Blackboard Essentials

There are only a few criteria to have a course created at BCM:

1. All students must have a BCM username and password (per our license agreement with Blackboard)
2. The Blackboard Admin must be aware of the number of users enrolled in the course (there is a student limit with our current license)
3. A consultation with the Instructional Designers can be set up prior to course creation. Visit their website. Questions for eLearning can be send by email.
4. Submit a New Course/Organization Shell Request Form
5. Submit a Batch Enroll Request Form. (see the entry below for reference: Getting accounts created in Blackboard (Batch Enroll Info).)

For more information, visit BCM Blackboard Guidelines.

To have a Course Banner created for new or existing courses: submit a Banner Request Form to Teaching and eLearning.

Most official courses offered by Baylor College of Medicine will have a Course Shell created from a template for that term in the Blackboard System. Each Course Shell is created and assigned a course ID according to the terms in the Blackboard Use above and follows the operations calendar below:

Note: Some course shells for cross-listed courses (courses that are listed under two or more schools) are created by the school/system Blackboard Admin following the request of the program director or course director from the primary school listed in CAMS.

Blackboard courses are created as unavailable to the enrolled students. The instructor must make a Blackboard course available before the students can access materials in the course. For information on making a course available view Course Availability.

If you would like assistance finding a course site in Blackboard contact Ed-Tech at ed-tech@bcm.edu.

For more information, visit BCM Blackboard Guidelines.

NOTE: Users listed as an Instructor in the course are able to enroll other uses for any role in the same course.  Any users listed as a TA can enroll only students in a course.

1. On the Control Panel, expand the Users and Groups section and click Users.
2. On the Users page, click Find Users to Enroll. [view screenshot]
3. Type a user's BCM ECA (Example: u23581 or astarke) [view screenshot] -or- click Browse to search for a user. Only users that are not already enrolled in your course will be listed in the search results. Select or type as many usernames as needed. Separate multiple usernames with commas.
4. Note: If you are unable to find a user to enroll, submit a New User Form to Ed-Tech.
5. Select a Role and Enrollment Availability for the user(s).
6. Click Submit.

Located Users: Search results display up to 25 names on a page. Searches that result in more than 25 users will display users on multiple pages. You cannot enroll multiple users who appear on different pages. Instead, select users to enroll from a single page and click Submit. Redo the search to select additional users to enroll.

Availability: You cannot enroll users who have been made Unavailable in the Blackboard course. Contact Ed-Tech at ed-tech@bcm.edu for assistance enrolling Unavailable users. Users who have been enrolled in your course, but made Unavailable by you, will not see your course in the Courses tab and do not have access to your course.

For more information about Users, go to the Users and Groups page.

In order to batch enroll students into Blackboard, their accounts must be created first. Below is the format and information needed by Ed-Tech to get the accounts created and enroll them in the course. Put the information into an Excel file, along with the course id and course name, and submit a Batch Enroll Request Form.

• ECA (BCM username)
• Last Name
• First Name
• BCM Email
• Role
  • (B) Course Builder
  • (P) Instructor
  • (S) Student or Residents
  • (T) TA – for faculty in your department helping with the
  • program (including department head). This allows them to
  • view modules before making them available if they wish.
  • (U) Guest
• Password: Leave Field Blank
• BCM ID

Your Excel file should look like the example below:

For more information about enrolling users visit the Users and Groups page.

A course must be made available before students enrolled in the course can view or access the course and its content. However, you may want to make a course unavailable during the building process or after a scheduled course has finished.

If your course is unavailable, access is determined by course role. Blackboard administrators, instructors, course builders, teaching assistants, and graders can see and access unavailable courses from the Courses tab and the course list, but they're marked as unavailable. Students can't access unavailable courses regardless of the course duration. Unavailable courses don't appear in the course catalog.  To make a course available:

From the Courses tab

• Locate the course you want to make available.
• Click on the three dots on the far right (•••)
• Select Open Course [view screenshot] to make the course available

From the Course Properties Page

• Login to Blackboard and enter the course.
• On the Control Panel, expand the Customization section and click Properties.
• In the Set Availability section, click Yes. [view screenshot]
• Click Submit.

From a Course Homepage or Content Area

• Login to Blackboard and enter the course. 
• Access the Course Homepage or a Content Area in the course, such as Course Documents or Assignments. 
• In the top right-hand corner of the course, next to Student Preview, click on the lock icon to make the course available. [View screenshot] When the course is unavailable to students the lock is red and closed. When the course is available the lock is black and open.

Additional Resources from Blackboard:

• View Blackboard's short "How-To" video entitled: Making Your Course Available.

If students are enrolling themselves in an elective, clerkship or sub-i, or other courses, they should use the self-enroll option to get enrolled.

To enroll in this course:

1. Log into Blackboard at https://bcm.blackboard.com/.
2. Click on the Courses link in the left menu. [view screenshot]
3. Click Course Catalog in the top right. [view screenshot]
4. Click Browse Categories to see only courses belonging to that category.
5. Hover over the name in the ID column and click on the down arrow button that appears. [view screenshot]
6. Click Enroll. [view screenshot] Overview [view screenshot]
7. Click Submit on the resulting page, then Ok. [view screenshot]
8. Click OK. [view screenshot]

The course will appear under Current Courses.

There is more information for Students on the Student Blackboard page.

There are two browsers, Google Chrome & Mozilla Firefox, that are fully supported by Blackboard and BCM.

Opening the Browser Checker page checks whether your browser supports the most recent release of Blackboard Learn.

For more information about supported browsers visit Blackboard's Browser Support Policy

What does it take to create an engaging, effective course? The Exemplary Course Program, with its peer and expert review processes, can provide valuable insights.

Copying or moving course content from one semester to another is the most convenient way for you to reuse and adapt existing course structures, materials and content. Submit a Course/Organization Copy Form to request a course/org to be copied by Ed-Tech.

• To learn more, visit Copy a Course or Course Content.

• Start by creating new Content Areas and add Items, Folders, Learning Modules, etc.
• Visit Organization & Adding Content.
• Also visit Course Content for adding content to the Content Areas, Items and Folders, etc.

Student Preview allows you to experience your course as your students do. As an instructor, you want to be confident that your course is well designed and functions as intended. Use the Student Preview feature to review the course content and validate the course behaviors, such as those that control the availability of course content or require a particular interaction from the student to be triggered. You can also do the following student activities: submit assignments, take tests, create blog and discussion posts, create journal and wiki entries, view student tools such as Groups and Grades.

1. Click on the Student Preview icon in the upper right corner of the screen within your course. [View screenshot]
2. You can now experience your course as students experience it.
3. Click Exit Preview to return to instructor view. [View screenshot]

For more information about Student Preview, select from the following: Student Preview.

You will not see all the tools and options available for updating your Blackboard site if Edit Mode is set to OFF.

1. In the upper right corner you will see Edit Mode is and either a green circle ON or a gray circle OFF.
2. Click on "OFF" to change Edit Mode to "ON". [View screenshot]

Announcements can be used to post timely information critical to course success such as assignment due dates, exam schedules, changes to the syllabus or other corrections or clarifications of materials.

• To learn more, visit the Communication page.

Learning Modules and Content Folders are two tools provided by Blackboard to organize course materials. Learn how to add an Item which is the easiest way to add content.

Items

• Items allow you to insert a title, descriptive text, and file attachment.
• When adding an item you will get the text box editor, which allows you to embed objects, add tables, images, audio, and video.

Files

• Files will allow you to insert a title and attach a file.
• No additional text can be added.

Content Folders

• Creating a folder will allow you to give the folder a name and descriptive text.
• When creating a folder, you will get the text box editor, which allows you to embed objects, add tables, images, audio, and video.
• A content folder will give you the ability to insert items "into" the folder, allowing you to further organize your course.

Learning Modules

• A learning module is similar to a content folder - you are able to give the learning module a name and descriptive text.
• When building a learning module you will get the text box editor, which allows you to embed objects, add tables, images, audio, and video.
• A learning module will give you the ability to insert items "into" the module, allowing you to further organize your course into modules, units, or weekly lessons.
• Unlike the content folder, a learning module will give you and your students a table of contents that automatically lists the content you put within the module.
• You can enforce sequential viewing of the items in the learning module, so students will need to access the items in the order that you determine.

To learn more about adding folders, items and learning modules, visit Organization & Adding Content.

The discussion board is an area for posting questions and replies. It can function as an asynchronous conversation. A discussion board can be used for student-driven help sessions, discussion questions and group collaboration. Students who may avoid speaking up in class have been known to open up more in this setting.

• To learn more, visit Discussion Boards on the Collaborative Tools page.

Blackboard's Test and Survey options allow instructors to control the availability, presentation, and feedback of their course assessments. Instructors can create test availability exceptions, provide test results and feedback to students and attach due dates to assessments.

• To learn more, visit Tests and Assignments.
• To learn more, visit Inline Grading on the Inline Grading page.
• To learn more, visit Rubrics on the Rubrics page.
• To learn more, visit Item Analysis on the Item Analysis page.

Blackboard Assignments allow students to submit their work in the form of an uploaded document. Instructors can allow one or multiple attempts. Once student work is submitted, it can be downloaded from the grade center one-by-one or as a “batch” per assignment. SafeAssign plagiarism checking is an option in the Assignment settings. 

• To learn more, visit Tests and Assignments.
• To learn more, visit Inline Grading on the Inline Grading page.
• To learn more, visit Delegated Grading on the Delegated Grading page.

The grade center in Blackboard helps instructors to reduce the amount of time spent managing student performance. The grade center can calculate grades, organize student-submitted assignment documents, display the last time each student has accessed the course and store point-and-click rubrics for assignment scoring.

• To learn more, visit Grade Center.

Use Blackboard to interact with your students. Tools like discussion board, journals, wiki, collaborate, and email foster interaction with students, content, and instructors.

• For more information about collaborative tools, visit Collaborative Tools in Blackboard Learn.
• For more information about Blogs and Journals, visit Blogs and Journals Quick Start Guide.
• Also view, the Collaboration Tools page.