Getting Started

• Getting Started in Blackboard 9: An Instructor's Guide to What's New and What's Different

Adding Content to a Course

• Enabling Edit Mode [Turning on Blackboard 9's Instructor Tools]
• Hiding and Unhiding the Course Menu [NOTE: This is a COMMON problem]
• Adding a Syllabus
• Adding Items [Uploading Files to Blackboard 9]
• Adding Multiple Files [Uploading Multiple Files at Once]

Managing Students and TAs

• Viewing a Course's Roster/Users

Collecting Papers and Assignments from Students

• Using the Digital Drop Box [Creating Assignments and Collecting Student Work]
• Creating Assignments [Collecting Student Work]
• Downloading Assignments [Transferring Student Submissions to Your Computer]
• Entering Grades and Returning Assignments
• Clearing Assignment Attempts [Allowing a Student to Resubmit an Assignment]

Posting Student Grades to Blackboard

• How Students View Course Grades
• Using the Grade Center [Creating Columns and Posting Grades]
• Creating Text Columns [Entering Non-Grade Information Such As Preferred Names]
• Organizing Columns [Unfreezing, Hiding, and Moving Columns]
• Dropping the Lowest Scores
• Weighting Grades
• Weighting Grades by Category
• Downloading Grades [Downloading Your Grade Center So That You Can Edit It in Microsoft Excel]
• Uploading Grades [Uploading an Edited Grade Center File from Your Computer to Blackboard]

Communicating with Students

• Sending Email [Using Blackboard to Communicate with Your Students via Email]
• Creating Announcements
• Posting your Contact Information

Naming and Compressing Files

• Preparing Files for Blackboard 9 [Supported File Names and Extensions]
• Compressing File Sizes
  • Optimizing Microsoft Office 2007 Files
  • Optimizing Microsoft Office 2003 (and Earlier) Files
  • Optimizing Microsoft PowerPoint Files on a Mac
  • Optimizing Adobe Acrobat PDFs

Printing

• Printing Items

Miscellaneous

• What's new and what's different in Blackboard 9
• Blackboard 9 upgrade path

Using Blackboard 9

• USC's Blackboard 9 Knowledge Base & Searchable Support Pages
• Significant Changes, Fixes, and Improvements in Blackboard 9
• Blackboard 9 Instructor Manual [Web | PDF | MS Word]
• Blackboard 9 Student Manual [PDF | MS Word]

Adding Content to a Course

• About Edit Mode
• Hiding and Showing the Course Menu
• Adding a Syllabus
• Adding [or "Uploading"] Items (including Word documents, PowerPoint Presentations, and PDF files)
• Using the Text Editor

Managing Students and TAs

• Viewing a Course's Roster/Users

Communicating with Students

• Blackboard 9 Communication Tools
• Course Communication Strategy
• Netiquette
• Sending Email
• Creating Announcements
• Creating Calendar Entries

Collecting Papers and Assignments from Students

• Using the Digital Drop Box
• Creating Assignments
• Downloading and Reviewing Assignments Offline
• Entering Students’ Grades and Returning Students’ Graded Assignments
• Creating and Reviewing Turnitin Assignments (Plagiarism Detection)

Posting Student Grades to Blackboard

• Creating Grade Center Columns
• Creating Text Columns (for Non-Grade Information Such As Preferred Names)
• Modifying Grades (Clearing Attempts, Overriding Grades, and Exempting a Grade)
• Creating Weighted Grade Center Columns
• Creating Grade Center Categories
• Customizing Letter Grade Schema
• Creating Grading Periods
• Creating Smart Views

Assessing Students

• Creating Tests (Using the Tests Tool, Adding a Test, Specifying Test Creation Settings, and Creating Questions)
• Deploying Tests (Adding Tests to Content Areas and Setting Test Options)
• Viewing and Grading Tests (Grading Tests, Overriding Grades, and Clearing Attempts)
• Creating and Deploying Surveys
• Creating and Importing Pools of Questions
• Creating Tests Using Pools
• Running the Overall Summary of Usage Report
• Locations of Student and Course Data

Encouraging Peer Review

• Creating Self and Peer Assessments
• Creating Self and Peer Assessment Questions

Miscellaneous

• Updating Faculty or Staff Personal Information in Blackboard 9
• Editing Blackboard 9's Nightly Notification Settings
• Changing the Courses Displayed in the My Courses Module
• Copying Course Content from One Course to Another
• Copying Course Content from Summer 2009 Courses to Fall 2009 Courses
• Preventing Internet Explorer from Opening Office Files [e.g., Word Documents, PowerPoint Presentations, Excel Spreadsheets] inside Internet Explorer

Managing and Organizing Content

• Creating Content Areas
• Adding a Learning Module
• Adding Items to a Learning Module
• Enabling Statistics Tracking
• Setting up a Basic Adaptive Release Rule
• Monitoring an Item’s Release and Review Status

Customizing a Course

• Customizing the Course Style
• Editing Course Menu Links
• Adding Tools to the Course Menu
• Changing Tool Availability
• Disabling Student-to-Student Emails
• Adding Content Areas to the Course Menu
• Adding Modules to the Course Home Page
• Reordering Course Home Modules

Enhancing Communication with the Discussion Board

• Suggestions for Organizing Discussions
• Creating a Discussion Forum
• Managing Forums (Editing, Copying, Reordering, and Deleting)
• Creating Threads
• Tagging Threads
• Changing the Status of a Thread
• Deleting Threads
• Moderating Posts
• Allowing Email Subscriptions
• Assigning Discussion Forum Roles
• Assigning Grades for Discussion Board
• Assigning Grades for Discussion Threads

Enhancing Communication with Chat Sessions

• Optimal Group Size for Chat Sessions
• Rules, Procedures, and Outcomes for Chats
• Creating Chat Sessions
• Participating in Chat Sessions
• Managing Sessions
• Recording Sessions
• Modifying Participant Roles

Creating and Working with Groups

• Flowchart of Creating Groups
• Creating Single Groups
• Creating Self-Enroll Groups
• Creating Group Sets
• Editing and Managing Groups
• Adding Group Links to Content Areas

Instructional Design

• Course Plan
• Content Mapping
• Content Area and Folder Structure Planning Worksheet
• Choosing the Right Blackboard Tools
• Course Evaluation Form