a photo (small) Can I access Blackboard on my mobile device? Yes—either in the browser window or simply purchase and download the Blackboard Learn App. See more details at https://intranet.cranfield.ac.uk/it/Pages/BBMobile.aspx For videos and guides about Blackboard—visit our intranet pages https://intranet.cranfield.ac.uk/it/Pages/BBstudents.aspx Blackboard Guide for Students General contacts 8 Your course administrator or course lecturers can help you with any queries about your course material. For any other general queries about training, technical problems, connecting to wifi with your equipment, online tools or facilities, contact the Help Desk in the IT department, Building 63: or email service [email protected], or phone (01234 75) 4199 IT intranet web site https://intranet.cranfield.ac.uk/it/Pages/Learning.aspx We use Turnitin for the majority of assessment submissions. To see how to submit go to https://intranet.cranfield.ac.uk/it/Pages/TurnitinStudents.aspx