Blackboard Support

These are brief introductions to Blackboard features and a number of helpful tips. For further information, or if you still have questions, please contact blackboard@hamilton.edu, or call 4877. You may also wish to read the Blackboard manual for students (acessible from the Tools area of any course) or instructors (accessible from the Control Panel of any course).

Service Requests, Known Issues, Compatible Browsers

Request to have multiple course sections merged into one course space; search for solutions to common problems; suggestions for compatible browsers and browser settings.

Tutorials and Other Resources

Tutorials from Blackboard and other institutions, plus resources for students and general tip sheets.  We also have some documentation on the new Grade Center.

Logging On, Course Lists, Enrollment Questions 

How to access Blackboard, what to do if you can't see your courses.

Getting Started with Blackboard

Creating an announcement, posting a syllabus, using e-mail, adding staff information.

Ten Ways to Customize Blackboard

You can customize either your own or your students' view of Blackboard.  Instructors also have access to the Course Settings via the Control Panel, which control the appearance of a course.

The Best Tool Ever

That would be the Assignment manager, a clever combination of content and grade book that allows you to assign, retrieve and grade papers completely electronically.

Document Management

Uploading any type of material (including video), copying/moving documents within a course, copying material to another course space, editing tips. special document options

Communication

E-mail, Discussion Board, Virtual Classroom and Lightweight Chat

Monitoring Student Progress

Blackboard has several tools for tracking student performance: the Early Warning System, the Performance Dashboard, Review Status and Adaptive Release of Content.

Student-Centered Tools

Small Groups, Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts, E-Portfolios, Peer and Self-Assessment

Cool Tools

Additional tools in the Course Tools section of the Control Panel, for online attendance, plagiarism checking, adding TAs and graders, quickly assigning students to groups, and more.

Blackboard has an extensive online exam-development facility with many options for creating and deploying tests. This is best explained in the Instructor's manual, but here are a few highlights.

Who is part of the Blackboard Support Group?

Deborah Reichler is the Blackboard system administrator and also provides advanced user support.

Nikki Reynolds, Carl Rosenfield and Janet Simons provide general faculty support for Blackboard.

What are our Blackboard Support Policies?