City Tech
Instructional Technology &
Media Services
Blackboard Tutorial for
Students
How to find your courses
After you log-in to Blackboard by visiting CUNY
website at http://www.cuny.edu=>Portal Login/Blackboard/eSIMS=>Blackboard 8 Direct
>>type in your username and password, look for
My Courses module and you will see your
courses.
Course Information: General information, such
as the syllabus, is often posted here
Staff Information: You may find office hours
and contact info from the instructor
Course Documents: Handouts, lecture notes,
or and other pertinent files are found here
Assignments: Homework, quizzes, and surveys
appear here
Communication: The discussion board, email,
live chats, group pages and other
communication tools are located here
External Links: Your instructor links to Web
sites here
Tools: View grades, personal information, the
calendar and other information here
Communication:
Discussion Board: Click on Communication
and then Discussion Board
Getting Started
Once you are in a course you will see a menu,
such as the following:
Click on the Forum to view it. Forum is an area
where a topic is discussed
Click on Thread to add a thread. Thread is the
initial post and any replies to it.
Announcements: You will see announcements
from your instructor, such as test dates
Name your subject, type in your message, add
an attachment if desired, and click Submit.
NOTE: DO NOT CLICK SAVE.CLICKING
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SAVE WILL NOT SUBMIT YOUR WORK TO
YOUR INSTRUCTOR. MAKE SURE YOU
CLICK SUBMIT.
To subscribe to a post and receive a notification
in your email, select a post and click Subscribe
from the action bar. To unsubscribe, just click on
the Unsubscribe button.
Your instructor can flag important posts. If a post
has a flag, make sure to read it.
Click on the subject thread to view the posting,
or message, within the thread. (Do not click on
the author to view a posting.)
Your instructor might also allow you to rate
each other‟s posts. Click on the drop-down
arrow, specify the number of stars, and click
Rate. You can view the overall rating along with
your rating.
Click Reply to reply to someone. Click Quote to
include the message you are replying to.
Collaboration:
Your message can appear on the top or bottom
of the quote. It‟s better to type it on the top so
it‟s read right away.
The virtual classroom and chat are included
here. Both are used when your professor and
classmates are simultaneously online with you.
The chat is a text chat. The virtual classroom is
Java-enabled.
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Group Pages:
If your instructor created groups in your
Blackboard course, click on Group Pages (within
Communication) and click on a group.
After selecting recipients, type in a subject, your
message, and click Submit.
You can view your incoming messages in the
Inbox, and outgoing in Sent folders.
Your instructor enables your options. These
include Group Discussion Board, Collaboration
(Virtual Classroom), exchanging files, and
sending email to other members of your group.
Those outside of your group will NOT receive
this information or access.
To exchange files with other group member(s),
click on File Exchange and click Add File.
Browse to locate the file, then click Submit.
Roster:
To view a list of students in your course or to
view their web pages, click on Roster, Search,
and select a particular student's name:
Send Email:
Blackboard allows you to send email messages.
You receive email in your college email account
(City Tech email).
Tools Menu
Messages:
You can send messages to your classmates and
instructor without going through email. Click on
Messages and click New Message.
Calendar:
You can use Calendar to view events by day,
week, month or year. Click on Calendar and on
Quick Jump to view an event.
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Under your assessment name, click on
View/Complete Assessment.
Homepage:
To edit Your Homepage, click on Homepage,
type in desired info, and hit Submit.
Provide a response to the given question(s), and
click
You will see “The question response has been
submitted.” Click
(To view a Homepage you need to go to the
Roster in the Communication menu.)
If you have to attach a file, choose your file next
to attach local file.
My Grades
Click on My Grades from Tools menu to view
grades
When the assessment is complete, click OK to
return to the question list.
Evaluating Peers
Self and peer assessment
You will not be able to see your evaluation or
the evaluation of others until the evaluation
period has ended.
In the home tab, go to My Courses. Click on
your course.
When evaluation period is open, click
Assignments.
On the menu, choose Assignments.
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Go to the assessment that you completed and
click View/Complete Assessment.
You will see your name. Click on your name.
If other students are evaluating you, you will be
able to see your score and the score that other
students have given you, as well as their
comments. Each question you„ve answered will
be in this same format. Click next to view your
evaluation of the other questions. Click
to finish viewing your evaluation.
Submitting your work: Safe Assignment
Provide feedback in the criteria box and score all
of the criteria by clicking the check box next to
Allocate points. Click Save and next criteria.
Continue until you are finished with all of the
questions in the evaluation.
Safe Assignment is a plagiarism prevention
service. It is important not to use other people‟s
work unless you give them proper credit. Your
professor will want you to submit papers that
you wrote through Safe Assignment. Be sure to
credit any sources properly before submitting
papers.
On the menu, choose Assignments.
Once you‟ve reached the last question, you can
click save and submit.
Under your assignment, click on
View/Complete.
You will see the message Evaluations can be
modified or reviewed until the end date for
evaluation. Click
Once the evaluation date has ended, you will be
able to see your assessment. Your score will be
on the top of the page underneath results.
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At the top of the page you will see upload safe
assignment. Be sure to read the Terms of use
before you submit your assignment.
In your files section, enter your comments (if
you have any) for the paper. Click browse to
attach your file. Once you have attached your
Under your assignment, click the View /
Complete
file, click
Click the
button and locate your
assignment. Click
if you need to
add more than one file. Click the
button
to remove any unwanted files. Repeat this step
for any documents you want to add/remove.
Once you have added all your files you have
three options:
You will be notified when your assessment has
been submitted.
Submitting an Assignment
Note: Digital Dropbox is not available in
Blackboard 8.
Your instructor might have created an area for
you to submit assignments. On the menu,
choose Assignments.
1.
if you want to leave
that screen without submitting
anything
2.
allows you to save a
draft file to the assignments
page so you can edit it later, but
your work has not been
handed in and cannot be
viewed by your instructor
3.
once your paper is
complete and ready to be
graded by your instructor
Blackboard Scholar
Scholar is a type of social bookmarking site,
which can be used to share Web sites with your
peers.
1. From your Blackboard course, click the
Scholar tab. The Scholar Home page appears
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2. Complete the required fields and check the
boxes to agree to the terms and to indicate you
are over 13 years of age.
To add a stream of bookmarks to your site:
4. Click Create User.

From your homepage click add a
stream.

Choose a stream from your saved
search.

If you don’t see a saved search, you will
have to start a new search by clicking
start new search>typing in a keyword or
tag>and clicking search>once your
results show up, click save.

Click add this stream.

The stream will show up on the home
page.
5. Enter your desired profile information.
6.
Click OK.
Once inside you will see your homepage.
On the other side of the homepage, you have
notifications, tags and profile info. Notifications
generally tell you if you have any new messages
or invitations. Tag clouds allow you to tag items
with a keyword so that they‟re easily accessible
Adding a bookmark:

From your homepage click add a
bookmark.
Tags are standard tag names, Discipline Tags
pertain to an area of study, Course Tags are
tags for the course you‟re enrolled in.

Fill out the form. Be sure to type in the
bookmark name and the URL that it links to.

You may also enter any tags that you want
for this bookmark.

Click save.

Your bookmark will show up at the top in the
bookmarks area.

Similar to Myspace and Facebook, you
can add a profile picture and let other
users know of your status. To invite
users to join your network:

From your homepage, click invite a
user.

In the window, type the email address of
the person you would like to invite. Write
a message if you like.

Click send invite.
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