Moved Away from Blackboard

Along with many other institutions, we moved on from Blackboard to Canvas.

This blog is now just an archive of outdated previous tips for Blackboard.

I hope at least one of them was helpful to you over the years.

Chris 

How to Empty your Browser Cache

To fix a problem with Blackboard, you may need to empty your browser cache.

Here are instructions for various browsers:

Google Chrome

1. Open Google Chrome and click the dotted Chrome menu at the upper right
2. Click More Tools >
3. Click the "Clear browsing data..."
4. Select "All time" from the Time range drop-down
5. Check the following boxes ("Cookies...", "Cached..."), and click "Clear data":

Firefox for Windows

1. If the "History" menu does not appear at the top, press and release the "ALT" key on your keyboard.
2. From the History (or the "Tools") menu, select "Clear Recent History".
3. From the "Time Range to clear" drop-down, choose "Everything"
4. Under "Details" check the "cache" box.  Click "Clear Now"  

Microsoft Edge Browser 

1. Click the dot menu at the upper right  
2. Click "Settings"
3. Under "Clear Browsing Data" click "Choose what to clear"
4. Check the following boxes and click the "Clear" button at the bottom:

Internet Explorer versions 9, 10, 11  (If you are running version 7 or 8, please upgrade to the latest version before using Blackboard)

1. Push the ALT key on the keyboard to reveal the menus at the top.
2. From the Tools menu, select Internet Options...
3. Choose the General tab.
4. Under Browsing history, click Delete...  (here: https://goo.gl/Xosg1X )
5. Next to "Temporary Internet Files", click Delete files...
6. Check the following boxes: https://goo.gl/pEmtTi  and click the Delete button
7. Click Close and/or OK to exit.
8. Make sure you are not in "Compatibility View" mode (see information here)

Internet Explorer 6, 7, 8 (not recommended for Blackboard, please update browser)

Firefox for Mac

Current firefox: 

1. From the Firefox menu, select History...
2. From the sheet that drops down, select Clear Recent History.  Select Everything from the "Time Range to Clear" drop down menu.  Select the check boxes for "Browsing & Download History", "Forms & Search History", "Cookies", "Cache" then Select "Clear Now".

Older versions of Firefox (not recommended for Blackboard): 

1. From the Firefox menu, select Preferences...
2. From the sheet that drops down, select Privacy. In 2.0, click Clear Now. In 1.5, click Clear Cache Now. In 1.0, next to Cache, click the Clear button, and then OK.

Safari for Mac

1. From the Safari menu, select Reset Safari...
2. When prompted, click Reset to confirm that you want to reset the browser.

How to download your roster from Blackboard

To download your the list of students in your Blackboard course:


1.  Go to Grade Center > Full Grade Center

2. Click the "Work Offline" button on the right.






This will download a list of all the students in the Grade Center that you can open in Excel.



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Letter Grades in the Blackboard Grade Center

Blackboard can display grades as numbers, percentages, text, and letters according to a customizable grading schema.

Internally, Blackboard stores all grades in the Grade Center as numbers, but they can be displayed as letters and entered as letters if desired.

The way a column displays grades is decided by the primary and secondary display options, which can be set using the “Edit Column Information” settings from the column heading drop-down under Grade Center > Full Grade Center in your Blackboard course.

Students can see only the primary display schema.  The secondary one is for the instructor’s reference only.

The way Blackboard maps letters to numbers is fully controllable by the instructor using the Manage > Grading Schemas option in the Grade Center.

There you will find a schema called “Letter” that you can edit.

When you edit the schema you will see the percentage ranges for each letter, and you will see what numeric percentage value Blackboard will use to calculate if you enter a letter for a grade.

You can make any adjustments necessary.


When you enter grades into cells in the Grade Center, you enter values according to the column’s primary display schema.  So if it’s set to score or percentage, you must enter a number.  If it’s set to letter, you must enter a letter.

As a general rule, we recommend entering grades as numbers since that way you will always be able to understand the calculations that result from them.

If you prefer displaying grades as letters, you can always change the primary display to letters later when you are done entering the grades, for the students to see.

We hope this helps explain letter grades in Blackboard. For more information on Grading Schemas in Blackboard, please see the Blackboard documentation here.

How to Access Survey Results in Blackboard

You can access the Survey results by using the drop-down in the header row of the column that represents the survey in the Gradebook.

Instructions:

Find the column for the Survey in Grade Center > Full Grade Center.  Click the arrow that appears when you move your mouse over the column name and choose Attempts Statistics from the drop-down menu.

      

       

You will now see the results of your survey on a page.

Note:  Surveys in Blackboard are always anonymous, meaning that you cannot attribute specific answers to specific students.  If you need to create a non-anonymous survey in Blackboard, instructions are here.

We hope this information is helpful.

How to Add a Librarian to your Blackboard Course

On the Northeastern Blackboard instance, it is now possible to add a librarian to your course to assist with review or editing of your course material.

Librarians may add, edit, and delete course material in your course, but may not remove students or other users from your course, and do not have access to view or edit student grades.

Here's how to add a Librarian to your course/organization:

1.  Go into your course/org site in Blackboard and at the lower left click Users and Groups > Users.

2.  Click Enroll User > Find Users to Enroll.

3.  Click the “Browse” button and search for the person by Last Name or Email.  

If you have trouble finding the person, make sure you are not searching by username.  If a person has a drop in the course, you will not be able to enroll them.  In that case, contact help@neu.edu.


4.  Select "Librarian" from the Role drop-down and click the Submit button.

That's it.  The person you enrolled now has access to your course material.  You may see a list of who is enrolled in the course by clicking Users and Groups > Users > GO

How to Post a Cloud File Link in Blackboard from OneDrive

The best way make a large file available to your students in Blackboard is to upload it to a cloud service such as OneDrive and then post a link to the file in your course.

Here's how:

1.  In your browser, go to Northeastern's OneDrive instance at Northeastern's OneDrive service is available at northeastern-my.sharepoint.com.  Create a folder there and upload the file you want to host into the folder.

2.  Go to the Northeastern Blackboard site at blackboard.neu.edu and navigate to your course.

3.  Make sure "Edit Mode" is toggled to ON at the upper right

4.  Navigate to the Content Area in which you want to post the file link (e.g. Course Material)

5.  From the "Build Content" menu, select "Upload Cloud Content"

6.  Type a name for your link and select the "OneDrive for Business" cloud service

7.   Select "Link from Cloud"

8.  Click "Browse" to locate your file within OneDrive.  

Proceed to browse to the file you want to post and click the file name.

If this is the first time you have logged into OneDrive, you will need to proceed through the authentication process using your myNEU account, which will return you to step 6.

9.  Click the "Submit" button.  A link to the file will be posted into your Blackboard course

Students can now click your link to view or download the file.

Here is a video showing the process for linking to a video file in OneDrive: http://screencast.com/t/GmX4rPzbcGNg

We hope this is a helpful guide.  Please let us know if you have any questions.

ATS@neu.edu

Send Email to Multiple Courses at Once, and Post Content to Multiple Courses at Once in Blackboard

Instructors:

Do you want to post content to several of your course sections at once in Blackboard?

Would you like to send an email message to several of your sections at once?

You can by using the "Multiple Courses" box on the Courses tab in Blackboard.

From there, you can send email to multiple sections, post content or links to multiple sections, even create assignments in several sections simultaneously.

We hope this tip is useful to you.  Please let us know if you have any questions about it.

ATS@neu.edu


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Fixing Cookie Settings In Your Browser for Blackboard

Incorrect settings in your browser can cause a number of problems in Blackboard, not limited to:

- Blackboard asking you to log in again when you are in the middle of a session
- Turnitin prompting for log in
- Delays in uploading submissions in Turnitin
- Trouble posting to Blogs, Wikis, or Journals

If you have experienced any of these issues, it may be due to your browser's "cookie" configuration. Here are some fixes to try:

A. Configure your browser to accept cookies

Chrome (recommended for Blackboard)

1. Open Google Chrome and click the Chrome menu () upper-right.

2. Click "Settings"

3. Click "Show Advanced Settings..."
4. Click the "Content Settings..." button.
5. Select "Allow local data to be set".  Make sure "Block third-party cookies" is not checked.
6. Click OK

Firefox (recommended for Blackboard):

1. If the menu bar is not displayed, press and release the ALT key on keyboard to show the menu

2. Click Tools menu / Options / Privacy
3. Select "Remember history" from the "History" section

4.  Click OK

Internet Explorer

1. If the menu bar is not displayed, press and release the ALT key on keyboard to show the menu
2. Click Tools menu / Internet Options / Privacy tab
3. Configure as follows:

Click Advanced
Check Override Automatic cookie handling
Accept First party cookies
Accept Third party cookies
Always allow session cookies

4. Click OK, OK

Safari

1. Click on the Safari-menu in Safari (or Edit menu on Safari for PC).
2. Click on the Preferences... item in the menu.  A new window opens.
3. Click on the Security icon near the top of the window.
4. Under Accept Cookies, select "Always".  If you do not see this setting, continue to the next step.
5.  Click on the "Privacy" icon.
6.  Under "Block Cookies" click "Never".

B. Empty your browser's cache:

See instructions here:  http://blackboardtips.blogspot.com/2008/02/how-to-empty-your-browser-cache.html

C. Upgrade to the latest version of your browser

• Mozilla Firefox: http://www.getfirefox.com to download and install Firefox
• Chrome: http://chrome.google.com to download Chrome.
• Internet Explorer: http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/internet-explorer/products/ie/home 

We hope this information is helpful. Thanks for using Blackboard.

How to Create a "Voice Board" in your Blackboard Course

A "Voice Board" is a voice-based threaded discussion that you can create in your Blackboard course.

Here is a video showing how to create a Voice Board in your course:

http://screencast.com/t/65IaXcBbGi





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Have Students Upload Videos for an Assignment

Students can submit videos in response to an Assignment that you have posted in Blackboard.

Here are instructions for students for how to upload a video in response to an Assignment:

Students: 

1. Go to http://youtube.com and click the "Sign in" box at the upper-right here:  http://screencast.com/t/PHxSveLb
2. Sign in using your Google or Gmail account (not your myNEU account)
3. Click the "Upload" button at the top and upload the video as "Unlisted":  http://screencast.com/t/invknsBLT9L
4. Go to http://blackboard.neu.edu and navigate to your course in Blackboard
5. Find the Assignment link and click on it
6. Click the "Write Submission" button:  http://screencast.com/t/naJ5O67Ab
7. Click the chevron on the right to expand the toolbar:  http://screencast.com/t/zxDT2Vaa
8. Click the video button on the toolbar that looks like a webcam:  http://screencast.com/t/QPgXjvATNooH
9. If YouTube thinks you are not signed in, click the "Sign in to Youtube" button: http://screencast.com/t/tlDm7Afx
10. Remember to use your Google or Gmail account, not your myNEU account credentials
11. Click the "Accept" button:  http://screencast.com/t/QtXdtdyEXVV1
12. Click the "Browse" tab and click the "Insert" button for the video:  http://screencast.com/t/ymUyHkGBSV
13. Click "Insert Link", then click "Insert":  http://screencast.com/t/UrHCt10qMZy
14. Click the "Submit" button:  http://screencast.com/t/8ZcUnO8PP2

The instructor can view the videos as follows:

Instructor:

As the instructor, you can view the videos and grade by clicking the drop-down in the Full Grade Center cell, then click the Attempt:

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Blackboard IM isn't listing all of my classes

Blackboard IM is an Instant Messaging client from Blackboard that lists the classes you are enrolled in and lets you chat with your classmates.

You can get Blackboard IM from within your Blackboard course in Tools > Blackboard IM

Once you have Blackboard IM, if your Blackboard IM client is not listing some of your courses, try these steps to fix it.

1.  In Blackboard IM, click the "Blackboard IM" menu, then click exit, like this:

http://screencast.com/t/yur1nBN48l

2.  Restart Blackboard IM and log in.  Check the "Classmates" tab.  If your classes are there, you're good.  If not, keep going.

3.  Click the "Blackboard IM" menu, then click "Manage Account", here: 

http://screencast.com/t/QsiF0qOYi5jG

4.  Log in using your Blackboard IM username and password (which might be different from your myNEU credentials).  If you have trouble, use the forgot password link here:  http://screencast.com/t/Z8F3vrd7

5.  Once you are logged in, under "Course Settings", check the boxes for all of your courses:

http://screencast.com/t/MiXcsF8h

6.  Back in Blackboard IM, check the "Classmates" tab.  If your classes are there, you're good.  If not, go back and repeat steps (1) and (2) again.

We hope this information is helpful.

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How to Embed a Tegrity Video in Blackboard

You can embed a Tegrity recording in a small player in any Content Area in your Blackboard course. Here's how:

1.  Access the Tegrity recording.  

 Select the box next to the date of the video you would like to embed.

 

2.  Click on Recording Tasks dropdown menu. Then click on Share Recording.

 

3.  A new window will appear. Uncheck the box Do Not Allow Anonymous Users to View the Recording. This will enable students to view the Tegrity directly from the Blackboard site without having to login to Tegrity again and will provide you with the Embed option.

 

4.  Now you can copy the Embed code by highlighting it with your mouse, then copying it (right-click copy or CTRL+C (Windows) or Command+C (Mac) on the keyboard).  Then Click OK.

5.  Return to the main page of your Blackboard course and click on the Content Area into which you would like to post your Tegrity recording.

6.  Click on Build Content then click Item.

 

7.  From here you can enter the Name of the video and type in a Text description if desired.

 

8.  Next, you will need to access the HTML code editor in order to paste the embed code you copied. To do so, click on the Toggle HTML Source Mode icon in the Text editor toolbar.

 

9.  Make sure that your mouse cursor is flashing a couple of lines below the text you entered. Then paste in the embed code (right-click paste or CTRL+V on keyboard).

10.  You can also Attach File, such as an associated transcript of the video or PowerPoint file that the video demonstrates. Select the options Permit Users to View this Content (to set link availability), Track Number of Views (to monitor student viewing of the video), and Select Date and Time Restrictions (to set specific dates for the link to appear).

 

11  When you are finished setting the options, click Submit.

 

12.  Your new embedded video will appear in your course content area.

13.  Done.  Now you can see how it looks for students by using the Student View option.

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Columns are missing in the Grade Center and/or you Can't Scroll

If you created a column in the Grade Center of Blackboard, and can't find it, it may be hiding because of your browser zoom settings or your MacOS scrollbar settings.
Try these methods to fix it:

1.  If you're using a Mac, Make sure your Mac preferences are set to display the scroll bars as follows:


a.    Launch System Preferences, either from the Dock or from the Apple menu. b.    Once the System Preferences window opens, select the General preference pane. c.    The middle section of the General preference pane controls when scroll bars appear and a few additional scroll bar options. d.    Select "Always" from the Show Scroll Bars options.


Once your scroll bars are back, use the horizontal scroll to scroll to the right in the Grade Center to find your missing columns.


2.  If you are using Google Chrome, make sure your view zoom is set to 100%. Blackboard has a bug where it doesn't display the rightmost column in the Grade Center in Chrome if your zoom is set to anything other than 100%.


3.  The column you're looking for may be hidden.  You can unhide hidden columns by going to the Manage > Column Organization option here:  http://screencast.com/t/MxsDz8vbPL .  Unhide the columns by selecting them and choosing the "unhide selected columns" option at the bottom.

We hope this information is helpful.




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How to Sync your Blackboard Calendar to your Outlook Web Mail / Office365 Calendar

You can subscribe to your Blackboard calendar from within Office 365 / Outlook Web Mail.  Below is a video that shows how.  Scroll down for written instructions.

Once you subscribe to your Blackboard calendar from within Outlook, new events in Blackboard will automatically sync to Outlook within an hour or so of being added to your Blackboard courses.

Link to video: http://goo.gl/1spKgx



Instructions:

1.  Go to Blackboard, click the "Home" tab, then click "Calendar"
2.  Use the "Get External Calendar Link" button and copy the link to the clipboard
3.  Go to Office365 at outlook.office365.com.  Log in and click the "Calendar" option.
4.  Right-click the "Other Calendars" link and select "Open Calendar".
5.  Paste the link from Blackboard into the Internet Calendar box and click "Open"

Your Blackboard calendar will be automatically synced to Outlook/Office365 going forward.

How to Sync your Blackboard Calendar to your Google Calendar

You can subscribe to your Blackboard calendar from within Google Calendar.  Below is a video that shows how.  Scroll down for written instructions.

Once you subscribe to your Blackboard calendar from within Google, new events in Blackboard will automatically sync to Google Calendar within an hour or so of being added to your Blackboard courses.

Link to video: http://goo.gl/IMtNLm



Instructions:

1.  Go to Blackboard, click the "Home" tab, then click "Calendar"
2.  Use the "Get External Calendar Link" button and copy the link to the clipboard
3.  Go to Google Calendar at calendar.google.com
4.  Next to "Other Calendars", click the dropdown and select "Add by URL"
5.  Paste the link from Blackboard into the URL box and click "Add Calendar"

Your Blackboard calendar will be automatically synced to Google going forward.

How to Post a Link to a Google Spreadsheet into your Blackboard Course

Google Sheets can be used to allow students in a Blackboard course to edit a spreadsheet collaboratively.

Here's a video showing how to create and post the link in Blackboard:

Link to video: http://goo.gl/EHiW7S

Creating a Non-anonymous Survey in Blackboard

Surveys in Blackboard are anonymous, which means the instructor cannot see which specific student answered a particular way in the survey results.

If you need to create a survey for which you need to attribute specific answers to specific students (a non-anonymous survey), the way to do it in Blackboard is to create a Test and call it a "survey".

To create a non-anonymous survey (Test):

1. Select Course Tools > Tests, Surveys, and Pools from the course management control panel.

2. Select Tests, then Build Test

3. Provide a name, description and student instructions for the non-anonymous survey.  We suggest including the word "Survey" in the name so students will know this is not a test.

4. Next, from the Question Settings page set the Default point value to 0 because this is a survey, not a test, so the questions so have no numeric value.

5. For this example survey, we created one question as an Opinion Scale / Likert question:

6. Since the non-anonymous survey is technically created as a Test, you must select a "correct" answer.  In this example, we select the "Not Applicable" answer as the correct answer.  Since this is a survey, there really is no correct answer, so it does not matter which answer you designate as correct.

7. To deploy the non anonymous survey, set the Make Link Available option to "Yes" and in the "Show test results and feedback to students" section, uncheck the "score per question" checkbox and set only the "Submitted" check box as shown to ensure that the student does not see which answer you designated as the "correct" answer you selected when creating the test:

8. If the survey is already deployed, you can Edit the test options by clicking the drop-down menu to the right of the test link:

9. Here is a video of the entire process.