Blackboard at WFU: FAQ

There is no way, unfortunately, to change the order in which announcements appear. The most recent announcements will always go to the top. If, however, you go in and edit an older announcement and make it a permanent announcement, it will return to the top.

Go to your Control Panel > Content Area and select the area where you want students to go to submit the assignments. Then in the drop-down box on the top right of the screen, select Assignment and then click the Go button. Fill in the information it requests and click submit. NOTE: The name you give it will become the column heading in the gradebook, so brevity will create smaller columns! This will create an assignment where students can upload a file for you and a gradebook column where you can view their submissions. For more information see our Assignments Handout.

Go to Control Panel > Gradebook and click either the ! under the individual student and then click view (to see them one at a time) OR click the column heading that is the name of the assignment and click download files to select the entire class and download a zip file. For more information see our Assignments Handout.

There is no archive of emails sent in Blackboard but whenever you send a message, Blackboard will by default send you a copy. You can then store that in your email account for future reference.

Go to your Control Panel and click the content area where your item is. Click the Modify button to the right of the item. Be sure that you have checked the Yes box next to Make Content Available. Then set your date restrictions.

Yes. Go to your Control Panel and click the content area where your item is. Click the Copy button to the right of the item. Select the Destination Course (the default will be the current course; you will also see all the courses in which you are an instructor in the drop-down list). Then click the Browse Button next to Destination Folder. A course map of your course will come up and you can select the area you want to put the content in. Finally, choose whether you want to remove the item after copying. See the part of the instructor manual on copying/moving content for more information.

If your course is for a WFU class, it will be created automatically. If it is for a non-course-related project, contact the Help Desk and they will create the course for you.

Banner-generated academic courses in Blackboard are deleted after 18 months. This deletion occurs during the summer of each year. To hide a course from the instructor’s view prior to that time follow the instructions below.

On the page that appears when a user logs into Blackboard, there are two modules that show you your courses. The top one, Courses: Quick View is not editable but you can minimize it. But the bottom one, My Courses, can be edited so you only see the courses you want to see. Follow these steps to make the changes.

1. Log in to Blackboard
2. To minimize the Courses: Quick View Module:
   1. Click the icon that looks like a green line in a circle located in the upper right corner of the box.
   2. To restore this box to its full view in the future, click the icon in the upper right corner and it will maximize the window.
3. To edit your My Courses List:
   1. Click the Pencil Icon in the Upper right corner of the box.
   2. You will see a list of all of your courses and the option to Display Course, Display Course ID, Display Announcements, Display Tasks and Display Calendar Events.
   3. Make your selections and click the Submit Button at the bottom of the page.

Courses not generated by Banner can be deleted at any time. Go to the IS ResolvIT web site and log in. Click Submit or Review Requests and then New Request. Under the Summary field, click the down arrow to the right of the field and select BB Remove Course. Then fill in the requested information and they will take care of it from there.

Go to the IS ResolvIT web site and log in. Click Submit or Review Requests and then New Request. Under the Summary field, click the down arrow to the right of the field and select BB Course Copy. Then fill in the requested information and they will take care of it from there.

If you only want to change the TITLE of your course, go to your Control Panel and click on Settings > Course Name and Description. There is a place to change the title and/or description of the course. If you need to change the semester or course number, that is part of the CourseID and you will have to email Information Systems. They will have to copy your course materials into a new course.

To pick a different button style for your course, go to your Control Panel and click Course Design > Course Menu Design. Keep in mind that using buttons can slow down the load time for your pages.

You must set your course to Available before students will be able to see it. Instructors will always see their courses in their My Courses list even if it is unavailable. To make a course available, go to Control Panel > Settings > Course Availability and be sure you set it to be available.

CourseIDs for courses created automatically cannot be changed. The only way to get a new CourseID for your course is to request that your course be copied by the Help Desk. Because the CourseID is not usually seen by students, in most cases the CourseID does not need to be changed.

Make the course unavailable. This removes the course from the student's view, but leaves it in the instructor's view with (unavailable) printed next to the name of the course. To make a course unavailable, go to the Control Panel > Settings > Course Availability > Make Course Available, then select "No."

Academic Courses are deleted 18 months after the end of the semester the course was used (once per year in June.) Non-Academic Courses that remain in use year-round are handled on a case by case method.

By assigning the students in each section to a group in Blackboard, instructors can use the Adaptive Release feature to release content to each group separately. However, all sections appear in the gradebook together. When the Gradebook becomes unmanageable, each section should have its own Blackboard course.

If the student is officially enrolled in your course and has dropped it, once he/she is dropped from the course in Banner, they will be removed from your Blackboard course the next time the snapshot runs. If you enrolled the person manually in your course and need to remove them, go to Control Panel > User Management > Remove Users From Course. You can then click the Search Button to bring up a list of all users, or just search by username. When you see the student(s) you want to remove, check the box by their name(s) and then click Submit.

If the student is officially enrolled in your course as soon as they are added to the course in Banner, they will be added to your Blackboard course the next time the snapshot runs. In most cases, if a person does not show up when you look for them under the Enroll User option, then the student is already enrolled in the course. Click List/Modify Users and look there to see if they are already enrolled. In rare cases the cause is that it is an auditing student or a Salem or Med School student who is not in our regular database. In this case the instructor should use the Create User option and create a login and password for the student.

You will only need to add people to your course who DO NOT have valid WFU logins and passwords. All WFU users should be added to your course using the Enroll User option in the Control Panel. To create a login and password for someone OUTSIDE WFU, go to your Control Panel > Create Users. You will be able to enter their name and email as well as assigning them a login and password. You will then need to provide the person with the URL for our Blackboard server (http://blackboard.wfu.edu) as well as the login and password you created for them. Remember: Only do this for people not affiliated with Wake Forest.

You must first make them a student in the course by going to your Control Panel > List/Modify User and searching for them. Click the Properties button to the right of their name and make them a student. You may then remove them from the course by going to Control Panel > Remove User.

First you must enable the "My Grades" tools from Control Panel > Manage Tools and be sure the box next to "My Grades" is checked. Then there will be a link to "My Grades" in the Course Tools area in the Tools box. You can also have a link to my grades from the main menu by going to Control Panel > Manage Course Menu and add a Tool at the top. See our Modifying Menus handout for more information.

Yes. Students only see their own grades.

No, you cannot hide the class average from students.

To grade a test, go to Control Panel > Gradebook. Any student who has taken one of your online tests should have a ! in their block under the test name if there are questions to be scored by you. If you click on the ! then you can click the View button and can go into their test and see their answers and assign a point value to them.

To view the results of student quizzes go to the Control Panel > Gradebook. To see an individual's answer, click on the Score and then the View button and their quiz will appear. To see more detailed information, click the Quiz name at the top of the column to bring up the Item Information menu.

The way to do this is to go to Control Panel > Gradebook and click on the grade that the student made as reported in the Gradebook. You can change the grade for the entire test there, or click the View button and the quiz will come up, and you may change points as you see suitable for each question.

To make a quiz visible, go to the content area of the course where you want the students to access the quiz (i.e. Assignments) in the Control Panel and click the Test button on the top row. You should see the list of all of your un-deployed quizzes and surveys and you can select the item from there. Then you will be taken to a screen where you can change the test availability and other options. See our Assessments handout for more information.

Yes, you can make changes to the quiz in Blackboard but you should not make changes to any question answer (like changing which one is correct) or points assigned to a question after any student has taken the test. Go to Control Panel > Content Area where the quiz is located (i.e. Assignments) and click the Modify button. You will see a screen with the restrictions on making changes. You can change the text of any question or answer and change which answer is correct, but you cannot add or delete questions or answers.

By default, once a quiz has been taken, it is unavailable for that student unless you checked the allow multiple times option when creating it. In Blackboard you have the ability to hide a quiz without making it unavailable. To do this, follow these steps:

1. From the Control Panel select Assignments (or whatever section where you have the quiz posted).
2. Select modify on the quiz you want to hide.
3. Select No for the "Do you want this Information Available Immediately?" option. The quiz is now hidden and the Gradebook entries are still intact.

Yes, if you select Allow Multiple Attempts from the Modify Test Options area after you designate a content area for the Test link. Only the most recent attempts results will appear in your gradebook.

Answers to survey questions may be viewed in the online Gradebook.

1. Go to the Control Panel
2. Click to 'Gradebook'
3. Click the Name of the survey in the column heading
4. Click 'Assessment Attempt Details'

Yes. To add images and URLs to an existing test or survey:

1. In the course, go to the Control Panel
2. In the Assessments Area, select the Test Manager or Survey Manager
3. Click Modify next to the required test or survey
4. Click Creation Settings, then select Add images, files and URLs to questions, then click Submit and OK.

Now when you add questions you will see the option of adding an image, file or URL to them.

Yes, using the Course Link feature in Blackboard you can link to items from multiple places within Blackboard. From your Control Panel, go to the location where you want the second link to be, click Course Link at the top of the screen and use the Course Map that appears to navigate to your document. Click the radio button next to the document you want to link to and then Click OK.

The easiest way to upload a web page or small web site is to zip the files together and then upload the zip file. Follow these steps:

1. Create a web site on your hard disk. Save all files in a single folder.
2. Archive it with winzip by clicking on the folder and selecting WinZip > Add to yourfoldername.zip. This will create a zip file with all of your documents in it.
3. Go to control panel in Blackboard and start a new document.
4. Upload the winzip file you just created as an attachment to this document.
5. Under "special actions" choose "unpackage these files."
6. Submit -- You will be prompted to select which file should be the first one displayed. Be sure to pick the homepage of your site for this.

Yes. Using the Copy feature you can copy information from one place to another and even from one course to another. See our Copy/Move handout for more information.

Remove special characters such as ~#, extra periods, etc. from filenames.

Your Blackboard password should always be the same as your email password. If this is not working, contact the Help Desk at x4357.

Blackboard can be accessed from WFU computers by clicking the Start button > WFU Academic Tools > Blackboard. From other computers or as a shortcut, the web address is http://blackboard.wfu.edu.

To log into Blackboard, click the login button on the left side of the screen, then enter your WFU Login and Password (the same as what you use to log into your computers, check Email and WIN).

If your instructor has enrolled you in the course, it should appear under the My Courses area of the My Institution tab. If you need to enroll in the course yourself, click on the "Courses" tab. On the right of the screen, scroll through the list of three-letter department abbreviations and click on the one corresponding to the desired course. Select the appropriate course from the course list. Make sure the instructor, course number, course section, and course semester match your course. The numbers at the bottom left of the course list can be used to move to the following pages in the course list.

To be removed from a course, you must email the instructor and ask him/her to remove you from the course or to make the course unavailable. You cannot remove it from your Blackboard any other way.

You can select which courses to display on your My Institution Tab by closing the Courses: Quick View Module (use the red X in the upper right corner) and using the My Courses Module. Click the pencil icon in the upper right of the My Courses Module to edit the view including hiding old courses you no longer want to see. This DOES NOT remove you from the course, it just hides it from view.

Your Blackboard password cannot be changed; it automatically syncs every hour with your WFU login and password. If your password is not working, contact the Help Desk at x4357.

Because you cannot remove yourself from a course, you must email the professor and request that he/she remove you from the course.

In order to access Blackboard without a WFU username and password, the instructor must create a user name and password for you. This username and password will give you access to the Blackboard course only.

Your instructor must be using the online gradebook for you to check your grades online. If he/she is, you can access your grades by clicking on Tools and then "Check Grade" from the main screen for that course. The instructor may also make this option available elsewhere in the Blackboard course.