When are blackboard courses created? Can I have mine created early?

Blackboard courses are created automatically by syncing Blackboard with SIS. This normally starts about two weeks before the start of term. This is to give the Registrar time to close out the previous semester, and to allow departmentsto assign as many instructors as possible to sections originally listed as "STAFF." Since instructors will not have access to courses still listed as "STAFF" at the time they are created in Blackboard, waiting until 10-14 days before start of term ensures that as many faculty as possible have access to their courses by start of term.

We realize that this can be a slight inconvenience for some faculty who teach sections of several different classes, or who may be out of town until just prior to the beginning of the term. If you are in one of these situations, we recommend that you prepare the materials you wish to post to blackboard in advance, whenever it is convenient for you. If you have all your materials organized and redy to go, physically uploading a semester's worth of course documents should take no more than an hour or so.

Courses cannot be created early, because only automatically-generated courses correctly enroll students from SIS.

1) Full course title;
2) Full course ID #,
3) section # (e.g. 003, 01A, etc.);
4) School or department for each;
5) Semester the course will be taught (Fall, Spring, Summer).

You can enroll new students (i.e. those who did not originally appear in your roster on Blackboard) by:1) going to your control panel for the course;
2) then to the USER MANAGEMENT area (upper right);
3) clicking "enroll user;"
4) searching by last name (be sure "LAST NAME" is clicked NOT username),
5) then checking the box corresponding to correct student;
6) finally click submit (at the bottom right).

OPTIONALLY you may allow students to enroll in your course between specific dates/times or send you Email requesting you to ADD them as above:

1) go to the control panel;
2) go to the COURSE OPTIONS area at the lower left;
3) click SETTINGS;
4) click ENROLLMENT OPTIONS;
5) click either the options to allow students to Email the instructor OR;
6) click "SELF ENROLLMENT;"
7) set the START and END dates you allow for either of these options;
8) click SUBMIT at the lower right

How do I remove a student who has dropped the course (DROP)?

You may drop a student from your course in Blackboard manually in the following way:

1) go to your control panel for the course and to USER MANAGEMENT (upper right);
2) click "REMOVE USERS FROM COURSE;"
3) search by last name (be sure "LAST NAME" is clicked NOT username),
4) then check the box at the left corresponding to correct student;
5) type A "Yes" (note capital "Y", lower case "es") at the bottom right of the page, above "submit;"
6) click submit;
7) confirm the removal (you will be warned twice that this is final) when asked

What information must I give my students to log onto my course after they have been enrolled?

1) the username matches his/her lotus notes username;
2) the password is their original 4 digit Oasis pin number;
3) they log onto the same site as the faculty: http://fordham.blackboard.com;
4) if they have forgotten their pin number, they should call the help desk at extension 3999;
5) once they have logged onto Blackboard, they should see your course listed at the right under "my course;"
6) they should then click your course title which will bring them right into your course.

AND you should also give out the more complete Student User guide we have prepared for you: Student Guide.

How do I find my students' usernames and how do I print out my class list?

The student's username is USUALLY their last name, or if there are more than one by that name, their first initial + last name. You can go to your control panel and find their usernames simply and print out your class list with their full names + usernames:1) go to the control panel for each course;
2) go to user management (upper right hand corner of control panel);
3) click LIST/MODIFY users;
4) click SEARCH just under the "LIST ALL" tab;
5) if you want to print this list, go to FILE then PRINT on your browser's tool bar.

You may have to go to a second screen to see the whole class if it's a large class --- you can do this by clicking the little numbers on the lower left on the bottom of the page where it says: RESULTS: 1 2 (The numbers indicate how many pages the class list takes up, underlined numbers are the page(s) you are NOT viewing at the moment).

What level of access do the "user roles" other than instructor and student give someone?

TEACHING ASSISTANT: has access to most options within the "Control Panel;"
COURSE BUILDER: is able to add content to the course via the CONTENT area and the COURSE TOOLS;
GRADER: has access to all areas under "ASSESSMENT;"
GUEST: has viewing access to student areas of the course but may not participate in any way, not even in the forums.

Why do students not see my powerpoint slides?

If you upload a powerpoint presentation to Blackboard, your students must have the full powerpoint program in the machine on which they wish to view it. If they do not own powerpoint the easiest and best solution is to have them download the free powerpoint viewer from microsoft at viewer.

Another solution is to save your powerpoint presentation as a "web archive" (an .mht or .mhtml file) - use the "save as" feature in powerpoint and then post it to blackboard. This feature may create a much larger file which may take a longer time to download.

Finally, be sure to encourage all to use the very latest (and free) version of IE Explorer or Netscape to avoid compatibility problems.

I tried to upload a file to the Digital Drop Box or retreive a file from the Digital Drop Box, but I got a message "The server encountered an internal error..."

Make sure the name of the file you are uploading is shorter than 20 characters and contains no spaces or punctuation or special characters such as # ! ? : “.