Blackboard Quick Start Guide For Students

Welcome to Blackboard: A Quick Start Guide

Ready to dive into the world of Blackboard? This guide is designed to help you get started quickly and efficiently. Whether you're a new student or a returning user, this guide will walk you through the essential pages, features, and tools.

Image 1: Blackboard Homepage

Log In

Blackboard can be accessed in three ways:

• From your Okta Dashboard (How to guide here)
• From your My USA portal page - https://my.usa.edu/ICS/Blackboard/
• By directing your browser to class.usa.edu

Additional information on when you will be able to sign in can be found here: Blackboard - When can I login for the first time

Homepage & Navigation

When accessing Blackboard for in the ways above, the homepage will default to the Institution Page (Image 1 above). The institution page serves as a central hub for accessing announcements and institutional resources. You'll find links to important information and tools here.

On left side of the page you will find navigation to other parts of Blackboard. This includes access to important links, such as:

• Your Courses
• Your Organizations
• Available Tools

Image 2: Navigation

Use the navigation to visit different areas of the system. Click on Courses to access any courses you are currently enrolled. Click on Organizations to see Clinical Education Resource Communities. Click on Tools to access Kaltura, a video sharing service. There are other links as well to the calendar, messages, and to your grades. More details on these various areas can be found in these guide articles:

• Your Name - This page can be used to add a photo of yourself. View this guide: How do I upload my picture in Blackboard
• Courses & Organization Pages - Blackboard Courses Page - Filters and Personalization
• Calendar - Blackboard - Calendar Share
• Tools - Kaltura Guide Article

Access a Blackboard Course

Note: Upcoming courses will always appear the Friday before term start. 

The course page is where you'll find all the materials, assignments, and announcements related to a specific course. It's typically organized into modules or units and course materials are primarily located in these areas. Course content is on the left side, while your instructors name and other actions are on the right side. Click on a module or unit to see its contents. Scroll down the course to see all available content.

Image 3: Blackboard Course Layout

Along the top of the page, you will see the course title and Course ID. You will also see tabs for Content, Calendar, Announcements, Discussions, Gradebook and others. Click on these tabs to access different areas of the course. 

Image 4: Course Navigation

Let's go through a few of these pages and cover what you can find on them.

Announcements

Instructors use announcements to communicate time-sensitive information and course updates. These may be emailed to you, or pop-up when you access a course (faculty dependent). To make sure you always see email notifications, turn off your focused inbox following this guide here: Microsoft Outlook Turn On or Off Focused Inbox

Discussions

Discussions are an online forum about course concepts. Your instructor may expect you to create your own discussions and participate in existing ones. Your instructor can also grade your contributions.

Gradebook

You can view all the coursework and grades on a courses Gradebook page.

Image 4: Gradebook

• New grades have a purple indicator in the Gradebook.
• Current Grade displays your overall grade to date. Your instructor may choose not to add an overall grade. Overall grades are only truly accurate once you have completed all assigned work at the end of term.
• For each item in the list, you can view the status, number of attempts, and if you've received feedback. View which attempts you've started, submitted before the due date, and if any submissions are or will be late. After the due date passes, submission info appears in red.
• After the due date passes, you may see zeros for work you haven't submitted. You can still submit attempts to update your grade. Your instructor determines grade penalties for late work.
  
  

Progress Tracking

Progress tracking will automatically mark tasks, like tests and assignments, complete once you've submitted them. You can also manually check items complete after you've submitted them or met the requirements. Progress tracking appears as a dot next to each item in a course.

Not Yet Accessed:

Opened/Accessed:

Completed:

Additional Resources

• Further resources can be found in the help center: https://help.usa.edu/hc/en-us
• If you don't see something, but still have a question send an email with all details to support@usa.edu