BlackBoard Question of the Week

Q. I would like to add a batch of users to my organization, rather than adding them one by one. Can I do that?

A. If you are a “leader” for the Blackboard organization you can use the My Organizations Plus tool to submit a “.txt” file of a list of students with the list of their UVIDs. 

Please visit this link Managing Organization Enrollment for a tutorial on how to use My Organizations Plus to enroll users, including how to enroll multiple users simultaneously.

Q. How can I add members to my Blackboard organization?

A. Log into Blackboard and find the module for “My Organizations Plus” on your Login page. Then click Edit users next to the name of your organization to manage enrollment for the organization.  Note that only the leader of the organization can add members.

Visit this link for complete instructions Blackboard Organizations

Q. Can professors grant access to their Blackboard courses to other professors in much the same way that access to Groupwise e-mail account owners can grant access to other users?

A. Blackboard can add a colleague to your course in a specific role that will allow him or her varying levels of access depending on your intent:

• Guest access – ability to view only those parts of the course you as the instructor manually select (view is limited to content areas)
• Course builder – ability to view all content, use communication tools, add material and delete material from the course
• Teaching Assistant – ability to do everything a course builder does with the additional ability to view the Grade Center, and make changes to the Grade Center (enter grades, override grades, change grades, clear attempts, view attempts, etc.)

To request any of these types of access to your course for another professor, send the name of the instructor, the course id, e.g., BIOL_100_101_7383_102, that you wish the instructor to access, and the type of role you would like the instructor to have in that course to Blackboard@luc.edu .

Q. Where do I see myself in a group if I added myself and how do the students know they are in a group?

 A. You can see who is in a group by going to Control Panel, then clicking on Manage Groups in the User Management panel. Click on the Modify button for the group you want to see, then click on List Users in Group.  As instructor, you have access to all groups and do not need to add yourself, and you will not see yourself listed there.

When students who have been added to a group enter your course, they should click on the  Communication menu button, then on the Group Pages link. There, they will see a list of all the groups you have created, but only the name of the group they are in will appear as an active link that will give them access to the group when they click on it.

Tip: If you type the names of the group members into the Description box when you create or modify the group, you and your students can easily see who is a member without entering the group. 

Instructions for Creating Student Groups

Q.  How do I print out my roster in Blackboard?

A. The course user list provides information on each user enrolled in your course, including their name, username, e-mail address, and role in the course.  Find the user list by following these instructions:

1.  Click Control Panel.
2. In the User Management area, click List > Modify Users.
3. Make sure Last Name is selected and click Search.
4. To print the list, click Print on your browser’s toolbar.

If your class is large, the user list may take up more than one page.  To view additional pages of user information, click the numbers next to Results at the bottom of the page.

Another option for printing out your roster is downloading the Grade Center to Excel and printing from there:

1. From the control panel, click Grade Center, under Assessments.
2. Click Manage, then click Download.
3. Under Data, select User Information Only.
4. Leave the default Options and click Submit.
5. Click the Download button to open and print the file or save it locally.