Getting Started for Students:
Logging in to Blackboard (Having problems logging in?)
- Open your Internet browser and navigate to the Blackboard entry page at http://www.cmu.edu/blackboard.
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Under "Login to Blackboard" click on "Carnegie Mellon Users".
 (Clicking on "Guests" will take you to the Course Catalog where guests can access portions of courses for which instructors have allowed guest access.)
- Enter your Andrew User ID and password in the secure login authentication screen.
NOTE: You must log in with your Andrew user ID and password to enter Blackboard.
"My Blackboard" Course Environment:
After you've logged in, your "My Blackboard" page will appear. This is your customized entry page to Blackboard.
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In the My Courses panel, you will find a complete listing of your Blackboard courses.
The course names are direct links to the individual courses.
Click the "Courses" tab at the top of the page to:
-- find links to all of your courses,
-- find a link to the course catalog,
-- search for courses
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Course Navigation:
Navigation may differ from course to course depending on the content areas the instructor chooses to enable.
| Announcements |
Course updates, reminders, general announcements are displayed here. Announcements typically appear in the main course window each time you enter the course although your professor may choose to change the course entry point to some other Blackboard area (e.g., Course Information). |
| Course Information |
General information about the course - the syllabus is typically placed here. |
| Staff Information |
Instructor, TA, and staff information (e.g., contact info, office hours, personal web site) is posted in this area. Can also be labeled Faculty Information, Group Leaders, or Teachers. |
| Course Documents |
Course outlines, handouts, lecture materials, and readings are usually posted here. |
| Assignments |
Assignments and assessments (i.e., quizzes & surveys) are typically located in this section. |
| Communication |
Send E-mail, Discussion Board, Virtual Classroom, Roster, and Group Pages are linked to from here. |
| External Links |
Links to web sites that are related to the course are provided in this area. Can also be labeled Web Sites or Resources. |
| Student Tools |
Digital Drop Box, Edit Your Homepage, Personal Information, Calendar, Check Grade, Manual, Tasks, Electric Blackboard, and Address Book are linked to from here. Can also be labeled Tools or User Tools. |
| Course Map |
A site map of the course contents. |
Managing course documents
Downloading and Uploading Documents:
Blackboard users can attach a file to a course or upload files (via the Digital Dropbox and Assignments).
An attached file appears as a link. Click on the linked file to download/access it.
Depending on your computer and browser configuration, how the file was linked, and the file type, one of the actions listed below may occur once you've clicked on the link:
- The file may open in the main course window.
- The file may open in a new browser window.
- The browser may prompt you to save the file to a local drive.
- The browser may prompt you to open it without saving.
- The browser may launch an application (i.e. Microsoft Word) and open the file.
When preparing documents for uploading to Blackboard:
Use appropriate extensions when naming files for uploading to Blackboard (e.g. Word documents must be named with a ".doc" extension; Acrobat documents with ".pdf"; etc.) otherwise, your professor will be unable to read/open them. Also, do not include spaces or special characters in your file names.
| Example document formats: |
| Microsoft Word documents (.doc) |
| PowerPoint presentations (.ppt, .pps) |
| Excel spreadsheets and charts (.xls) |
| Adobe Acrobat documents (.pdf) |
| Graphics (.jpg, .gif) |
| Video clips (.mov) |
| HTML files (.htm or .html) |
Viewing Documents:
Document Viewer Plugins:
If you don't have an application or the most recent version of an application, download these free plug-ins for viewing documents:
Protect yourself from computer viruses:
Blackboard makes the exchange of files very easy. Along with that ease also comes risk of downloading a computer virus. Be sure to scan files that you upload to/download from Blackboard with regularly updated virus-protection software such as:
Communication Tools
Students can use the set of communication tools provided within the "Communication" area to contact each other or the instructor via email, participate in a discussion board forum, view student pages found in the class Roster, and work in groups.
Send Email
This tool allows you to send direct email to anyone in the course. However, it is a limited email program in that it does not:
- provide a "cc" list of recipients when sending email to more than one person
- does not provide a spell check
- and does not save sent messages
Email is sent to the user's standard Andrew mailbox. View instructions on how to forward your Andrew email to another account.
Discussion Board
This tool allows students to participate in course-related discussions outside of class time. Student conversations are logged and organized by forums set by the instructor that contain threads of all related replies. Your instructor may also choose to provide a forum where students are able to post anonymously.
Note: The discussion board is a database of textual information with limited searching capabilities. Adding a meaningful subject line whenever posting or replying to posts can facilitate better scanning and retrieval of the information.
Roster/Student Pages
Blackboard provides a student page for each course. Select "Roster" and "List All" or type in the last name or user ID of a student in the course. Select the name/link to view the related home page of that individual.
Personalize and update your home page at any time during the course from within the Student Tools area.
Group Pages
Your instructor may divide students into study or project groups using the Group Pages option. Each group receives a unique group page that provides a set of private group tools, including:
- a Discussion Board
- file exchange tool (Digital Dropbox)
- email
NOTE: Using the Discussion Board forum as a place to exchange group documents may be more advantageous than using the group file exchange tool (digital dropbox):
- Documents uploaded to the Discussion Board can be posted with meaningful comments and replies.
- Deleting documents from the group file exchange area (digital dropbox) is very easy for someone within the group to do, and may prove to be undesirable.
NOTE: When using email from within the Group Pages, if you reply to a message sent to the entire team, the message reply will be sent back to only one person in the group, as Blackboard strips out the other recipients.
Forwarding your email from your Andrew account to a preferred account.
To set your forwarding email address:
Step 1: Go to http://www.cmu.edu/myandrew/ and log in.
Step 2: Under Email Options, click the "CMU name and Forwarding" link.
Step 3: Click SET FORWARDING.
Step 4: Enter your forwarding address in the "Forward Mail To:" field and click CHANGE.
To clear your forwarding email address:
Step 1: Go to http://www.cmu.edu/myandrew/.
Step 2: Under Email Options, click the "CMU Name and Forwarding" link.
Step 3: Click SET FORWARDING.
Step 4: Click REMOVE MAIL FORWARDING.
For additional information visit: http://www.cmu.edu/computing/.
Student Tools
Blackboard provides the following students tools. Availability of these tools for each course depends on parameters set by the instructor.
 Digital Dropbox
Upload, download, and send files to the course instructor using the Digital Dropbox. Instructors and students can use this tool to exchange files (e.g., submit homework).
- The instructor cannot view the student Dropbox. To submit a document to the instructor, you must select to "send" the file when you "add file" to the Dropbox.
- The student Dropbox uses a portion of the entire course space. Do not use your personal Dropbox as a personal storage space. The Dropbox should be used for course documents only and the files should be removed once they are no longer in use.
- Always keep the original copy of the documents you upload to Blackboard.
- Blackboard retains a record of posted (i.e., added to personal dropbox) and submitted (i.e., sent) files. Files include a time stamp in addition to a date stamp.
Edit Your Homepage
You may create a homepage within each of your Blackboard courses using this tool.
View Grades
If the course instructor is using the Online Gradebook and has allowed student access, you can view your grades for the course here.
Manual
A comprehensive online manual for students is provided here by Blackboard, Inc.
Student access to grades: how to check your grades
If the course instructor is using the Online Gradebook and has allowed student access, you can view your grades from within Blackboard.
To check grades from within a course:
Step 1: From the left navigation, click on Student Tools (may also be labeled Tools or User Tools).
Step 2: Select View Grades.
To check grades from "My Blackboard" for one or more course(s):
Step 1: Select My Grades from the Tools panel.
Step 2: My Grades lists links to grades for all of your Blackboard courses. Select the course link to view the grades for that course.
Example view of student grades for one course:
Course Monitoring
Blackboard allows your instructors to monitor your access to course content and communication areas. Instructors have the ability to view total number of hits as well as usage statistics for each item.
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