Blackboard Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

To use this feature, scroll through the questions and click ANSWER after the question to view that answer. You can also open it, press Control and the letter F, and type a keyword to search for a specific topic.

Any questions not found below can be answered by viewing the instructions for the topic at hand on the Faculty Blackboard Instructions website. To access this site:

  1. Open Internet Explorer
  2. Go to http://media.olivet.edu
  3. Click Computer Training in the center
  4. Click Faculty Blackboard Instructions

QUESTIONS:

Q1. In the online course you have taken and/or taught, have you found it more beneficial for A) the instructor to leave information out there to be downloaded (such as lecture notes) at whatever time is convenient for each individual student or B) setting a "class meeting time" such as in an online virtual classroom? ANSWER

Q2. What does my computer need to have on it to be able to teach online effectively? ANSWER

Q3. Why can't I see everything on my screen? Why do I have to scroll to see some of my documents? ANSWER

Q4. If I allow guest/observer access to my course, who will be able to view it? ANSWER

Q5. Why doesn't my course show up on my students' My Olivet page? Why can't my students access my course? ANSWER

Q6. Why won't my recently-saved-as-Web page Microsoft document show up in Netscape? ANSWER

Q7. Is there a way to print the PowerPoint slides in my course on one page so that I don't have to print them out page by page? When there are 47 slides, this wastes a lot of paper. I've tried to copy and paste them to Microsoft Word, but some won't even copy. Is this possible? ANSWER

Q8. Why don't my browser's navigation buttons (Forward, Back, etc.) work all of the time? ANSWER

Q9. When the students use the Edit Your Home page function, where is that information posted? ANSWER

Q10. My students are telling me that they have had trouble with a timed quiz I gave them online. What could be the problem? ANSWER

Q11. When I click on the Digital Dropbox under the "Tools" link, I do not have access to any of the files. Why? ANSWER

Q12. Can questions be imported from a Word document into Blackboard for a quiz, test, or survey?  ANSWER

Q13. Why can't my students see their grades in Blackboard? ANSWER

Q14. How do I see the percentages for my students grades? ANSWER

Q15. Why are there exclamation points instead of grades in the gradebook for the online quiz I gave? ANSWER

Q16. Why aren't my students seeing the announcements I've posted? ANSWER

Q17. How do I add or remove students in Blackboard? ANSWER

Q18. Can I look at e-mail messages from inside Blackboard? ANSWER

Q19. How do I add my Teaching Assistant to my course? ANSWER

Q20. Why can't my students find my assignments or other important parts of the course? ANSWER

Q21. Do I have to enter grades into the grade book individually or is there a way to enter them in by assignment/column? ANSWER

Q22. If I put an exam on Blackboard, will students have access to printing it out? ANSWER

Q23. When my students (or I) click on "Enter Virtual Classroom," nothing happens. What should I do? ANSWER

Q24. My students are telling me that they cannot start a new thread in their group discussion board. Why not? ANSWER

Q25. How do I use the archiving feature in the discussion board? ANSWER

Q26. What do I do if I forget my password or if I cannot login? ANSWER

Q27. What does it mean when it says "unavailable" next to my course name in Blackboard? ANSWER

Q28. When will the fall/spring/summer courses be made available so I can start work on my courses? ANSWER

Q29. Why do my emails from Blackboard sometimes get marked as SPAM when I send it to myself and my students? ANSWER

Q30. Can I adjust the column widths in the Blackboard gradebook? ANSWER

Q31. Can I have courses copied from old sections of courses? ANSWER

Q32. Why aren't some of my students listed in Blackboard? ANSWER

Q33. Can you make a student in a course a TA as well? ANSWER

Q34. Can I change the email address of a student from their Olivet email address to another one? ANSWER

Q35. Why don't my courses show up in the My Courses module? ANSWER

Q36. Why do students that I remove from Blackboard show up again the next day? ANSWER

Q37. How do I add/remove buttons on the left hand side (the menu)? ANSWER

Q38. How do I allow a student to take a test, quiz, or survey again? How do I clear their attempt so they can take a test, quiz, or survey again? How do I reset a student's test/quiz/survey? ANSWER

Q39. How do I make a test, quiz, or survey available to a student after the time limit has expired? ANSWER

Q40. How do I see the results of a survey/course evaluation I posted in Blackboard? ANSWER

Q41. Why do I get an email message/box when I try to reply to a discussion board message/posting? ANSWER

Q42. How do I remove a course I'm no longer using in Blackboard? ANSWER

Q43. Why do I receive "undeliverable" messages when I send emails to my students? ANSWER

Q44. Why does the student who I want to add to my course not show up in Blackboard? ANSWER

Q45. Why do the links in my document go bad when I bring it/attach it in Blackboard? ANSWER

Q46. When exporting a question pool what program should we be able to use to look at it? ANSWER

Q47. How do I add an assignment using the Blackboard 6 Assignment Manager? ANSWER

Q48. How does the Complete/Incomplete display for the gradebook work? ANSWER

Q49. Why do I get a Security Alert every time I open Internet Explorer or go to Blackboard? Is there a way to get rid of that? ANSWER

Q50. Why does nothing appear when I search for a destination course using the Course Copy feature? ANSWER

Q51. Why can't I add an item, folder, assignment, survey, test, etc., into my course? The option to do that doesn't even appear for me!? ANSWER

Q52. How do I print my grades/gradebook in Blackboard? ANSWER

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ANSWERS:

A1. One of the things you want to stay away from in online courses is just dumping your lectures online and letting the students fend for themselves. Since your students won't really be seeing you, lectures aren't effective. It is actually very hard to read all of those online. You would actually find that many of your students would print them out and read offline, which is fine. What I have seen work better is if you offer an introduction to the content that you have written that incorporates links and book references for them to look up themselves. Most people that use the Web are use to being able to click here and there and navigate on their own. Actually, most people that use the Web don't really read what's there anyway. That's why you need to provide an environment that they can explore and be more ACTIVE in their learning. Reading lecture notes does not help them to be active.

Now, the opposite side of this issue is that students need to know what is due, when it is due and what they need to do to get ready for what is due. They also need deadlines. The environment you create should allow for flexibility but also offer consistency. They should always know that if they need to get the info for the current chapter they go to one place, but if they need to take the online quiz or post to the discussion board, they should head somewhere else. Also, a class without deadlines is bound to have trouble. While many think that because they are taking the course online, they shouldn't have to worry about deadlines and should be able to work at their own pace, this basically causes two things: procrastination and confusion. They still have the flexibility of getting their information and taking the class at any time, day or night, but you will want to offer them deadlines for when things are due. You may even have them write in a journal that they send to you by e-mail every week or two just to let you know where they are at. This keeps them engaged in what they are doing... otherwise they'll put things off.

About the online virtual classroom, that is a possibility too. However, there are some limitations. Since it is a chat room, you would need to be comfortable working in that environment for it to be effective. That is not a real issue, though, since we could train you. The problem sometimes with chat rooms is that if the students are accessing it from home on a 28.8 or sometimes 56 K modem, they may have trouble... it will be slow and may not work at all. The other thing is that the more students that join the chat, the more confusing it all is. The best number of students at one time to have in a chat room is between 5 - 7. Now, you may want to try it in your class to see, because having that opportunity to chat directly with your professor and your peers is EXTREMELY beneficial for the attitudes and energy level of your students. We have chat sessions in my master's degree program, and it helps us feel like we are really connecting.

One of the main needs of your students will be feedback. They need to know that they can talk with the professor, and that the professor will answer their questions in a timely manner.

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A2. List of Faculty Computer Specifications for Teaching Online with Blackboard

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A3. When working with the Web, there will be times when documents and pages are not fully viewable. You may have to scroll to the right and down to see everything. There is a way to fix this, but you must change your computer's screen size. If you are having trouble seeing parts of your documents, it is suggested that you change your screen size (or resolution) to a larger size. If you do not like it, you can always change it back. To adjust your screen size:

    1. Right-click on the desktop of your computer.
    2. Left-click on Properties
    3. Click the Settings tab at the top
    4. Under the Screen Resolution, click and drag the slidert. While 800 x 600 is a normal setting, many times 1024 x 768 is better for viewing files in Blackboard.
    5. Once you have chosen the resolution (size) you want, click OK
    6. Click OK
    7. To change it back, start at step 1

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A4. Olivet's policy is not to allow guests and observers into Blackboard. If you need to give someone from off campus access to Blackboard, talk with Marsha Smith in Information Technology.

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A5. Remember that your course is not available to anyone until you choose for it to be. You can work on it without the fear of anyone seeing it until you are ready. You have to manually make your course available. To do this:

    1. Enter the course
    2. Click Control Panel
    3. Under Course Options, click Course Settings
    4. Click Course Availability
    5. Click the radio button next to Yes
    6. Click Submit
    7. Click OK

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A6. This is a recently discovered problem with some versions of Netscape. If you are using Netscape 4.0, it will not read a Word, Excel or PowerPoint document saved as a Web page. You will have to download a newer version of Netscape off of their Web site, http://www.netscape.com. This is a free download and is highly recommended!

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A7. Underneath the list of PowerPoint slides in your course, there are two images (). One collapses the lefthand menu of PowerPoint slides, and one expands it. In order to see all of the information on PowerPoint slides, you would click to expand this list. Then right click on the window with the expanded list and click Print. This only works in Internet Explorer, however. As of June 2001, Netscape is not able to print PowerPoint Web pages.

You can also print PowerPoint slides from within the PowerPoint program if you have the actual file in Blackboard. Instead of clicking on the link to open it:

    1. Go to the page in Blackboard where you find the link to the PowerPoint presentation.
    2. Right-click on the link
    3. Click Save Target As
    4. Choose some place (like your desktop or the C: drive) to save the file
    5. Click Save
    6. If you are asked if you want to open it, you can click Open and it will open up in PowerPoint instead of Internet Explorer
    7. Once it is open in PowerPoint, click File and click Print
    8. You can print the slides or handouts (which will allow you to print more than one on a page)
    9. Click OK and you are set

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A8. Blackboard offers its own navigation to give more control of the environment. The navigation is designed to keep you inside Blackboard and keep you from getting confused. If you use the browser's navigational buttons, many times you will get an error or a Page Expired note. Remember to stay inside Blackboard in order to keep things clear.

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A9. To access the studetnts home pages, click Communication and then click Roster. Click Search without typing anything in the search window to see each student in the class. To see the information, click on the name of the student.

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A10. When a student is taking a quiz, and the quiz is NOT set to Allow Multiple Attempts, the student must be very careful when taking the quiz. Anything that occurs that causes the quiz window to no longer be the active window, even for a second, will kick the student out of the test. So, students should be wary of things like clicking around in other areas of the course, or sitting idle until their browser times out or screen saver comes on, or even getting a pop-up e-mail notifier. Automated functions of that nature should be turned off during testing time.

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A11. When you click on TOOLS and then go to the Digital Dropbox, it says that instructors need to access the digital dropbox through the control panel. You are not supposed to be able to see your documents under the TOOLS area since this is for students. You can see it, however, under the Control Panel.

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A12. You can import questions into the Test, Survey, or Pool Manager but they have to be typed in a specific format in a text file. They cannot be added as they are in a Word document you have already created. To do this, follow these instructions:

  1. Open Internet Explorer
  2. Go to http://media.olivet.edu
  3. Click Computer Training in the center
  4. Click Faculty Blackboard Instructions
  5. Click on Test Manager, Survey Manager, or Pool Manager
  6. Scroll down to letter I under Question Types and Instructions to find the step-by-step instructions

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A13. In order for your students to see their grades, you must enable the "Check Grades" tool. To do this:

    1. Open your course.
    2. Click Control Panel
    3. Click Manage Course Menu
    4. Click Modify next to Tools
    5. Scroll down and click Enabled next to Check Grades
    6. Click Submit
    7. Click OK
    8. Students should now be able to access their grades through the Check Grades link under Tools

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A14. Blackboard's default is to display the final total column as a score, meaning you and students would need to divide the total by the total possible to get a percentage grade. You can change the display, however, to show a percentage instead of a score. To do this:

    1. Enter your course
    2. Click Control Panel
    3. Click Gradebook
    4. Click the name of the Total column
    5. Click Item Information
    6. Next to Display As, choose Percentage
    7. Click Submit
    8. Click OK

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A15. The exclamation point actually means that the quiz was completed by the student, but the grading needs to be completed by you. Either there was a problem that needs to be solved, a question that needs to be checked or you used short answer or essay questions, which require that you grade it yourself. To grade their exam, click on the exclamation point, give points for each question that was not automatically graded and then click Submit. If there was a problem with the quiz, click the Clear Attempt button in the top right corner to allow the student to take it again.

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A16. Announcements you post only appear there for the day you post them unless you use the Display After/Display Until feature. If a student looks the next day, they will not find the announcement unless they go inside their course and click "View last 7 days." In order to post an announcement for them to see on their My Olivet page everyday, you would need to repost the announcement every day or make the announcment permanent.

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A17. Blackboard is updated every night based on the Registrar's database of enrolled students, so if someone is registered on Tuesday, they will be enrolled in Blackboard courses on Wedesday early morning. If a student adds/drops a course, they are added/removed from Blackboard the day after the Registrar processes the Drop/Add slip.

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A18. No, the e-mail system inside Blackboard will send but not receive e-mail. You will receive e-mail in your normal Olivet email account (Groupwise or Webmail).

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A19. To add a TA to your course:

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A20. If you are using an area like Assignments that is not a part of the original course (not listed in your links on the left-hand side), you will need to make that area available for your students. To do this:

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A21. You can enter all of the grades for a particular assignment or grade book column by entering the Gradebook and clicking the name of the column. The name is at the top of the column and while it is not underlined, it is a link that will take you to a page that has the full list of students with empty blanks next to each name. Once you click the column name, click Item Grade List to see the list of students. Type in a score and press Tab to move to the next student's grade blank. You can also add grades for a specific student by clicking on that student's name and clicking User Grade List.

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A22. Since Blackboard works inside of a browser, it takes on all of the functions of that browser. Since browsers offer the option to print pages they display, students can print out anything they view, including the quiz. There are a few ways to combat this:

    1. Set the quiz to display only one question at a time.
    2. Provide a random block of questions that pulls 20 questions out of a possible 40-50 randomly, meaning that students will receive different versions of the test.
    3. Only allow for a short amount of time to force them to spend all their time on the actual test, quiz, or survey.

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A23. If nothing happens when you try to open the Virtual Classroom, it may mean that "Java," an Internet language that is important for it to work, may be disabled or not set correctly. To fix it, follow the appropriate instructions below:

To fix it in Internet Explorer:

  1. Open Internet Explorer
  2. Click Tools at the top
  3. Click Internet Options
  4. Click the Security Tab
  5. Click on the Internet icon
  6. Click Custom Level
  7. Scroll down to where you see the word Java and ensure that Java is set to medium safety or high safety
  8. If it was on disable Java, you will now need to go to the Advanced tab at the top and select all Java options under the main heading Microsoft VM

To fix it in Netscape:

  1. Open Netscape Navigator
  2. Click Edit at the top
  3. Click Preferences
  4. Click Advanced
  5. Make sure that everything that says Java is checked.

If this does not fix the problem, please contact Media at mediadept@olivet.edu.

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A24. Blackboard only allows discussion board administrators to start new threads in the group area. You as a faculty member are an administrator, but you need to give one or more of your students access to do it in each group. To do this:

      1. Enter your course
      2. Click Groups
      3. Click the name of the group
      4. Click Group Discussion Board
      5. Click Add Forum
      6. Type a title and description
      7. Choose the forum settings, including checking Allow New Threads
      8. Choose an administrator from the group by clicking on their name in the list and clicking Admin
      9. Click Submit

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A25. In order to archive the discussion board, follow these steps:

    1. Enter your course
    2. Click Control Panel
    3. Click Discussion Board
    4. Click the forum you would like to archive
    5. Click the Click Here for Archives button
    6. Click Add Archive
    7. Type the title of the archive
    8. Type a description of the archive
    9. Check whether or not you want your students to be able to view the archive
    10. Click Submit
    11. Click Modify next to the archive
    12. Choose the threads you would like to move into the archive
    13. Click Submit
    14. Click OK

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A26. Blackboard now uses the same password as your network password (the password you use to log in to the computers when you are on campus). If you have forgotten that password, you will need to contact Information Technology at (815)939-5302.

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A27. Blackboard by default sets all courses to "unavailable." This means that students do not have access to the course and it allows you to work on your course without students seeing things earlier than you want them to. To make the course available:

      1. Enter your course
      2. Click Control Panel
      3. Click Settings under Course Options
      4. Click Course Availability
      5. Click Yes
      6. Click Submit
      7. Click OK

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A28. Blackboard courses are usually available a month or two before the beginning of the next semester. If you have a course that you would like to begin working on, you can request that that course be made available to you by contacting Media or Marsha Smith in Information Technology.

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A29. Olivet's email system has a SPAM program that flags all email it thinks is SPAM by adding text to the subject line of that email. The SPAM program looks for keywords (such as FREE, unsubscribe, Get Rich Quick, etc.) and counts how many of those words appear. If the number of those keywords is high enough, it will flag the email as SPAM. Unfortunately there is nothing that can be done about this and it depends entirely on the words and phrases used in the email itself.

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A30. There is not a way to click and drag to change the width of the gradebook columns. The column width is based entirely on the width of the contents of that column. The best way to keep the columns thin is to abbreviate the names of those columns. Keep all names for the gradebook items short and you can keep the columns thin. To change the name of a column:

      1. Enter your course
      2. Click Control Panel
      3. Click Gradebook
      4. Click the name of the gradebook column you want to adjust
      5. Click Item Information
      6. Change the Item Name (abbreviation is the key)
      7. Click Submit
      8. Click OK

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A31. Blackboard 6 now allows you to copy all course materials/settings from one course to another. This allows you to copy everything from one section to another or from a previous version of a course to the new version. If you have access to both the original and the new course, you can use the Course Copy feature (as outlined below). If you do not have access to the old course (from a previous semester) you can request access to that course by contacting Marsha Smith in Information Technology. To copy content from one course into other courses (such as from one section to another):

      1. Click Control Panel
      2. Under Course Options, click Course Copy
      3. Click Copy Course Materials into an Existing Course
      4. To choose which course to copy materials to:
        • Click Browse
        • Click the radio button next to Instructor
        • Type your user ID (the beginning of your email address) to see all the courses you have access to
        • Click Select next to the course you would like to copy information to
      5. Check the boxes next to any content areas you want to copy
      6. Skip Enrollments and click Submit (you cannot copy enrollments)
      7. Click OK

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A32. If a student is not listed in Blackboard either in your Roster, Email, or Gradebook, that student is not officially enrolled in the course. They may have pre-registered but have not finished their registration with the Registrar's Office. Contact that student and make sure they finish registering and have enrolled in that course. Blackboard is updated every night, so if someone is registered on Tuesday, they will be enrolled in Blackboard courses on Wedesday early morning. If a student adds/drops a course, they are added/removed from Blackboard the day after the Registrar processes the Drop/Add slip.

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A33. It is impossible for a student to be both a Teaching Assistant and a student in the same course. In the past some faculty have requested that a TA account be set up for them so a student could log in separately to grade assignments, add documents, etc. This would have to be done by Marsha Smith in Information Technology.

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A34. It is a policy for both undergraduate and graduate students now to require the use of Olivet's email for course-related communication. Students should be made aware that any communication from the professor will occur in their Olivet email and they should be checking that just as regularly as their other email.

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A35. There are a couple reasons why your course(s) may not show up in the My Courses module: (Don't forget that you can also enter courses through the Courses tab at the top)

      1. You may not be listed as the instructor for the course in the Registrar's database. This would need to be confirmed through the Registrar's office and, once you were added as the instructor, the next day you would have access to the course.
      2. You may need to customize the My Courses module to choose which semesters and courses you want to view. To do this:
        • Find the My Courses module on the My Olivet tab in Blackboard
        • Click the small pencil icon in the upper right hand corner
        • Check Show Unavailable Courses to show all of the courses you are listed as teaching
        • Check Show Other Courses to show any courses you are participating in
        • Check the semesters from which you want to see courses in your list or check Select All
        • Check the courses you want to view in the My Courses module
        • Click Submit
        • Click OK

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A36. Blackboard is updated every night from the Registrar's database, so if someone is registered on Tuesday, they will be enrolled in Blackboard courses on Wedesday early morning. If a student adds/drops a course, they are added/removed from Blackboard the day after the Registrar processes the Drop/Add slip. You cannot add/remove students from Blackboard manually.

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A37. To add/remove buttons/links from the course menu, go to the Faculty Blackboard Instructions following these steps:

      1. Open Internet Explorer
      2. Go to http://media.olivet.edu
      3. Click Computer Training in the center
      4. Click Faculty Blackboard Instructions
      5. Click on Manage Course Menu to see step-by-step instructions for this area

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A38. Once a student has taken a test, quiz, or survey, they cannot go back and take the assessment again unless you, as a professor, clear their attempt. NOTE: You may also need to make the link for the quiz available again if the student is taking the assessment after the window for taking the assessment has expired. Instructions for both clearing their attempt and making the link available again are below:

To clear their attempt:

  1. Enter your course
  2. Click Control Panel
  3. Click Gradebook
  4. Click on the grade or icon in the gradebook column for that student
  5. Click View
  6. Click the Clear Attempt button to allow the student to take the assessment again
  7. Click OK

To make the assessment link available after the window has expired:

  1. Enter your course
  2. Click Control Panel
  3. Go to the area where the assessment was added (Course Documents, Course Info, Assignments, etc.) or go to the Announcements area if you posted an announcement about the assessment as well
  4. Find the announcement/link for the assessment and click Modify next to that link
  5. Change the dates/times when you will have the link available
  6. Click Submit
  7. Click OK

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A39. To make the assessment link available after the window has expired:

      1. Enter your course
      2. Click Control Panel
      3. Go to the area where the assessment was added (Course Documents, Course Info, Assignments, etc.) or go to the Announcements area if you posted an announcement about the assessment as well
      4. Find the announcement/link for the assessment and click Modify next to that link
      5. Change the dates/times when you will have the link available
      6. Click Submit
      7. Click OK

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A40. To see the results of a Blackboard survey once it has been completed:

      1. Enter your course
      2. Click Control Panel
      3. Click Gradebook
      4. Find the column for your survey (surveys are always kept at the far right of the spreadsheet) and notice the following:
        • Each person who has taken the survey will have a checkmark in that column
        • You cannot see results for one person (it is an anonymous survey) but it does allow you to see who has taken it
      5. To see the results of the survey, click on the column heading (the name of the survey)
      6. Click Assessment Attempt Details
      7. Click OK

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A41. Be careful when using the discussion board that you click on the name of the posting itself (the subject) not the name of the person who posted that message. The name listed there is a link that will open an email box, allowing you to email that person. To post a reply, however, you need to click on the subject and then click on Reply in the message itself.

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A42. Unless it is a course that is not tied to a semester (a resource course Marsha Smith created for you), you cannot remove a course without having it removed from the Registrar's database. Contact them to remove it if it is no longer needed. You can, however, choose which courses to view in your My Courses module. To do this:

      1. Find the My Courses module on the My Olivet tab in Blackboard
      2. Click the small pencil icon in the upper right hand corner
      3. Remove the checkmarks next to any courses you no longer want to see in the My Courses module
      4. Click Submit
      5. Click OK

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A43. If you are receiving undeliverable messages back when you send emails from Blackboard, there is a problem with the student's email address. Inform Marsha Smith in Information Technology and she can track the problem down for you.

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A44. If a student is not listed when you try to add them into a Blackboard course, one of a number of things could be happening:

      1. The student is already enrolled in the course. To check this:
        • Enter the course
        • Click Control Panel
        • Click List/Modify Users
        • Click the Search button without typing anything in the search box to see a full list of the students already in the course
      2. You are typing the name incorrectly when adding a user. To test this, try typing just part of the last name of the person and then click Search. You may find that you are mistyping one letter which is causing you to not be able to locate that person.
      3. The student does not yet have a Blackboard account because they are a freshman/transfer. The student would need to talk with Information Technology if this was the case.

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A45. When you attach a document in Blackboard, you are taking a copy of the original document and placing it on a new computer (the Blackboard computer). If you have created a website on your J: drive and have linked from the webpage you are attaching to another document on the J: drive, the document will continue to follow the relative path to that document. For example, if I link from my syllabus to the grading rubric, the path it would take looks like this: rubrics/grading_rubric.html. That path tells me that the grading_rubric.html file is located in the rubrics folder. The path is relative because it only tells me where to go from the syllabus to access the document.

In order to fix it so that the links work, you have to change the links from relative to absolute. To do this, (this example is from Media's website) you would change the link from rubrics/grading_rubric.html to http://media.olivet.edu/rubrics/grading_rubric.html. That way, the link will always go to Media's site to find it rather than trying to find it on the Blackboard computer. Once you have changed the links to absolute, attach the document in Blackboard again and it should work for yo

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A46. The exported file is not readable in any other program besides Blackboard. You do not need to open it outside of the Blackboard Pool Manager. Just go to the Pool Manager and import the file in to see what questions are listed there.

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A47. The Assignment Manager instructions can be found following these steps:

    1. Open Internet Explorer
    2. Go to http://media.olivet.edu
    3. Click Computer Training in the center
    4. Click Faculty Blackboard Instructions
    5. Click Assignment Manager Instructions at the bottom

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A48. The Complete/Incomplete option is only a display capability. It does not allow you to only put a yes or no response for whether they have completed the assignment. You will need to add a new gradebook item by following the instructions below. Once you have done this, you can add grades by giving every student who completed the assignment the number 0. If a 0 is in the column, a checkmark will be displayed. If you don't put anything there, it will be listed as incomplete.

    1. Click Add Item
    2. Type the name of the column. It is suggested that you keep it short in order to minimize the width of your gradebook. (Ex: Asst. 1)
    3. Click the down arrow next to Category: and choose a category for your column. This is not critical but will help you organize and filter your gradebook later. Choose the closest match.
    4. Type a description for the gradebook column
    5. Set the date for this gradebook column (either the date entered or the date the assignment is due)
    6. Add the points possible (For a Complete/Incomplete, add the number 0).
    7. Choose Complete/Incomplete from the display type
    8. For Make item visible to students, select No if you do not want students to see this Gradebook item in the Student Gradebook.
    9. For Include item in gradebook score calculations, select No for the second choice if you want this Gradebook item to be excluded from summary calculations.
    10. Click Submit
    11. Click OK

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A49. Since Blackboard now allows you to use your network password to log in, it has to be more secure, meaning that the Security Alert appears whenever you open up the Blackboard homepage. Your browser is set to have its homepage as the Blackboard homepage (http://home.olivet.edu). In order to stop this Security Alert from appearing, you can do one of two things. Either change your browser's homepage to http://olivetonline.olivet.edu (instructions below) or follow these instructions:

    1. Click the View Certificate button in the Security Alert window that appears
    2. Click Install Certificate
    3. Click Next
    4. Click Next
    5. Click Finish
    6. Click OK
    7. Click OK
    8. Click Yes

To change your homepage to http://olivetonline.olivet.edu:

  1. Open Internet Explorer
  2. Click Tools
  3. Click Internet Options
  4. Next to Address, type http://olivetonline.olivet.edu
  5. Click OK

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A50. You can search by Course ID, Instructor, or Title/Description. The course ID must be typed exactly and is case sensitive. The Title/Description is also case sensitive and, in Olivet's case, is in all caps. The easiest way to search for courses is to search by Instructor. You can search using your user ID, which will bring up a list of all of the courses you have access to. To do this:

    1. Click Control Panel
    2. Under Course Options, click Course Copy
    3. Click Copy Course Materials into an Existing Course
    4. To choose which course to copy materials to:
      • Click Browse
      • Click the radio button next to Instructor
      • Type your user ID (the beginning of your email address) to see all the courses you have access to
      • Click Select next to the course you would like to copy information to
    5. Check the boxes next to any content areas you want to copy
    6. Skip Enrollments and click Submit (you should not copy enrollments)
    7. Click OK

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A51. We have discovered that Blackboard 6.1 allows people to enable or disable content tools such as items, tests, surveys, assignments, etc. If one of these buttons does not appear:

    1. Enter the course
    2. Click Control Panel
    3. Click Manage Tools
    4. Click Enable Content Tools
    5. Check any boxes under the word Enabled that are appropriate. If the area you want is already checked, call Media at (815)939-5234 or email mediadept@olivet.edu.

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A52. Since the Blackboard gradebook is in a web browser, you are only able to print out the very left-hand side, meaning that most likely you will not get all of the grades. One suggestion is that you make sure the names of the gradebook items are short so that the columns are not as wide. The best way, however, to print out the grades is to download them and open them in Microsoft Excel. Excel will print out all of the grades, not just what shows up on the left. To download your grades:

    1. Enter the Gradebook
    2. Click Download Grades
    3. Click the Download button
    4. Click Save
    5. Find the folder where you would like to save the .csv file (a Microsoft Excel file), change the name of the file if desired, and click Save
    6. If a window appears asking if you want to open the file, do that or click Close
    7. Click OK