Using Blackboard-Navigation

Welcome to Blackboard™! This is an introduction to navigating the site to help familarize you with the learning environment so you can concentrate your time on your specific course content.

Once you have logged on to Blackboard™, you'll see two tabs in the upper left under the UAF logo that read My Blackboard and Courses.

The default is set to My Blackboard which gives you a Tools section, My Announcements, My Calendar, and My Courses.

These sections will show you information from all of the courses you are enrolled in. For instance, in the My Announcements section you will see all of the current annoucements for all courses you are taking.

If you select the Courses tab you'll get a list of all the courses that you are currently enrolled in plus a Course catalog for browsing and a Textbox to do a quick Course Search. Keep in mind that you won't have access to most of these courses if you aren't registered in them.

Now look up at the top, in the middle area of the blackboard web page and you will see three icons: Home, Help, and Logout.

The Home icon and the Logout icon take you back to the UAF Blackboard™ main screen (classes.uaf.edu). The Logout icon also logs you securely out of Blackboard™ which is very important for you to do every time you are finished with your Blackboard™ course (s).

The Help icon takes you to UAF's blackboard support page (cat.uaf.edu/blackboard/)

Now lets go back to the My Blackboard tab and take a look at the Tools section. Tools give you quick access to view information about the courses you are registered in and overall blackboard settings. You can view the annoucements and grades for all your assignments. You can send email to classmates and instructors quickly without having to access the individual course and you can view your deadlines and to do tasks using the calendar. You can also go into the personal information to change your password for blackboard security.

The other three areas on the page give you a quick view of annoucements and calendar deadlines as well as giving you a place to access your invidivual courses.

Now lets look at the main sections in an individual course within Blackboard™. Please be aware that not all courses will look exactly the same so you should take a few minutes to look around your course when you first register.

On the left you will see a series of buttons or menu links that provide the main course navigation. A single click on any of these corresponding buttons/menu links will access a particular content area. The items that appear will depend on the layout of your particular course. You should see items that represent the syllabus, your instructor, assignments, gradebook, discussion board, communication, external links, and tools. These are some of the buttons you may see, but remember that there might be others that you'll need to explore on your own.

Typically the Announcements area contains course updates, reminders, general announcements, and important dates or upcoming deadlines.

The Syllabus area will contain informaiton on the course: description, objectives, grading criteria, etc. Other pertinent course information may also be found here like a welcome letter, schedule, instructions for software use (if needed), or other items that instructor includes.

Assignments will contain the main content for the course: lesson or module information, lectures, activities, assignments, self-evaulations, reflection activities and more!

Most classes will have a direct link to the student gradebook through My Grades or a similarily named link. Remember that if you don't see a direct link in your class you can always go to the Tools section to see your grades.

Some classes may utilize the Discussion Board and will therefore have a direct link to it. The Discussion Board can also be found under the Communication link.

The Communication link has items like the Discussion Board, Email, Elluminate (E-Live), Class Roster, Group pages and other types of collaboration tools.

Information about your instructor, including contact information can be found under Staff Information.

You may also see a link for Books which might to give a list of resources that are required or suggested for class work.

Some courses use Groups for dividing the class into smaller units to work on projects, discussion board management, or other types of activites. If your instructor uses Groups, an explanation will be included in the syllabus/course information area.

One of the advantages of an Online class is to directly use the World Wide Web as a resource. External Links may contain direct access to places on the web that your instructor recognizes as reliable resources.

the Tools section may contain tools that might be helpful for your class management. Such as the gradebook, Blackboard™'s User Manual, Calendar or Tasks, or Address Book. This is also the area where you can find your personal information and can change your password. The Digital Dropbox can also be found in the Tools section. Some instructors use the Digital Dropbox to exchange files (like homework assignments).

Its possible to customize these buttons or links so your instructor may have a different set specifically designed for the class. It doesn't hurt to investigate and familiarize yourself with what's avaiable.

Some content areas are organized with folders, where each folder may contain items and subfolders. A single click on the underlined wording will open the folder. Once inside a folder there might be further documents that need to be opened. A single click on the underlined wording will open (or download) additional files.

Near the top of the course area a breadcrumb trail will show you where you are in the structure of the course and allow you to navigate back to your starting point.

Click on one of the section in the breadcrumb trail or your one of your menu items to navigate through Blackboard. If possible, Do NOT use your browser forward and back buttons. You might find it a successful way to navigate but most often it will not work correctly and just get you into trouble.

This has been a basic introduction to the Blackboard™ course home page. Now its up to you to go to the site and explore on your own.