Blackboard Info for Students

Blackboard is accessible from anywhere in the world where there is an internet connection, and you can access some parts of Blackboard without even logging in. For full access to courses in which you are enrolled, however, you will need a Blackboard username and password.

Not all courses at PC make use of Blackboard, so some of your courses may not show up on your Bb page under My Courses. However, if your professor tells you that Blackboard is being used in one of your courses and you still don't see it listed when you log in, tell your professor and you will be added to the Blackboard roll for that course.

You can change any of the personal information about yourself in Blackboard except for your user name, since that is your unique identifier within the Blackboard system. Your Blackboard user name is usually the same as your Presbyterian College e-mail login name (e.g, jzsmith).

You should change your password from its initial value for greater security. To do so, log in with your current password, and do the following:

• Click on the Bb Central tab to make the "Tools" palette available.
• Choose the "Personal Info" option.
• Click on "Change Password" and enter your new password twice.
• Click the "Submit" button to complete the process.
• Be sure you remember your new password!

If you forget your Blackboard password, click on the "Forgot your password?" link on the Login screen (just below where your password is requested). You will need to provide your first and last names exactly as they are entered in Blackboard (i.e., Joe and Joseph aren't the same!) and EITHER your Bb username (e.g., jzsmith) OR your primary e-mail address as it is entered in Bb (e.g., jzsmith@presby.edu). You will then be sent an email with instructions how to change the forgotten password to a new one which you know.

RSO's can have Blackboard sites of their own! If you would like to have a place to store or distribute information, have on-line discussions, maintain membership information, keep a calendar of events, provide links to related sites, coordinate mailings to some or all of your members, and many other options, contact David Walker for details.

Blackboard Information for Faculty and Staff

To request a Blackboard site for a course, committee, department, or organization, contact David Walker. Course sites can be set up as soon as course schedules with CRNs are available for the semester in which the course is to be taught, or at any point during the course. Committee, department, or organization sites can be set up at any time. Training is available if you are new to Blackboard. By default the maximum size of all materials in a site is 10 MB, but this can be increased if your site requires more space.

Don't forget to make your site available (Control Panel>Course or Organization Options>Settings) when you are ready for others to access it! Otherwise they won't even see it.

Ordinarily students will be automatically enrolled in a Bb course site within one day after the end of registration at the beginning of the semester. If additional students add the course later (or if some drop out) it is usually easiest for you to manually make the changes in Bb using the Control Panel.

Course sites are intended for use for one semester only. If you want to use the same material in a subsequent semester, an exact (or partial) copy can be made (without the previous semester's student data) so that you don't have to re-enter materials. This preserves each semester's sites for later reference. Sites may be archived and removed from view after use if you wish. Sites from previous semesters should generally be made "unavailable" to students.

Note that you can change any of the personal information about yourself in Blackboard except for your user name, since that is your unique identifier within the Blackboard system. Your Blackboard user name is usually the same as your Presbyterian College e-mail login name (e.g, jzsmith). You should change your password from its initial value for greater security using the "Personal Info" option in the Bb Tools.