Blackboard Tutorials for Instructors

The following videos and descriptions are provided by Blackboard Inc. and will open in a new window.

Getting Started

Getting Oriented with Blackboard Learn

Instructors, take a quick tour of your Blackboard Learn course environment. Find out how to access your course controls, add and edit the course menu, and edit the default Home Page.

Global Navigation and My Blackboard

This video shows how to access global navigation, navigate the user menu and My Blackboard.

Student Preview

With Student Preview, you can experience your course exactly as your students do. Use Student Preview to review the course content and validate the course behaviors, such as those that control the availability of course content, or require a particular interaction from the student to be triggered. This tutorial will show you how to enter student preview mode, exit student preview mode, and delete the preview user account.

How to Quickly Jump From One Blackboard Course to Another

Use the course-to-course navigation function to quickly jump from one Blackboard course to another. By using this drop-down list, you can move from a tool in one course to the same tool in another course.

Using the Blackboard Calendar

This tutorial explains the features students and instructors use in the Blackboard Learn 9.1 calendar.

Adding Content

How To Add Content to a Learning Module

A learning module is an organized collection of content presented together. Learning modules are shells in which other content items such as files, folders and tools are added. This tutorial shows you how to add an item with an image to a learning module and place your new item in the table of contents.

Attaching Files from Course Files in Blackboard

This tutorial shows you how to attach files to content items from course files.

How to Add Partner Content and Textbooks to Blackboard Learn

Add partner content, and include information about your textbooks in your course. The textbook information is also included in the course catalog where prospective students can access this information prior to enrollment. This tutorial shows you how to add partner content and textbook information to your course.

Communication and Collaboration

How to Use Blackboard Discussions

Participate in lively discussions to collaborate and share ideas. This tutorial explains the features instructors and students use to interact in Blackboard Learn discussions.

How to Create Discussion Board Forums

With the discussion board tool, course members can replicate the robust discussions that take place in the traditional classroom. This tutorial will show you how to access the discussion board, create forums, select the forum settings to suit your needs, and reorder forums in the discussion board.

How to Send Email in Blackboard Learn

Send email directly from Blackboard to any member of your course. Use the convenient email tool to communicate with everyone enrolled in your course. Email sent from Blackboard is received and stored in your email program, not in Blackboard.

How to Create Announcements in Your Course

Keeping your students informed on timely issues in your course is critically important to their continued success. This video shows you how to create an announcement in your Learn course, how to immediately send notification of the announcement to your students, and how to reorder announcements so they appear in your desired order.

Assignments

How to Create a Rubric for Grading Student Work

Learn how to create a rubric for assessing and grading student work. Using a rubric to grade your students allows you to set specific criteria for achievement and share expectations with your students. Using a rubric helps keep grading consistent and fair.

How to Grade Using a Rubric

Rubrics can be linked to many types of graded content. Instructors use rubrics to ensure consistent evaluation and can show rubrics to students to clarify expectations. This tutorial shows you how to access a rubric that has been associated with a graded discussion and how to use that rubric for grading.

How to Use SafeAssign in Assignments

SafeAssign is now integrated into regular Learn Assignments. With this integration, almost all assignment features are available with SafeAssign services, including allowing multiple attempts, anonymous grading, delegated grading, and the ability to assign to groups.

How to Grade Student Collaboration Inline

You can view student contributions while assigning grades in discussions, blogs, journals, and wikis. This tutorial shows you how to access a gradable interactive tool, view student posts, and assign grades. You can utilize the same process in discussions, blogs, journals, and wikis.

Anonymous and Delegated Grading

When creating an assignment, you can enable anonymous grading to ensure impartiality. You can also share grading responsibilities with teaching assistants, graders, and other instructors. Additionally, you can allow multiple graders to grade the same assignment to further promote reliability in grading. This tutorial will show you how to add an assignment, enable anonymous grading, and delegate grading responsibilities.

Assessments

How To Create a Test in Blackboard Learn

Learn how to create a test, add questions to a test, and make your test available to students. Find out how to search and reuse questions from other tests in your course.

How to Set Test Options

Setting test options enables you to control information about the test, including instructions, availability, timer settings, feedback, and presentation. This tutorial will show you how to add a test within a Content Area and set test options.

How to Create a Test Question

Blackboard Learn provides a variety of different types of questions to choose from when creating tests. This tutorial explains the basic workflow for creating test questions, as well as adding meta data and tags to the question so that it can be found and reused at a later date.

How to Build a Pool of Test Questions

Pools of test questions are used to create a collection of questions. Pools group questions so that they can be imported and exported. Pools are also used to create Random Blocks and Question Sets for use in tests and surveys. This tutorial will show you how to build a pool, set details, and add questions to it.

How to Upload Test Questions from Microsoft Excel

Instructors may author questions offline, save them in a specially formatted text file, and then upload questions into an existing test, survey, or pool. Once uploaded, questions may be edited and used like the questions that have been authored in the system. This tutorial will show you how to format a question file, access a test, and upload the question file to the test.

How to Create a Random Block of Test Questions

Create a unique test for each student by adding a random block of questions. Random blocks pull a set of questions from one or more question pools into your test. Each student's test will pull a selection of questions from the pool at random as the test is presented. Using random blocks is one way to prevent cheating because students will not take the same test.

Course Management

How to Customize the Grade Center

Instructors can customize their view of the Grade Center by hiding columns to focus on specific data and reduce scrolling. Hidden columns are not deleted from the Grade Center, and you can show and reorder them at any time. This tutorial will show you how to customize the view of the Grade Center by hiding a column, accessing the Column Organization page, showing a hidden column, and reordering columns.

Color Code the Grade Center

You can use Grading Color Codes to apply background and text color to items in the grade center that meet specific criteria. Adding color rules to the Grade Center provides visual indicators to help you interpret information quickly. This tutorial will show you how to enable color coding in the Grade Center, and set color coding options.

The Attendance Tool in Blackboard

This help page covers some basics about the attendance tool. The tool is being continuously "improved", so the MHCC OL blog is currently sitting tight before we create any visual guides or best practices. As of this writing, when you copy a course shell with attendance set up, the columns are included, but the dates must be manually updated. Running Date Management does not affect attendance column dates.

Creating and Managing Groups in Blackboard

This video tutorial will get you started with basics about creating break-out groups in Blackboard. Note that you can find resources for Group best practices available in Faculty Resourcesm such as Benefits of Group Work 

The Retention Center in Blackboard

This video tutorial shows how to use access and use the retention center in Blackboard to monitor student performance and take action to help students succeed.

Using Item Analysis in Blackboard Learn

This video shows how to use item analysis to measure the effectiveness of test questions.This video shows how to use item analysis to to measure the effectiveness of test questions.

How to Create an Item Statistics Report

Item statistics provide detailed usage information about your content, such as how many times users viewed an item and when it was accessed. You can enable statistics tracking at any time, and begin collecting data from that moment on. This tutorial will show you how to access statistics tracking, turn it on for a content item, and view the statistics report.

Automatically Adjust Dates in a Copied Course (Date Management)

Quickly transition your course from one semester to the next by automatically changing old availability dates, due dates, and adaptive release dates to new ones relevant to your new course.