Individual Courses

Navigating in Original Course View

screenshot showing course Home Page

  1. Upon entering an individual Blackboard course, students and faculty will have access to the Course Menu, providing links to course content, tools, and a student's grades. The Course Menu is fully customizable and is administered by the course instructor(s).
  2. Faculty members will also have access to the Control Panel, located directly under the Course Menu. Here the faculty member will be able to manage their course through a variety of menu areas including: the Content Collection, Course Tools, Evaluation, Grade Center, Users and Groups, Customization, and Packages and Utilities.
  3. The Home Page is the course entry page and provides easy and instant access to important course information. Faculty members can customize and arrange the modules on the Home Page based on priorities and preferences determined by the faculty member.

Navigating in Ultra Course View

All of your course content appears in the main part of the page. When you open a piece of content, it slides out in a layer on top of the Course Content page. Close layers to go back to a previous spot in your course.

screenshot of ultra course view highlighting the Course Content list, Details & Actions pane, and the tabs in the upper right

  1. Navigation bar: Open frequently used tools in one step with the tabs in the upper right. Select an icon to check the course calendar, respond to class discussions, access the course gradebook, and send a message.
  2. Details & Actions: Manage your course with these options:
    • Create and manage groups: You can create group sets to use for graded assignments and discussions
    • Roster: View your class list. You can access basic profile cards and match faces to names. You can also send messages to anyone involved with your course.
    • Course availability: Manage whether your course is available to students.
      • Open: Open a course when you're ready for students to participate.
      • Private: Make a course private while you add or experiment with content, and then open it to students when you're ready. Students see private courses in their course lists, but they can't access them.
    • Blackboard Collaborate: Use a Blackboard Collaborate session as a convenient launch point for scheduled and impromptu meetings. The icon appears in purple to show you and other course members when people are active in the Collaborate room.
    • Attendance: Mark attendance grades and access detailed records.
    • Announcements: Create or schedule course announcements for all course members to view.
  3. Add content: Select the plus sign (+) wherever you want to add content. If you want to batch edit or import content, open the three dots (...) menu on the right side above the content list.
  4. New activity: If you've enabled conversations on content, activity icons appear for new conversation activity. The activity icon also appears with new discussions and group conversation activity.


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Get Help

Technical Support and Student Help

Division of IT Service Desk

815-753-8100
servicedesk@niu.edu

Teaching Support and Faculty Help

Center for Innovative Teaching and Learning

815-753-0595
citl@niu.edu

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