Getting Started for Students

Blackboard Login and Accessing the Course

1. Open your Internet browser and navigate to the Blackboard login page at http://www.qatar,cmu.edu/blackboard. Click the "Login to Blackboard" link on the left Navigation Pane..
    
   
2. Enter your Qatar User ID and password in the secure login authentication screen.
    
   
3. In the My Courses panel, you will find a listing of your Blackboard courses. Click the course link to enter.

See also how users get enrolled in Blackboard...

Problems with enrollment may delay your access to Blackboard courses.

Blackboard Course Navigation

The Course Menu may differ from course to course depending on how the instructor chooses to structure and content areas.

Managing Documents in Blackboard

Uploading Documents:
Blackboard users can upload files to submit Assignments.

When preparing documents for uploading to Blackboard:

1. Use appropriate extensions when naming files for uploading to Blackboard otherwise, your professor may be unable to read/open them.
2. Do not include spaces or special characters in your file names.
    

ALERT! Protect yourself from computer viruses

Blackboard makes the exchange of files very easy. Along with that ease also comes risk of downloading a computer virus. Be sure to scan files that you upload to/download from Blackboard with regularly updated virus-protection software such as:

Norton / Symantec AntiVirus (download from Computing Services licensed software list)

Communication Tools

Students can use the set of communication tools provided within the "Communication" area to contact each other or the instructor via email, participate in a discussion board forum, view student pages found in the class Roster, and work in groups.

Send Email
Allows you to send direct email to anyone in the course. However, it is a limited email program in that it does not:

• provide a "cc" list of recipients when sending email to more than one person
• does not provide a spell check
• and does not save sent messages

Email is sent to the user's standard Andrew mailbox. View instructions on how to forward your Andrew email to another account.

Discussion Board

Allows students to participate in course-related discussions outside of class time. Student conversations are logged and organized by forums set by the instructor that contain threads of all related replies. Your instructor may also choose to provide a forum where students are able to post anonymously.

Note: The discussion board is a database of textual information with limited searching capabilities. Adding a meaningful subject line whenever posting or replying to posts can facilitate better scanning and retrieval of the information.

Roster/Student Pages
Blackboard provides a student page for each course.

• Personalize and update your home page at any time during the course from within the Student Tools area.
• View fellow students' homepages. Select "Roster" and "List All" or type in the last name or user ID of a student in the course. Click the student name/link to view the student's home page.

Group Pages
Your instructor may divide students into study or project groups using the Group Pages option. Each group receives a unique group page that provides a set of private group tools, including:

• a Discussion Board
• file exchange tool
• email

"My Grades" Checking Your Grades in Blackboard

If the course instructor is using Blackboard's Grade Center to manage grades, and has allowed student access, you can view your grades from within Blackboard.

1. Click on "Course Tools" then click "View Grades."
2. "My Grades" includes grade data like the grade item name, item details, due date, last submitted, grade value, points possible, and instructor comments.