• Settings for new sites
• End of term priorities
• Tips for students
• Tips for faculty

Settings for New Sites

New sites are created with the following settings:

1. Availability is set at Unavailable until the instructor decides to change it to allow students to use the site. Instructors at Mercyhurst are not required to use Blackboard sites.
2. The default menu contains the following nine items in Blue 04 buttons with rounded corners. Instructors can add or delete menu items, change the names of menu items, change the button style and color, and change the button menu to a text menu.
   1. Announcements
   2. Staff Information
   3. Syllabus
   4. Course Documents
   5. Assignments
   6. Communication
   7. Discussion Board
   8. External Files
   9. Tools
3. The Tools panel contains the menu items Communication and Course Tools, which repeat the functions of the menu buttons (Communication and Tools). The corresponding menu buttons can be removed if students are instructed how to use the Tools panel.
4. No course banner is displayed on new courses. Instructors may upload an image or photo as a banner, but must abide by copyright law. Images necessary to coursework should be linked from the links page or displayed on a content page as an item.

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End of Term Priorities

1. Download grades from the gradebook to an Excel file. Such confidential files should not be stored as paper files or on your computer; save gradebook files securely in your H Drive.
2. Notify students to download any personal documents from their digital drop boxes and to check their grades on the site. Advise students as to the last day they will have access to the site.
3. Remove students (users) before the next term. Use Recycle Course to remove only the Users--do not recycle any content you wish to keep.
   1. Even if you are not teaching the section again, please remove students to keep their enrollments up to date.
4. Make the course Unavailable until you are ready to teach that section again.
   1. Request that the course be removed if you no longer need it.

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Tips for Students

1. If you have trouble logging in to Blackboard the first time, make sure you are using your correct username and password.
   1. Username: First initial of your first name + the first 5 letters of your last name + the last 2 digits of your Mercyhurst ID
   2. Password: Mc (case sensitive) plus the 7 digits of your Mercyhurst ID number, including leading zeroes
2. If you have trouble logging in after you have been to the site in the past, you may need to empty your computer's cache, the feature that saves visited Web pages for faster surfing. On Windows, those files are called Temporary Internet Files; on a Mac, those files are called the cache.
3. If you still have trouble, the IT Help Desk in Preston 15, ext. 3200 can help.
4. Be inquisitive. Explore any course site to find out where important documents or assignments are located, and then impress the professor with your knowledge and questions. You cannot break the site!
   1. The Blackboard platform is meant to be intuitive, even though your instructor has some freedom of design. It should be clear that any documents are located on the "documents" page, for instance, but if you find the site setup confusing, ask your professor to help you understand the logic of the menu items.
5. Mercyhurst faculty and campus computers use the latest version of Microsoft Office for Windows or Mac OS, so if you are required to upload documents to the Digital Drop Box, those documents should be in a readable format. If you are using an older version of Microsoft Word or Works or Wordperfect, you can make your files readable by saving them in Rich Text Format (rtf):
   1. When you save or re-save your file, select Rich Text Format as the file type. This should change the file extension to .rtf. You cannot simply type in that extension--you must re-save a .doc file in the new format.
6. Blackboard sites promote what we call asynchronous learning--anytime, anywhere learning. Your site will offer more or less of that depending on the instructor's design. The Discussion Board, WWW links, Learning Units, Group Pages, and Email are all accessed at your convenience outside class. Take advantage of such freedom to get a headstart on course work and to reinforce class discussions or lessons outside of class.

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Tips for Faculty

1. Include Blackboard in the early stages of your course planning, instead of as an add-on. Think of ways the built-in features might express your course content, clarify course outcomes, and foster communication between students.
2. Save paper by utilizing Blackboard to deliver content, whether directly in the browser window or as downloadable documents. An online schedule of assignments can be easily adjusted without printing out new versions for an entire class. Students can be notified of changes with an Announcement on the site or by email.
3. Consider using Blackboard as a learning experience in itself, helping students add Internet work skills to their recreational skills. Students need to learn email protocol for workplace communications, and they may need to learn how to upload documents in a number of situations.
4. Incorporate features which you have time to monitor and update. A full course that becomes overwhelming later in the term will make everyone, faculty and students, unhappy. Also consider how much time students must spend on the site outside of class in addition to other coursework.
5. Documents for download might need to be saved in Rich Text Format to accommodate all students' software.

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