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Instructor Frequently Asked Questions
The Blackboard Course Management System, located at
http://bb.rhsmith.umd.edu, is designed
to help faculty integrate Web resources into their traditional classroom
courses. It has being used by Smith faculty
since Fall 2002. The entire University of Maryland
campus now uses the same tool. We're running version 7.1 since Summer, 2006, and has been upgraded to
Blackboard Academic Suite Release 7.3 during the 2007 Christmas holiday. Check
our Blackboard support home page to
see related documents.
The following Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ's)
have been developed to assist instructors get answers to common questions.
Please visit our Blackboard information website home page
by clicking on the "Blackboard" tab above for
more useful links and important topics. Visit Login Help page for
Login and E-mail questions.
Login
and Password
Course Request/Training
About Course Setup and Availability
Work on Course Contents and Communications Areas
Work
on Assignments and Gradebook
Work on Exam, Quiz and Surveys
Contact Us
Q
I'm new to UM, how do I get an UM Directory ID? Before I get an
ID, can I request and view my course in Blackboard anyway?
A You will get an UM Directory account
once you received an appointment document and get a pay check from the school.
When you have an ID, please follow the instructions on our
Login Help page to active your account and set a
password. Then you can request your Blackboard
course and get access to it.
You can request your course even
you do not have a Directory ID yet. Just fill out the
Smith BB Course Request form, please make it
clear about the course info that you are going to teach, and your current
status, along with your contact information. We can setup the course and create a temporary BB user account for you
as needed.
Q
What I need to know about the Directory account
Password?
A You need to use your Directory ID
and Password to gain access to Blackboard online course system. Please review
carefully about UM Directory Password
Information and policy.
Smith IT has similar information when you visit
http://www.rhsmith.umd.edu/smithit/, then go to
Accounts under IT Support area
and check on the Password
Policy page.
All new UM Directory passwords remain valid for up to 180 days.
If you allow your password to expire, you will be unable
to access the many services that utilize the Directory password. Change
your password by visiting
http://www.oit.umd.edu/password/ and clicking the Update Your Directory
Password button at the left of the page (at
https://directory.umd.edu/password).
If your password does expire before you have an opportunity to change it, you
will be able to use your old password for the sole purpose of selecting a new
password. You can also contact Campus OIT helpdesk at 301-405-1500
regarding your password issue.
Q
Do I have a student account for blackboard to
test things are all right? What is elms-faculty-UID account?
A Yes, starting from Fall 2007
all the instructors of a Blackboard will have a Student account that was added to your course automatically
once a course under your Directory account is created. You will or may have
received an email from <elms@umd.edu>
regarding a special user account for you, login ID elms-faculty-yourUID. This
account is intended to allow faculty to access their Blackboard courses from the
student perspective (rather than Instructor). You can set a password and try
it on. Note that this "elms-faculty-UID" account is totally separated from your
regular Directory account and is solely used for the purpose of testing over
your Blackboard courses from Student view.
To set an initial password, and to reset the password before each new term,
please go to
https://learningonline.umd.edu/elms-mgmt/localusers/editLocalUserForFaculty.jsf,
login with your regular Directory ID and password, you should see a page
allowing you to enter password for the elms-faculty-UID account. Once you set a
password, you can login to BB system with this
"elms-faculty-UID" account and view or test on your course as a
Student immediately. (You may want to use a different type of browser to login,
so that you can access your course as Instructor in one browser and as Student
in another).
Please be aware that the password
for this account will expire at the end of every term.
Q
How do I set or change my email address used by
Blackboard?
A You will need to have an
active email address set on your Directory account in order to receive emails
sent from
Messages posted through Blackboard. If you are new to school, you probably do
not have such an email address setup yet.
E-mail address CANNOT be set or
changed from
Blackboard. As a Faculty/Staff, to
set or change the forwarding Email address in your Directory account, go to ARES
system at
http://www.ares.umd.edu. Click "Change your
official email address" on the top-right area, type in your Directory
ID and password to login. Press on "Continue" button in the "Login Successful"
page, Personal Information window will be
displayed. Enter your desired Email address and/or other personal information
there. The Email address change will take place overnight to be reflected in the Blackboard
system.
Visit our
BB Login Help page for all detailed instructions regarding Login ID,
password and Email issues.
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Q
Do I need to request my Blackboard course each
semester? How do
I request the Course?
A Yes, and please remember -
Blackboard course sites must be requested each semester. They are not
automatically created. You
will be notified via e-mail regarding the course setup along with some basic
information. (According to Dean's Office in June 2007, there is already a policy
of the Smith School that faculty should use Blackboard and awareness of this
policy needs to be reinforced.)
You can reach
Blackboard Course Request forms by clicking on the Request BB Course
tab on the top of this page. Starting from Spring 2007, there are two ways to
request a BB course site as below. More details can be seen in our Blackboard
support site home page.
-
Instructors are welcome to use the
New Campus-wide ELMS Course Request form to submit course
requests. You will find the ELMS form when you log into
Blackboard System and look in the “Common Tasks for
Instructors” frame.
-
Complete this
Smith BB Course Request form to request a
Blackboard course site. Smith IT maintains this additional form which allows
for more flexibility in the following situations:
-
When you're teaching a
Cross-listed course and want to combine different course IDs into one
course.
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When a Staff member
requests a course for a faculty member.
-
When you have special
requests.
-
When you are an adjunct
or new faculty to school and do not have a valid Directory ID yet.
-
All EMBA courses
should use the Smith BB Course Request form – not the campus form –
to ensure proper naming convention is followed.
Q
How do I request an Organization space
or other non-term-based courses
in Blackboard? Can I manage the users myself?
A Faculty and Staff may request an
Organization space or other non-term-based courses in Blackboard for a Committee, Student Group, Department,
Research Group, or Grant. If you want your student organization to have a
space, you must request it for them. Once you do, you can assign a student as
"leader" but should remain in the group to oversee activity. Organizational
spaces and or non-term-based courses have the same tools and functions as a regular Blackboard course. The
big difference is that YOU manage the members of the space.
Everything inside the space works just the same way as it does in your
term-based courses. Participants can email, use discussion forums, content
collection links, announcements, Wimba sessions...
- Add
users and modify their role in the Organization sites:
It is different from adding users to a BB course site. Actually the
Instructor /
Leader or Assistant of the Organization space suppose to manage
other users as you like. You go to
https://learningonline.umd.edu/elms-mgmt/
--> Manage Organizations and Non-Term Courses --> you should see the
Organization IDs or non-term-based course IDs that are setup for you --> hit on Manage Members of an
organization --> Add New Users or hit on Edit to change a user's
role.
By default, all users are added as Student (in a course) or Participant (in an
organization space).
Please note that if the members have Assistant role, they will also be able to
manage other users as you can. So if the students really need to be able to
access Control Panel and post materials, you may want them to be Course
Builder or Organization
Builder instead of Assistant.
Q
How do I add Course Assistant such as TA, Grader
or Course Builder to my course?
A Campus Registrar Office and OIT
asked that course Instructors will need to add course Assistant such as TA or
Grader (who will need access Gradebook area) through UMEG system (http://umeg.umd.edu).
To do that, just login to your UMEG account, go to the specific course, add the
user's Directory ID and select the role. Also, it is required that this person
will need to have an appointment (with paid position) in the department.
Undergraduate student cannot be added as TA.
If you only need to add a
Course Builder, that the person do not need to access course Gradebook area,
you could simply send request to <bbhelp@rhsmith.umd.edu>.
Q
What about training on Blackboard?
A The best way to learn about using
Blackboard is to attend one of our training sessions. Smith IT usually provides
Blackboard and eSmith Portal trainings during Summer and Fall term. One-on-one
trainings will also be offered to help faculty learn the Blackboard environment
upon requests.
There are free Training materials
that you can access when you are in BB system. Look for "Training" tab and
"Faculty Resources" tab that provided by the campus OIT (Note: Blackboard system
is called ELMS in OIT). Blackboard company website has many quick training
videos: http://www.blackboard.com/quicktutorials/. We are on Blackboard Academic
Suite Release 7.3 now.
Q
Is there some quick documentation to get me
started and learn more about Blackboard features on my own?
A Yes! There is
quick start documentation from the
training session we run at Smith is available to download. It tries to quickly
summarize how to get up and running with Blackboard.
A detailed, comprehensive
instructor manual (358 pages pdf file) for Blackboard is available. There're
also Quick Training videos provided by Blackboard company for the new version
BB7.1 available at
http://www.blackboard.com/quicktutorials/.
In addition, campus OIT has provided many useful information provided for
Blackboard users. When you are in BB system, click on Training tab right
below the school logo to look for details. It can also be reached directly at
https://elms.umd.edu/webapps/portal/frameset.jsp?tab_id=_42_1 directly.
Documents available in ELMS system includes:
Q
Where do I find links to courses I'm teaching?
Can I modify the list?
A You will find links to courses you
are teaching on Blackboard system once you log in at:
http://bb.rhsmith.umd.edu. Login can
also be performed by accessing the eSmith Portal at
https://portal.rhsmith.umd.edu/
and selecting the Course Management channel for Blackboard access.
Once you get in, you will see a list of your
courses and some useful information in your Blackboard home page. You can see a
full list of your courses in Course Sites tab.
You can also modify the course listed on your
Blackboard home page. For instance, if you want to display only current semester
courses, you can actually "hide" the courses you do not want to list on
the home page. Here is how: With "Home" tab is selected, you can see a
little pencil icon usually on the top-right side, in "My Courses" table
box. If you put cursor on it, it will read as Modify the module: My Courses.
Hit on the button, "Customize: My Courses" page will be displayed. You
can deselect the courses that you don't want to be displayed, or choose the
items that you want to be displayed in your course view, press Submit to have
the changes take effect.
You can also modify your Blackboard home page
contents and layout by clicking on
Modify Content
or
Modify Layout
button on the top-right corner when you are in Home tab of Blackboard pages.
Q
When I and my students can access the course?
A Usually within couple of hours after
you received course setup notification messages, you will be able to access the
course by logging into Blackboard system at
http://bb.rhsmith.umd.edu using your Directory ID and password. Since
the course will be initially set as Available now, the students will be
able to access the course soon after the course is created.
If you want to work on the course before the
students view the course, you may change the course availability setting by
going to course Control Panel -> Settings
-> Course Availability and make the selection.
Q
How long will the course stay in system and how
long we can access the course?
A The course will be staying in the
Blackboard system for two years. After
then, the campus will remove the course. Before that, the instructors and TAs
can always access the course.
Please Note that with campus current policy
since early this year, all courses will be set to "Unavailable" at system
level three-weeks after the final day of the semester, and all the students'
course enrollment status will be changed to "Inactive". This means all
students will NOT able to see the course after then. (For instance, the Spring
2007 courses were turned off on 6/18/2007.) So you may want the
students be notified. If there's student(s) do need to access a course after
then, please send email to
bbhelp@rhsmith.umd.edu, we will make the student(s) active again in that
course.
Q.
My course is not showing up in the public Course
Syllabi page. I would like guests to view my syllabus. How do I do this?
A. You need to post Course Syllabus in
BB course site first by going to Control Panel ->
Syllabus, attach your syllabus file. Smith IT will then check and extract
the course syllabus to a Public view. Or you can contact us to have your
syllabus be published. Link to preview syllabi is available from the Blackboard
login page (http://bb.rhsmith.umd.edu),
and R. H. Smith Blackboard information and FAQ web page (http://www.rhsmith.umd.edu/blackboard).
Q
How can I modify the course menu bar and/or turn
on additional features available in Blackboard?
A To modify the course Menu bar that
is on the left side of a course, you can go to Control Panel
-> Manage Course Menu under Course Options area.
You may see several menu items listed there but says "This
item is currently unavailable". To turn On the features, click on Modify
button next to it --> select the "Available for Student/Participant users"
checkbox, Submit. You can also add a menu item by clicking on the Add button at
the top part of the Manage Course Menu page.
To change the button or format on
the bar, go to Control Panel -> Course Design
-> Course Menu Design.
Q
Is there a size limit of the course? Can I check
the quota usage myself?
A Yes, there are default size quota
set on each new courses. And since Summer 2007 you can check the course quota
usage by going to course Control Panel ->
Quota Usage in Course Tools area.
Q
How can I get a list of students enrolled in my
course from Blackboard? Can I see student IDs in Gradebook area?
A The easiest way to find your
students is from Control Panel -> List /
Modify Users. You can see student list as well in Communications and
Gradebook areas. As instructor, you will be able to see students list in
your UMEG account.
Student ID can be viewed by
instructors in the course Gradebook area. To see the column, you will need to
go into Control Panel ->
Gradebook -> Gradebook Settings ->
Column Settings and check the Student ID column to be displayed.
Q
Can I transfer the old course contents to the new
course?
A Yes! As a course Instructor or TA,
you can always copy course materials as well as Group Settings, etc. from another course
that you are teaching or taught before: After the new course has been setup, login to BB, go to the Source
course (the old course), then Control Panel ->
Course Copy -> Copy Course Materials into an
Existing Course, then type in or Browse ->
Search -> Select the Destination Course ID (the new
course) --> Select the areas you want to make copy, Submit. It's straight forward and
very convenient. You will receive the confirmation message when a copy is done.
Further more, with current BB 7 system, you can
actually copy contents by item or by folder, which is very inconvenient in some
situations. Just go to the corresponding area in Source course, hit on Copy
button on the item/folder you want to copy, then select the Destination
Course and Destination Folder, Submit.
If you need help to transfer course materials from
one course to another, please send email to
bbhelp@rhsmith.umd.edu, specific
about what semester, which specific course and section, and which course areas
want to copy over.
Q
Can I quickly switch back and forth between
adding content and seeing how the content will appear to students?
A Yes, using the Quick Edit feature.
See "Quick Edit in Blackboard".
Q
Can students create Discussion Forum
by themselves? How do I setup a Discussion Board for the students at course
level?
A The students cannot create or start
a Discussion forum by themselves. To create a Discussion Forum at the course
level, the instructor or TA will have to set it up for the
students first. Just go to
Discussion Board on the left menu bar -> click
on "Add Forum"
 button and create a topic
(students cannot see this button). Choose the options that
you like to have. Then the students can start posting their threads.
Q
How to setup Groups
for students so that they can have Group Discussion Board, allow File Exchanges
and send emails to group users?
A The students cannot create their own
Group pages. The instructor has to setup the
Groups within which students can carry on discussions. To create groups, go to
course Control Panel -> Manage Groups under
User Management area -> Add Group
-> Select the Group Options and Submit.
The group is created without
members. To add members to the group that's been created, select Modify Group
button and hit on Search button to locate the students in the course, then
select users to add them the group. After users are assigned to
groups, students can see their own group page from Group menu in a course.
In BB 7, when a group is setup in
a BB course, the system will create a Group Discussion Forum automatically named
with the group name. To access the Group Discussion Forum and post a thread,
click on Group button in course left menu, get into the group, click on Group
Discussion Board, then click on the forum. You will see +Thread button on the
page.
Note:
Groups can also be setup by going to course Control Panel ->
Advanced Group Management under Course Tools area. The advantage of using it
is that it allows you add/manage Users much easier. To add members to the group that's been created,
select All or select the group(s) you want to manage, click on View/Assign
Users button, then Modify button to select users manually, or
click on Randomize button to have the system assign users randomly among
all or selected groups.
While there's a disadvantage of
using Advanced Group Management tool, it will not create a Forum topic for you
automatically. Instructors will need to create a Forum topic themselves (click
on Group button in course left menu, get into the group, click on Group
Discussion Board, then you will see +Forum button on the page.)
Q
Help! I get an error message when I try to add a
Microsoft Word or PowerPoint file as an attachment.
A The error message usually occurs
when your Word or PowerPoint filename has spaces or other special characters. Remove the spaces
and special characters in filename, make sure you have a valid file extension
and try to attach the file again. It should work.
Q
I used to have students post files via the
Digital Drop Box, but this feature is not available now. Why?
A Digital Drop Box has been used as a
tool in the past as a way to send files privately between instructor and
students in Blackboard. But there are some issues with it and thus is not
recommended to use or be supported since Spring 2007 term. It is still in
system, but it has been set as Unavailable in course by default at system level.
Now Digital Drop Box has been
replaced by some much better functionality, the "Assignment Tool".
The new Assignment tool has many advantages over the drop box. A website that
summarizes the advantages of the assignment tool can be found at
http://help.unc.edu/5470.
Q
What is Assignment Tool
and how can I use it? How to View the student submissions?
A Assignment
Tool allows instructors to distribute assignment items, collect individual
student responses, post comments to students, and grade on the items
in a very convenient way.
To create an online Assignment,
go to course Control Panel ->
Assignments or other course Contents area, find the "Learning Unit"
dropdown box on the right,
(you may need to scroll to see the "Go" button),
select "Assignment" in the dropdown list
and hit on "Go" button. You can attach *a file to it. Other options the instructors can set include
the assignment Availability, Date/Time restrictions. Hit Submit button to
create the Assignment.
*Note: If you want to attach multiple files to one Assignment,
you will need to create the online Assignment first as described above. Then hit
on Modify button of the assignment, attach another file. The students can
and must attach multiple files, if they need, BEFORE they hit on Submit
button to submit their assignment. Because students can Only submit once
for each Assignment.
Then when go to course
Assignments page from the menu bar, you will see the new item, with a link
saying ">> View/Complete Assignment: your assignment".
Students can hit on this link to submit their homework documents along with
their comments.
To view the details of student
responses, instructor need to go to Control Panel ->
Gradebook. If a student has submitted his/her assignment, an expression mark
will be showing under the item. Click on it, then the
 button
to view details. Instructors can view, score, give comments and store student
performance results in the course Gradebook.
Please note that student can only
Submit Once for an assignment. Once they submit, will not be able to Submit
again, unless the instructor Clear Attempt for them in Gradebook. They can,
however, Save part of their work before submit. In this case, you will see a
lock icon
 in
Gradebook. You may not able to see the student's submission until he/she Submit the
assignment.
Check our
quick Assignment Tool
documentation (doc file) with screenshots for details.
Blackboard has an
online
training movie (Flash file) about Assignment Tool available to view for details.
Tip: You can access Blackboard Quick Animated Tutorials at
http://www.blackboard.com/quicktutorials/ by going to Home tab of
http://bb.rhsmith.umd.edu/, looking for
Using ELMS (for Faculty) area.
Then you click on the link such as
Assignments
to play movie.
Q
Can students view my comments and grades on their
assignments?
A Yes, students can also view
instructor's comments online. They just go to Assignment page, then click on the
item. They will see a message says "This assignment is complete. Click OK
to review the results". Click Ok button, the next page will be something
like this:
1. Assignment Information
Name (i.e. Assignment #1)
Instructions
Assignment Files: (i.e. Assignment #1.doc)
2. Assignment Materials
Comments (Hi! here is the results for Assignment #1)
-
test student user response.
User’s Files: (i.e. Assignment #1_alice.doc)
3. Feedback From Instructor
Grade (i.e. 80 out of 100.0)
Comments
Files From Instructor (i.e. Assignment #1_answer.doc)
Q
I want to download all the responses that
students submitted for an assignment at one time, is there a way to do that?
A Yes! Fortunately BB 7.1 has a nice
feature to help you deal with this problem. You can download all the student
files of an Assignment item to your local in one time by following this:
Go to course Control Panel -> Gradebook
-> click on the name of the Assignment Item
-> Item
Download -> Select All (or select particular
students) ->
Submit -> Download assignments now.
You will get a Zip file named as <Assignment_Item_Name.zip>. Unzip it, you will
get detailed files, with file name contains the Assignment name and studentID.
The file name format is:
It's very convenient. This way
you don't need to go through every single assignment and download the
attachments or copy the comments, in case you need student assignment
submissions sooner or later.
Q
How do I upload grades to my Blackboard course?
A To upload grades to your BB course
in Gradebook area, you will need to download the current data in you course
first (so that the student identifications in your file could match whatever in
your online course). Here is the instructions about downloading and uploading gradebook process that you may want to follow.
1. Download current Gradebook data: Go to your course Control Panel ->
Gradebook ->
Download Grades -> hit on Download
button -> you could keep "Delimiter Type"
as Tab (default) and save to hard drive. The default file name is <gb_export.xls>.
Please make sure that the
Gradebook items only contains letters, numbers and underscore, no special
characters. Or you may encounter error when trying to upload grades.
2. Open the file that you downloaded, edit your data in MS Excel. Please note
that the <gb_export.xls> file you downloaded is actually in plain text format.
If you want to upload your edited grades to Gradebook, please modify the Grades
only while you edit the file and keep this format when save your data. If you
added a new column in your local file, you will need to add a corresponding
Gradebook Item in your BB course.
Also note that the Total and Weighted Total columns are included in a Gradebook
download. However, these columns will not be included in a Gradebook Upload
because they are generated by calculations within the Gradebook. The instructor
cannot manipulate the data for these areas.
3. Upload the Gradebook to the course. Click on "Upload Gradebook" button to
upload your modified gradebook. Browse to your file, select the column that you
want to upload, make sure you select user(s) as well, then Submit.
Q
Can you please tell me what is Classroom
Response Devices - "Clickers"?
A Turning Point classroom response
system integrates into Microsoft PowerPoint and allows students to participate
in presentations or lectures by submitting responses to interactive questions
using a Response keypad, the "clicker".
The Office of Smith IT can help
Business School faculty get started and demo the technology. Just send a request
to helpme@rhsmith.umd.edu and we’ll
be glad to schedule a time to talk with you about it. Visit
Classroom Response Devices -
"Clickers" in Smith IT web page for details.
Q
I have created an online Test/Survey/Pool, but
it's still not visible in course pages, such as Assignments. How can the
students see it?
A To make the Test/Survey available to
students, you will need to add a link to the test or survey you already
created. Go to Control Panel -> Assignments (or any other Contents area), click on
Add Test button ->
select the Test/Survey you have created, Submit.
Next, you will need to set the
Test Availability and Set Timer. By default, the system set it as
Unavailable for students. To make it visible by students, while you are still in
Control Panel -> Assignments, click on
Modify button on the right of the linked Test ->
Modify the Test Options -> select Yes on
“Do you want to make the link visible?”, set the timer if you want ->
Submit.
Q
I have created a timed quiz. Will the system stop
students from taking the quiz when the time is up?
A No, the system will let the students
continue taking the quiz but when the instructor checks student score, it will
flag the student entry as having gone above the time limit so the instructor
becomes aware of this.
Q
How do I find Test results?
A Go to course Control Panel ->
Gradebook -> click on the Name of the
Item, then "Item Grade List" to list/enter Grades, or go to "Assessment Attempt
Details" hyperlink to view the Test results in details.
Q
I created a Test/Survey and made it available to
students. Where can I find the results of the survey?
A Go to Control Panel ->
Gradebook under the Assessment category. Click on the title of the test/survey
for which you would like to view results, next click on 'Assessment Attempt
Details' (below Item Information) to find the statistics data, or "Download
Results" to download Test/Survey
results.
Q
Are surveys submitted by students anonymous?
A Yes. Surveys are submitted
anonymously. The instructor has no way to determine which student submitted the
survey.
Q
I have some other questions regarding Blackboard,
and have more suggestions for improving Blackboard features. Who
should I send these to?
A To ensure your request has a
guaranteed reply, help us provide you with the best quality support, and helps
us better track trends in support requests, please send all BB questions to
bbhelp@rhsmith.umd.edu. You can also
stop by to see Alice Zhang, Mary Maxson or Ernie Soffronoff in the Smith IT
suite at Room# 3520, Van Munching Hall, or call us at
301-405-2269.
You are also welcome to
provide feedback to campus Blackboard support team, for suggestions on new
functionality you would like to see or improvements to existing features. That
form can be found when you login to
Blackboard home page (you may need to scroll to the end).
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