Blackboard FAQ

Blackboard is UB's new centrally-supported, Web-accessible course management tool.

Contents

• Accessing and Logging into Blackboard
• Passwords
• E-mail
• Student DropBox
• Problems with Blackboard
• Problems with my Course
• Technical Specifications

Accessing and Logging into Blackboard:

• You can access Blackboard from any computer with Web access.

• http://ublearns.buffalo.edu

• The server is available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, with the exception of a half hour every day at 3:00 am EST.

• Access the UBlearns Blackboard site (http://ublearns.buffalo.edu )
  • Click on the Login button
  • Username: Enter your UB-IT name
  • Password: Enter your UB-supplied password

• After logging in, your Blackboard Personal Home page will be displayed and you will see a list of all your Blackboard courses. To enter a course, simply click on the course name.

Passwords:

Your password is made up of the month and day of your birthday, (mmdd) PLUS the last six digits of the ISO number on your UBcard. (see picture below, yellow highlight added for emphasis) For example, the student on the card below was born on March 5th, 1981. Her password would be 0305512448.

PLEASE NOTE: Password changes made in Blackboard DO NOT affect passwords elsewhere. Likewise, changing your password outside of Blackboard does not affect your Blackboard password. If you have problems loggin in, send e-mail, including your UBIT name, to ublearns@buffalo.edu.

• Yes. Click on Student Tools > Change Your Information.

• Send a request, including your UBIT name, to ublearns@buffalo.edu asking that your password be reset to the default.

What is the turnaround time for a response to e-mail sent to ublearns@buffalo.edu?

• One business day.

Blackboard e-mail:

If you use UB's e-mail system, under your UB IT name, Blackboard is already set up to send mail directly to your UB account - if your instructor has enabled the e-mail option within the system.

If you are not using UB e-mail, see the FAQ below.

• To send e-mail, click the "Communication" button located in the menu on the left of the screen.
• In the new screen click "Send E-Mail."
• Select the users you wish to e-mail, type in a subject, and type a message.
• Click "Send Message" at the bottom of the screen. Recipients of your e-mail can read the message you sent by accessing their own personal e-mail accounts.

Since Blackboard e-mail is an instructor-set option, it may not be available in all courses.

• Yes, you can. Click on Student Tools > Change Your Information. This will change your e-mail address for Blackboard only.
• If you would like to have all UB e-mail sent to a different account, you can set up mail forwarding centrally.
• Instructions for forwarding your mail are available at
  http://wings.buffalo.edu/services/ublearns/forwardinst.html.
• Using this form will forward all mail sent to your @acsu.buffalo.edu account to the e-mail address you specify.

Some e-mail accounts, like Hotmail and AOL, consider e-mail from Blackboard to be junk mail, and they automatically move this e-mail into your junk mail folder or delete it altogether.

In Hotmail, you can fix this by clicking the "Options" link next to the "Address Book" tab. Look at the "Junk Mail Filter" and "Junk Mail Deletion" links. Turn "Off" the "Junk Mail Filter" and set "Junk Mail Deletions" to "Delayed."

If you are using AOL or another e-mail service in which you are not receiving Blackboard e-mail, check your user preferences or options areas to see what can be done about this problem.

• Blackboard uses UB's central e-mail to collect and distribute messages. If there is an outage of central e-mail, Blackboard messages will not be delivered until the central e-mail is restored.

Student DropBox

• The Student Drop Box, located in the student tools area of Blackboard, is a tool for exchanging files between the instructor and student. It may or may not be enabled by your instructor. Only the instructor and teaching assistants can view the files you put into the drop box.
• To put a file in the DropBox, simply click the "Student Tools" button located at the bottom of the menu on the left side.
• Click the "Student Drop Box" button.
• To add a file, click the "browse" button located under Add File to DropBox
• Clicking "browse" will give you a popup window where you can select the file you want to upload.
• Select the file (make sure "Files of all Types *.*" is selected).
• Click Open.
• In Blackboard, enter a title for the name of the file you are uploading.
• Click "Send File to Instructor."

• Files left in the Drop Box by the instructor can be saved to disk by following these steps:
  • Access the student Drop Box by clicking the "Student Tools" button located at the bottom of the menu on the left side.
  • Click the "Student Drop Box" button.
  • Under current files, in your Drop Box, will appear a list of files that you can download.
  • Select the file you wish to download by clicking the file under the Link Name column.
  • Clicking the file will give you a popup window and an option to save the file to disk.
  • Choose the "Save File to Disk" and click "OK."
  • Select the drive and folder where you wish to save the file and click "Save."

Problems with Blackboard:

In general, problems related to the functionality of Blackboard should be referred to the UBlearns Implementation team at ublearns@buffalo.edu. Problems related to course content should be referred to individual course instructors.

• http://wings.buffalo.edu/computing/alert/

• Send e-mail to ublearns@buffalo.edu.

• Send e-mail to ublearns@buffalo.edu.

• Send e-mail to ublearns@buffalo.edu with the student's information, requesting that the student be added to the course.

Problems with my course:

• Talk to your instructor. You may not have been added to the course, and your instructor will need to request that you be added.

• It depends on how you submit the file to your professor. If you sent it as an e-mail attachment, you should have a copy in your Sent Mail folder in your mail program. If you used the Student DropBox in Blackboard, a confirmation screen is displayed after a successful submission. If you’re concerned about your submission being questioned, you may want to print the confirmation screen.

• Contact your instructor.

Technical Specifications:

• Netscape 3.0 or higher or Microsoft Internet Explorer 4.0 or higher. Internet Explorer works better with Microsoft Office documents that may be included in your course. The Virtual Classroom does not work on the Macintosh. Blackboard is not designed to work with the AOL browser or the Opera browser. If you use AOL, you can still dial-up using your AOL account, but you are encouraged to download and install either the Microsoft Internet Explorer browser or the Netscape Communicator browser. (Both of these are available for download by the UB community from http://www.cit.buffalo.edu/software/.) Once you have dialed in using AOL, you can then minimize AOL and launch one of the other browsers to access your course content. AOL will sometimes try to "hangup" its call due to perceived service inactivity (since you are using a different browser). If this happens, you are encouraged to contact AOL technical support in order to adjust your system's default "time-out" so that it doesn't hang up during your activity with another browser.

• Yes

• Your instructor will inform you if any are required. Certain common plugins are available to the UB community from the CIT download site:
  http://wings.buffalo.edu/computing/software/

• Yes. From your browser toolbar, click on File > Print. Normal printing rules apply in all UB public labs and the Cybraries.

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Last update: October 2, 2001