Blackboard

About Blackboard at WC

Overview

Everyone at Washington College has a Blackboard account and each semester course shells are created for every class being taught.

Your account

To login to Blackboard you should use your NetID and password. (ie., your email username and password). To login to Blackboard go to:

http://blackboard.washcoll.edu

or, click on the Blackboard link provided on the Washington College home page or the OIT home page.

Each semester we create Blackboard sites for every course offered by the college. The status of these sites is set to unavailable - this means faculty will see links to the courses they're teaching, but students cannot see the courses until the instructors make them available.

Building a course

Each semester course shells are created on the Blackboard server for every course being taught. Automatically, upon logging in to Blackboard, instructors will see links to any courses they are teaching.

The Control Panel

The template is not meant to constrain your choices - you can rename, remove and in other ways modify most of the elements which have anything to do with your course structure. Go to the Control Panel to make these changes.

Buttons - Manage Course Menu

Using the course menu you can select and name sections for primary course navigation.To access the Manage Course Menu go to: Control Panel : Course Options : Manage Course Menu

The course menu is also used to control access to various course sections - some sections you may want to open to guests, others you may close off to everyone except enrolled students. At a more global setting, you can close off the entire course to anyone who isn't enrolled - by default when we create the courses we set them to no guest access. You can change this setting by going to:
Control Panel : Course Options: Settings : Guest Access

Course Design

To add a banner or otherwise change the look of your site go to: Control Panel : Settings : Course Design

Adding Content

Content can be added to most areas using either the Control Panel or the Edit View. Content comes in many forms, such as original content added to a text box or quizzes generated within Blackboard, Word documents, pdf files, image files (jpg, gif, or png,) audio files (mp3,) web sites, links, or Flash modules (swf.)

Files which are being uploaded should include file extensions (.doc, .pdf, .jpg, .ppt, etc.) to ensure they will be readable. Keep in mind that certain file formats are more portable than others - while anyone with a web browser is usually able to view jpg or pdf files, PowerPoint, Word and Excel are more application specific.

Set the Course to Available

To set the course to available, go to: Control Panel : Course Options : Settings : Course Availability

If you see (unavailable) next to your course link, this means students cannot access the course.

Troubleshooting

Some problems have quick fixes - check below to see if the troubleshooting section has an answer to your problem.

I can't access the Blackboard server.

  1. Can you access any other internet sites, such as Yahoo or Google? If not, you may need to fix your internet connection.
  2. Are you sure you're going to the correct web address? Click on the link below to make certain:

    3. http://blackboard.washcoll.edu

  3. Are you getting any messages from your browser or the server, such as internal server error or no server found? There may be a problem with the server - contact the HelpDesk.

I can't log in to Blackboard.

  1. Are you using your current NetID and password? Don't forget that changing your email password will also change your Blackboard passsword.
  2. Are you typing the information correctly, especially paying attention to upper and lower case letters? The password information is case-sensitive.

I can login, but I don't see a link to my course.

  1. If you're an instructor, contact the HelpDesk or the Blackboard administrator.
  2. If you're a student, check and make sure your professor is using Blackboard, and that they've set the course status to available. If all these conditions are met, and you still don't see your course, contact the HelpDesk or the Blackboard administrator.