Blackboard FAQ's
Blackboard courses
How do I request a new Blackboard course?
Is it too late to request a Blackboard course for this semester?
How do I delete old courses?
Can I archive a course before deleting it?
How do I hide but not delete courses that I'm not currently teaching?
Can you copy the content from last semester's course into a new course?
Blackboard Access
There are students in my class that didn't get into Blackboard. Can you add them?
There are students in my Blackboard course who have dropped the class. Can you remove them?
Students can't see my course. What's the deal?
What's up with my student's email addresses?
How can I add a TA or an Instructor to my Blackboard course?
How can I get into Blackboard without using Ramport?
Learn more
Where can I learn more about using Blackboard?
How can I show my students how to use Blackboard?
Technical problems
Why is the text so small?
Do I have to use the Visual Text Box Editor?
A student reported that she couldn't get into Blackboard. What happened?
How do I request a new Blackboard course?
The most important thing to do is to fill in the course request form at http://blackboard.angelo.edu/request. The course request form captures all the info needed to create the course, plus it helps us keep track of what courses need student enrollment at the beginning of the semester.
Is it too late to request a Blackboard course for this semester? (or is it too early to request a Blackboard course for next semester?)
It's never too late (or too early). Last year we set up a course during dead week so the instructor could report final grades through Blackboard. There are already Bb courses for next semester. Pretty much all you have to do is fill in the form at http://blackboard.angelo.edu/request and we'll set you up.
How do I delete old courses?
You don't - that's our job. All you have to do is send an email to the e-Learning Center listing the courses you'd like removed, and we'll do it for you. There are two things to keep in mind, however.
- First, and most important, is that once a course is deleted it is irretrievable. It's gone for good. If you have any content or any gradebook info that you want to keep, you should print it or export it to a local file before we delete the course, because we can't get it back. The best way to preserve your course info is to archive or export your course.
- Second, it would be a lot easier for us if you could refer to your courses by Course ID because that's how they're listed in the Bb administrator screens. You can get the course ID by clicking on the Courses tab (the second tab just under the blue banner in Blackboard) and looking at the first line under the course name. Simply copy and paste the text into an e-mail.
Can I archive a course before deleting it?
Yes you can. A course archive is a file you can store locally or on a CD. It contains all the course content, as well as student information such as grades in the gradebook and discussion board postings. You can archive your course by going to the course control panel, and in the lower left section click on Archive Course. Click the Archive button and follow the instructions on the screen to download the zip file containing all of the course and student information. You can then save that file to a CD for more permanent storage.
Note that it takes a Blackboard system administrator to restore an archived course. If you need the information recovered from the archive, simply bring the CD containing the zip file to the e-Learning Center. We'll be happy to restore the course for you.
How do I hide but not delete courses that I'm not currently teaching?
In some cases, you may want to keep access to a course, but not have it cluttering up your My Courses area. You can click the yellow icon in the title bar of My Courses, then uncheck all the boxes to the right of the course you want to hide. Click the Submit button, and the course is now invisible.
Can you copy the content from last semester's course into a new course?
Indeed we can. Simply fill in and submit the bottom half of the course request form found at http://blackboard.angelo.edu/request.
There are students in my class that didn't get into Blackboard. Can you add them?
Our Blackboard enrollment procedure works like this: on the Friday before the first day of class, we extract the student enrollment information from the student record system and use that data to create student accounts and enroll them in the appropriate Blackboard courses. This is a fairly lengthy process, and as a practical matter we can only do it about once a day. During the first week of class, we re-run the extraction/enrollment process every afternoon at about 4:00pm in order to catch late enrolls.
Remember that as the instructor of a Blackboard course, you have the ability to add any other Blackboard user to your course. Here's how:
- Go to the Control Panel and click on Enroll User.
- Enter the user's last name and click the Search button.
- Click the check box next to your student's name, and he or she will be added to your course.
There are students in my Blackboard course who have dropped the class. Can you remove them?
No, but you can. As the instructor in a Blackboard course, you have the ability to remove students from your course. Here's how:
- Go to the course Control Panel
- Click on "Remove Users from Course" in the upper right section.
- Enter the departing student's last name in the search box (or leave it blank to list all students), and click the Search button.
- Click the checkbox next to the student's name, and type "Yes" in the confirmation box (note that it is case sensitive - i.e. capital 'Y',little 'es').
- Click the Submit button, and click Yes at the confirmation popup box.
Students can't see my course. What's the deal?
By default, Blackboard courses are set as 'Unavailable' to students when they are first created. This gives you the opportunity to prepare your course without having students watching over your shoulder. Once you are ready for students to view the content, go to the course Control Panel, and click on Settings in the lower left section. Click on Course Availability. Select the Yes button and then click the Submit button.
What's up with my student's e-mail addresses?
All enrolled students receive an e-mail address from ASU. The address is their username@angelo.edu. When we create new student accounts in Blackboard, the address shown in their personal information is set to this.
Even with a correct email address in Bb, it may not show up in the class roster or in the group listings. In order to comply with FERPA, certain student information can't be released without the student's permission. Students must go to Personal Information>>Set Privacy Options to give permission for Blackboard personal info (including email address) to be displayed in the roster and group pages. Choose the information you want to make available (in this case, check the Email Address box), then in section 2, check the "List My Information" box. Finally, click the Submit button at the bottom of the page. Each student needs to do this - we can't do it for them (again, this is to comply with the privacy laws).
How can I add a TA or an Instructor to my Blackboard course?
Please call the e-Learning Center at 942-2334 ext 6263.
How can I use Blackboard without going to Ramport first?
There are a couple of situations where you should not go through Ramport to get into Blackboard. In particular, students who are taking tests should log directly into Blackboard to avoid any time-out problems associated with Ramport. Also, if you are using the Respondus Lockdown Browser to give online tests, your students will not go through Ramport.
When we initially create Blackboard accounts, we set the Bb password to the user's RAMS PIN number. This is a random 6 digit number stored in Banner for each person at the university. Ramport also knows the RAMS PIN as well as your username, so when you click the Blackboard icon in Ramport, it automatically logs you in using the RAMS PIN number.
If you try to log into Blackboard directly by going to http://blackboard.angelo.edu or by using the Respondus Lockdown Browser, you must know your Blackboard password - which is initially set to the random 6 digit RAMS PIN. If you don't know your RAMS PIN, you will need to change your Blackboard password to something you do know. Here's how:
- Log into Ramport
- Click the Blackboard icon to log into Blackboard. You'll see the Blackboard Welcome screen.
- On the left side of the screen is a number of Tools links. Click the Personal Information link. Then click the Change Password link.
- Change your password to something hard to guess but easy to remember. Many people change it to their Ramport password just so they only have to remember one password. Click Submit.
You can now go directly to Blackboard and log in using the new password. The next time you try to get into Blackboard through Ramport, it will ask you for the new password. Enter the new password and Ramport will remember it and enter it for you next time.
Where can I learn more about using Blackboard?
There are several places to get more information:
- In the course Control Panel, you can click on the Manual link in the lower right section.
- We can schedule departmental training classes. If you can get 5 or more (up to 15) of your colleagues to come to a class, we can schedule a class at your convenience.
- Finally, feel free to contact the e-Learning Center with any Blackboard questions. Many questions can be answered quickly by phone or e-mail. We're also happy to come by your office to visit with you about Blackboard.
How can I show my students how to use Blackboard?
- We have created a handout that you can share with your students. You can print out the Student Quick Reference guide and give to your students, or better yet, let them print it out and bring it to class (save on departmental printing costs). There is a link to this document on the opening page at http://blackboard.angelo.edu.
- Students may also see the online manual by clicking on the Help icon in the blue banner at the top of the Blackboard screen.
Why is the text so small?
The immediate fix is to go to the Internet Explorer menu bar, click View, then Text Size. Set text size to medium or larger. You can also hold down the Ctrl key and roll the scroll wheel on your mouse to control browser text size.
The real fix:
There is an interesting interaction between Blackboard and Eudora (the e-mail program that many people use on campus). By default, Eudora displays e-mails using small text, and when you view HTML formatted emails it uses a copy of IE to display it.
To fix this, you should go to Eudora, click Tools>>Options>>Viewing Mail. Uncheck the box that says "Use Microsoft Viewer."
Do I have to use the Visual Text Box Editor?
Our current version of Blackboard has fixed a number of problems we used to have with the Visual Text Box Editor. In any case, you can choose whether or not to use the VTBE by doing the following:
- With your web browser, login to Blackboard.
- On the Welcome screen, click the "Personal Information" link in the gray box on the left side of the window.
- In the Personal Information page, click the "Set Visual Text Box Editor Options" link.
- Select the "Unavailable" radio button and click the "Submit" button.
- Log out of Blackboard and close all instances of Internet Explorer.
- Restart Internet Explorer, login to Blackboard and go to your class. You should now be able to post messages and create content.
A student reported that she couldn't get into Blackboard. What happened?
Saying "I can't get into Blackboard" doesn't really tell us enough. Here are the kinds of questions a student should try to answer when she has problems accessing Blackboard:
- Is your browser set up correctly? Your browser must allow cookies in order for Blackboard to work. Note that this doesn't mean you have to open your browser up to all cookies - only session cookies are needed, so you may still want to block 3rd party cookies (i.e. allow access to cookies for the original web site only) and perhaps block cookies that contain personal info.
- Are you going to the correct URL? You wouldn't believe how many people put "www" in the address, which of course won't work. The correct address is http://blackboard.angelo.edu.
- Are you logging in correctly? From the index page at http://blackboard.angelo.edu, click the Login button. Enter your username and password. Your username is the same as your ASU network login. By default, your password is the same as your RAMS PIN number. Don't forget to check the Caps lock key - usernames aren't case sensitive, but passwords are. You can tell where you went wrong by the error message:
- If you typed the username incorrectly, you'll get a message that says, "An error occurred while the system was processing this login request".
- If you put in the wrong password, you'll get a message that says, "Could not login. Valid authentication credentials were not provided".
- If you've forgotten your password, call the HelpDesk. Remember that your username is the same as your ASU network login, and by default your Bb password is set to be the same as your RAMS PIN number.
- Are you able to get into your course once you get logged in? If the instructor has set the course to Unavailable, you won't see a link to it. If you aren't enrolled in the course, you won't see a link to it. If you've removed it from the My Courses list, you might not see a link to it.
- Can you see the course content? In some cases, Powerpoint files take forever to download. Also, some instructors use different kinds of media files - you have to have the correct viewer to see them.
If you have any less frequently asked questions, please contact the e-Learning Center.