Blackboard for Faculty

Blackboard 'How Tos' for Faculty

Blackboard is accessible via the MyIona Single Sign-On System (SSO). To access Blackboard:

Open your web browser and follow this URL: https://myiona.iona.edu.
You will see the MyIona SSO login page.
Enter your username and click on Continue.
Enter your computer password and click on Continue.
You will now be prompted to provide multi factor authentication.
You will now see the MyIona SSO Landing Page.
Click on Company: All Iona Applications.
Click on the Blackboard icon.

Forgotten Password Help

You can manage your computer password through the Password Station system. As long as you have set up your "forgotten password help" questions, you can change your password by clicking on the Forgot Your Password link on the Single Sign On System login page.

*If you have not set up your help questions for Password Station, contact the Help Desk to reset your password (914) 633-2635.

A course must be made available before students enrolled in the course will be able to view or access the course and its content.

At the beginning of each semester your new courses are turned off by default. Once you have added your content to the course and are ready, you must follow the steps below to make your course available to your enrolled students.

Log into Blackboard
From your courses list, select the course you would like to turn on. (You should be on the home page of the course you would like to turn on.)
On the Control Panel (on the bottom of the left hand side navigation), expand the Customization section and click "Properties."
In the Set Availability section, click Yes.

Optionally, when making a course available, you can choose one of the following options in the Set Course Duration section.

Continuous (default) to leave the course available without a specified start or end date.
Select Dates to choose a start and/or end date. The start and end dates are set automatically.

Blackboard provides many options for creating content. Learning how to add content will fill in your course to make it relevant and interactive for your students.

You can create many different content types in your course areas. Advance planning of the items to include in course areas can save you time and create a more organized final product. Consider your course goals, objectives, and audience demographics. Review your existing materials to determine what you can use online.

As you create content, you can set its options, such as availability. This enables you to create content and make it unavailable to users until you are ready for them to view it.

Types of content you can create are:

Item
File
Audio
Image
Web link
and much more.

Item vs. File

One of the most common types of content instructors have to upload are documents, i.e. Word or PDF documents. This is easily handled by two content types: Item and File.

It is highly recommended to always use the Item content type. The Item content type will allow you to upload your document and provide additional information such as instructions. The File content type will only allow you to upload the file.

How to Make a New Item

Log into Blackboard.
From your courses list, select the course you would like to add an Item to. (You should be on the home page of the course you would like to add an Item to.)
Navigate to a content area (select one of the areas on your course menu on the left side of the screen, ie. Syllabus, Course Content, Discussions, etc.)
On the top menu select the 'Build Content' menu.
Select 'Item'.
Enter a name for the Item.
If you need to add any instructions or information, use the 'Text' field.
Under 'Attachments' select the 'Browse My Computer' button and find the file you want to upload.
Under 'Standard Options' you can control if this Item is available to our students, control when the Item will be displayed from and until, and whether you want to track the views of this Item.
Once you have all the settings the way you want, select 'Submit' at the bottom.

Learn more about how to add content to a course

The menu within your course should allow students to easily navigate your content. This area can be customized to match the language, content, and organization of your course. This can allow you ways to match your syllabus, provide useful links, and much more.

Types of Menu Items

Content Area: Think of these as folders to organize your content. You can name a content folder anything you wish. On the default menu, there are several content areas, for example, the syllabus, course content, links, assignments, and tests areas on the default menu are all simply course areas.

Module Page: These pages are unique in that they allow you to created pages with pre-created modules that can provide a variety of features. The Home Page on the default menu is an example of a module page.

Blank Page: These pages allow you to create an area that you can add straight content or files to.

Tool Link: These can be very useful. Tools in Blackboard such as discussion boards, calendar, email, etc. can all be added to the course menu directly to prevent users from needing to hunt for them.

Web Link: You can add the link to any website directly to the course menu so that students can easily access it.

Course Link: These allow you to jump the students to a specific item, document, or content area that may be deep in the course structure. Again, this can help to alleviate confusion trying to find a specific area or content.

Subheaders and Dividers: These items allow you to organize the menu into sections. By adding a few dividers, a long menu can quickly become easier to read.

How to Add a Menu Item

Hover over the ‘plus’ sign at the top of the menu.
Select the type of menu item you wish to add.
Fill in the details about the menu item.
Click the submit button.

How to Edit Menu Item

By default, all new items are added to the bottom of the course menu. If you want to move it, or you need to adjust any of the settings for the item, this is a simple process.

Begin by hovering over the item, you will notice that it becomes highlighted and icons appear on the left and right side of it. Click on the four direction arrow to the left to drag and reorder. Click on the down arrow to the right to edit.

The course email tool is a send-only tool. You can send messages from your course to course members' email accounts without having to launch office 365. You can send emails to individual users or to groups of users.

You can send email to the following users or groups in a course:

All Users: Sends email to all users in the course.
All Groups: Sends email to all of the groups in a specified course.
All Student Users: Sends an email to all students in the course.
All Instructor Users: Sends email to all of the instructors for a specified course.
Select Users: Sends email to select users.
Select Groups: Sends email to select groups.

Learn More about Email in Blackboard.

You can copy courses and use them as a convenient way to reuse and adapt existing course structures, materials, and content.

How to Copy Course Content

Log into Blackboard.
From your courses list, select the course you would like to copy the content from. (You should be on the home page of the course you would like to copy.)
On the Control Panel (on the bottom of the left hand side navigation), expand the 'Packages and Utilities' section and click 'Course Copy'.
Use the 'Browse' button to browse the course listing of your courses and select the circle next to the course you would like to copy your content to.
Select 'Submit'.
Using the check boxes next to each item, select the items you wish to copy. If you want to copy the entire course, use the 'Select All' button at the top of the content list.
Under 'File Attachments' select 'Copy links and copies of the content'.
If you want to copy enrollments for the users of your course, check the box that says 'Include Enrollments in the Copy', leave it blank if you do not.
Once you have made sure you had all the correct selections made, select 'Submit' at the bottom of the page.

Learn more about how to copy course content

Announcements allow you to post timely information critical to course success for all of your students to see. On the Announcements page, you can add, edit, and delete announcements. This is an ideal place to post time-sensitive material including:

Due dates for assignments and projects.
Changes to your syllabus.
Corrections/clarifications of materials.
Exam schedules.

When you add an announcement, you can also send the announcement as an email to students in your course. This ensures that students receive the announcement even if they do not log in to your course. If you include links to course content, the email will not include links to that content.

Learn more about how to create announcements in your course

If you are grading student submitted files, the assignments tool saves time. When you create an assignment using the assignments tool, a Grade Center column is created automatically. From the Grade Center or Needs Grading page, you can see who has submitted their work. You can use the inline viewer and grade submissions directly. You can also download submissions for offline viewing. Assignments with due dates will also show automatically in the course calendar.

How to Create an Assignment

Log into Blackboard.
From your courses list, select the course you would like to add an Item to. (You should be on the home page of the course you would like to add an Item to.)
Navigate to a content area (select one of the areas on your course menu on the left side of the screen, ie. Syllabus, Course Content, Discussions, etc.)
On the top menu select the 'Assessments' menu.
Select 'Assignment'.
On the Create Assignment page, provide the name, instructions, and any files students need.
Optionally, select a Due Date.
In the Grading section, type the Points Possible and optionally, associate a rubric.
Optionally, expand the sections to make selections such as anonymous grading and how the grade is displayed. To learn more, see Assignment Grade Settings.
When all of your settings are the way you want them, select the 'Submit' button at the bottom of the page.

Use SafeAssign in your Assignment

SafeAssign compares submitted assignments against a set of academic papers to identify areas of overlap between the submitted assignment and existing works.
To create a SafeAssign Assignment follow the steps below:

On the Create Assignment page, expand Submission Details.
Select Check submissions for plagiarism using SafeAssign.
Optionally, select one or both options:
- Allow students to view the SafeAssign originality reports on their submissions.
- Exclude all student submissions for this assignment from the institutional or global reference databases.
Complete the Create Assignment page.
Select Submit.

To learn more, see Using SafeAssign.

Turnitin Assignment

Iona offers Turnitin integration with Blackboard. This should be used as one element in a broader effort to deter plagiarism; including classroom instruction in scholarly integrity and academic skills like proper research, analysis, writing and citation.

Learn more about how to create an assignment

Blackboard provides terrific documentation on its website, which is updated regularly. You can visit their website by using the link below:

help.blackboard.com

You can also contact the Help Desk at (914) 633-2635 for support.

Blackboard is a web-based application. If you are experiencing problems, it can sometimes be fixed by changing which web browser you are using.

You can run the browser checker which will evaluate the browser you are using and let you know if it is okay or not.

Run Check

If you would like more technical information about browser or plugin support, view this webpage

Below are a few direct links to Blackboard's resources on a few more advanced Blackboard topics.