Knowledge errors RESOLVED (8/26, 5:00)
Beginning around 4:20 or so on Thursday 8/26, Knowledge began returning errors rather than pages. As of 5:00PM ITS has resolved the issue, and Knowledge seems to be running normally.
Author Archives: admin
Send email
Sending email to students enrolled in your Blackboard course site is easy. Email can be sent to individual users or to groups of users within the course (for example, all Teaching Assistants). Each time you send an email you also receive a copy of it.
Email provides a more immediate contact with students, Teaching Assistants, Course Builders, and other faculty members enrolled in your course site. It also offers a personal contact when necessary to arrange private consultation, encouragement, or when providing confidential information.
Note: Email cannot be sent to anyone who is not enrolled in the specific course.
To send email from within a course site:
1. Click Send Email from the Course Tools section of the Control Panel
2. Choose one of the mail options, from the menu that displays
3. Enter email as you would using any other email service.
- The example shown here is the screen used for sending email to select users. On this screen, the center arrows pull those users you wish to contact from the “available users” list to the “select” list.
4. Attach a document to your email (optional). The link for this is under the text box. Documents (under 10 megabytes) are attached as you would with any other email service.
5. Click Submit to send the email
Email recipients retrieve email from their TitanConnect (or other provider) email mailbox. While they can respond to mail, be aware that the reply will go to the sender’s email address and not to the entire class.
Add an announcement
Announcements are a great way to provide timely course information and stay in touch with your students. By default, a course announcement will appear on a student’s My Knowledge page in the My Announcements box and My Courses box, as well as on the course homepage. Students will also be automatically notified by email when an announcement is posted. Students using the Blackboard Mobile app for iPhone or Android will receive a notification as well.
By default, announcements appear in the order in which they were posted, with the most recent ones at the top. You can change the order of posted announcements by clicking the handle on the left side of an announcement and dragging it up or down
Announcements allow you to touch base with students on areas of concern, remind them of important assignments, or help them keep current with upcoming events. Even a brief note of welcome can provide a personal contact that students often appreciate.
To create an announcement, follow the steps below:
From the Course Menu, click Announcements.
Click in the Subject box to enter a Subject for your announcement. To grab the attention of students, the subject of your announcement can be entered in colorful text using the color select menu located next to the Subject line.
- Click in the text box to enter your message. A brief message works best for conveying information to students.
- Set the Duration and Date Restrictions by clicking the button and boxes next to each field as shown here. You can enter a date directly, or use the calendar and/or clock icons to select a specific date and time. If your announcement topic is important and students will benefit from seeing it each each time they enter the course site, choose “permanent” to keep it displayed throughout the semester. If the subject of your announcement is timely, you may not need to keep it more than a week or so.
- You can link to a course area, tool, or item (optional) to help guide students to specific areas of the course you may want to call to their attention (e.g., the course Syllabus). (Please visit the tutorial on creating Course Links for more information on this topic.)
- Click Submit.
Once an announcement has been created, it can be moved by placing your cursor over the arrows to the left of the title (as shown above), then clicking and dragging the item into place.
Editing/Deleting Announcements
- Click Edit (or “delete”) from the options menu next to the title of the Announcement to be edited.
- Make changes, then click Submit.
Note: This action is final and cannot be undone.
Make a course site available
When created, course sites are unavailable by default. This means you, as faculty, can access the site to load content, but students cannot. When you are ready for your students to access a course site, you’ll need to make it available. The process for making a course site available is fairly straightforward:
1. Enter the course site by clicking the course name in your My Courses box.
2. Click the Customization link under the Control Panel heading on the left side of your course site to expand the customization menu. 
3. Select Properties from the customization menu
4. Scroll about half-way down the Properties screen to No. 3: Set Availability. Select YES, then click SUBMIT at the top or bottom of the page.
Once this is done, your course site will be available to students. If you want to make your course site unavailable, follow the same steps but choose NO for step 4.
