Blackboard 101
In the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy, one obvious priority is making sure all of us – students, faculty, and staff – are safe and cared for. Another priority, equally important, is making sure that students can continue their coursework with minimal interruptions.
This week's note links you to resources that are available to help you use Blackboard (Bb). In subsequent weeks, we will showcase NYIT faculty members who are using Bb and other educational technologies to maintain continuity of instruction with their students. If you are currently using digital tools to help your students learn and would like to share your strategies with your colleagues, please email me directly, at fglazer@nyit.edu.
Getting Started on Blackboard:
The first place to go for help is the NYIT Online web page, www.nyit.edu/nyitonline. There, you will find a one-page summary of support services offered to help faculty get started with Bb, and links to how-to videos for faculty (http://iris.nyit.edu/tbls/faculty) and students (http://iris.nyit.edu/tbls/student). You'll also find a list of dates when staff from the TBLS helpdesk are available in New York City and in Long Island for drop-in support.
One thing that is especially important to note: if you add materials to Bb for your students, you will need to explicitly grant the students access to the course shell. There's a short video demonstrating how to make your course available to students on the NYIT Online Faculty Videos page (direct link to video: http://goo.gl/Wncy8).
Finding your courses in Blackboard:
All courses have Bb "shells" – dedicated virtual spaces – created for them automatically. To find the shells for the courses you are teaching, first log into the portal, https://my.nyit.edu, with your NYIT userID and password. Then, click the "NYIT Blackboard" link at the top of the left-hand column.
On the right-hand side of the Bb home screen, you'll see a list of the courses you are teaching. You can enter any of the course shells by clicking the name of the course.