Blackboard Basics

If any of you have taken an online/hybrid course, you know that Blackboard is an essential part of the course. It serves both as a bridge of information and as a powerful tool to students and faculty alike.

This guide will assist those that are first-time users to Blackboard and may even help those that are already experienced with it.

Reaching the Blackboard site from the UW-Rock County website:

Starting from any page, look at the top toolbar of the web page and click on the link for Blackboard. That's all there is to it!

Logging in to Blackboard:

The login for Blackboard is derived from the following:

The 1st four letters of your last name. Example: Lovecraft --> love.
The 1st letter of your first name. Example: Howard --> h.
The last 3 numbers of your Student ID. Example: 4343506972 --> 972.
And finally the 1st letter of your campus. Example: Rock --> r

The login would look like this then, loveh972r.

The password for Blackboard is derived from the following:

The last 4 digits of your Social Security number. Example: 999-75-8412 --> 8412
Then 2 exclamation marks. --> !!
Finally, its the last 2 digits of your birth year. Example: 1981 --> 81

The password would look like this then, 8412!!81.

NOTE: Just so you know, case is irrelevant to logging in. Use upper-case letters or lower-case letters, or even a combination if you wish. It won't affect login.

What is the Tools menu all about? Can you explain what each of these does?

I sure can. Once inside Blackboard, you will be presented with a box of Tools on the left side of the screen. Each of these items are valuable in their own right and some will be more important to you than others.

Announcements: This is probably the most important link on the whole menu. This is where important information is posted, such as Class Cancellations, Schedules, Syllabi, Assignment Reminders, etc. It can be almost anything. It allows you to view new announcements, as well as previous archived announcements.

Calendar: This is your own personal calendar. It is here that you can schedule important events and dates as well as check important events and dates for yourself, your class, and your institution.

Tasks: This is your own personal to-do list. It is here that you can add tasks for yourself or check on tasks already made that pertinent to you and your classes.

My Grades: This lists all the courses you are enrolled in (which utilize Blackboard) and their prospective grades. These could be test scores, assignments, participation points, etc. It would vary from class to class and professor to professor.

Send E-mail: As the name implies, this lets you send e-mail to the instructors of each of your prospective Blackboard classes.

User Directory: This lets you search for students enrolled in Blackboard courses. You can either search by last name or e-mail address or there is a directory of students from A-Z that you can browse.

Address Book: This is your own personal address book. It is here that you can enter information about contacts. It simplifies the task of remembering a forgotten address, phone number, e-mail address, etc.

Personal Information: This allows you to edit your personal information. It also gives you the ability to do two other things.

Set CD-ROM: Basically this lets you specify which CD-ROM drive you want to use to access content from CD-ROM's you may have to use for classes.
Set Privacy Options: This allows you to specify which fields of personal information is available to the public.

That's all there is to the Tools menu!

NOTE: Once you're finished using Blackboard, make sure to log-out. This protects you from unauthorized access.

We hope that this page has been helpful to you. We welcome any additions/suggestions/corrections you feel are pertinent.