Important Information for Fall Blackboard Instructors

GETTING YOUR COURSES LISTED IN BLACKBOARD

All courses are automatically created in Blackboard. Courses listed as being assigned to "staff" in Banner Self Service Center will not appear in Blackboard. Instructors who do not see their courses listed in Blackboard should contact their departments to be sure they are listed as the instructor in Banner.

IMPORTANT NOTICE ABOUT COURSE COPYING

Course copying can take a long time. Instructors should wait until they get a "Copy Complete" confirmation email from Blackboard prior to editing a course. Instructors who copy a course but don’t find any content in the new one, should check for duplicate course menu buttons at the bottom of the list of course buttons. Copied content is stored in this second set of buttons. The empty duplicate buttons can be removed using the chevron icon next to a button name.

MAKING YOUR COURSE AVAILABLE TO STUDENTS

All Blackboard courses are created as "unavailable" or invisible to students. Instructors using Blackboard need to make courses available to students:

• Log into Blackboard and enter the course.
• In the control panel (under the course menu), select "Customization."
• Select "Properties."
• Under “Set Availability,” select “Yes.”
• Click "Submit."

SYNCRONIZING SAFE ASSIGNMENTS

After performing a course copy or moving an individual SafeAssignment to another course an additional step is needed to activate the SafeAssignment in the new course.

• Log into Blackboard and enter the course.
• In the control panel (under the course menu), select "Tools."
• Select "SafeAssign," then "SafeAssignments."
• Click "Synchronize this course."

GETTING HELP WITH BLACKBOARD

The Faculty Center for Learning Development (FCLD) offers Blackboard workshops for faculty throughout the year. A workshop schedule, written guides, video tutorials, and frequently asked questions (FAQs) can be found at FCLD's Teaching with Blackboard web page or by clicking the question mark icon at the top of the Blackboard screen. If you need more assistance, please email fcld@hartford.edu and a member of the FCLD staff will respond as soon as possible.