Quick Start Guide Blackboard 9.

0 for Students
Leiden University

What is Blackboard?

Enrolling to courses

Blackboard is the online learning environment

for the University of Leiden. A learning
environment is a web-based tool designed to
help manage and improve student learning.
Blackboard offers not only facilities to have
structured learning content (web pages,
presentations, lecture notes, computer-aided
learning applications, audio, video clips, etc.),
but also provides student management,
communication and assessment tools, and a
range of other useful functions.

To enroll for a course go to the tab Courses

and open the Course Catalog (module on the
right) and open Faculteit der Geesteswetenschappen. Now use the navigation
panel to select your program. (E.g.
Masteropleidingen > Dutch Studies). Now all
the courses in this program will be displayed.
Select the one you want to enroll to. Click on
the chevron behind the course ID and select
Enroll. The course will now be displayed in
the module My Courses on the tab My
Institution and under the tab Courses.

Supported Web browsers

The following web browsers are supported:

Internet Explorer 7/8

Firefox 3.0/3.5/3.6

Safari
Note that Google Chrome and Internet
Explorer 6 are not supported!

Accessing Blackboard:
Go to the following web page (note: without
www!): http://blackboard.leidenuniv.nl. On
the welcome page you will see a login box:

Notifications Dashboard
The Notifications dashboard is a useful tool in
Blackboard 9 that provides you with a quick
overview of the new and changed information
in all your courses since the last time you
logged in. It is accessed as follows:

Especially the module Whats New on the

Notifications Dashboard is very useful:
You need your ULCN account to log in. Enter
your username and password and click the
Login button. (Your username is your student
number preceded by an s.) Forgot your
password? Go to the Service Desk in the
Lipsius building. Once logged in, you will see
your personalised home page with the
following tabs:

Your My Institution page in Blackboard will

show you a number of modules that are
relevant to you - for example, any new
announcements, links to your courses, and
faculty news. Clicking the My Institution tab
will always bring you back to this screen.
The Courses tab provides the entry to your
courses and shows the Course Catalog.
The FAQ Student tab provides help,
information including helpdesk details and a
FAQ (list of Frequently Asked Questions).

Quick Start Guide Blackboard 9.0 for Students

Leiden University

Accessing courses

Content

You can access the courses you are enrolled

in from the tab Courses or from the list in My
Courses on your My Institution page. Clicking
on the title of the course will take you to the
resources for that course in Blackboard.

There will be as many or as few content areas

in the menu as your teacher chooses to use.
They should explain what materials they are
adding to Blackboard for you, and how they
expect you to use them. Content is stored in
folders or as single items. To open a folder,
click on its title. Items may have files
attached to them click on the link to open
the file. Some files will open within the
browser window, some may open a new
browser or the program (e.g. Powerpoint)
with which they are associated.

Overview of a Course

Communication

All courses have the same basic layout, with

a menu of text (or buttons) on the left and
content on the right. Moving around your
course is easy. The links indicate the different
content areas of the course, where lecturers
can place information like the course
handbook, lecture notes, reading materials,
assignments, or other materials.

Part of the power of Blackboard is to provide

enhanced tools for staff-student and studentstudent communication.

Each lecturer can customise these links, so

the names may vary from course to course.
Lecturers can also decide which of the
features of Blackboard to use: some of the
common tools are described below.

Announcements
Lecturers use the Announcements often the
first page you see in a course as a notice
board with general or specific information,
(e.g. homework, changed time table etc.).
You should check this information as often as
a regular notice board. The most recent
announcements concerning the courses you
are enrolled in will also be displayed on the
My Institutions page:

E-mail is most often used by lecturers to

send you information. These will be delivered
to your umail inbox. If you have been
provided with group workspace (see below)
then you will be able to send e-mail directly
to your group members.
Groups can be created within a course to
provide students with a private space to work
in teams. Each group can be allocated a
discussion board, an e-mail list, a chat room
and a file exchange, where you can share
documents. Click on the Groups button in the
menu, and click on the name of your group.
Groups you are not a member of will be listed,
but you will not see a link to enter them.
Discussion Board. A number of courses
include discussion boards for out-of-class
interaction. Discussion boards offer centrally
posted e-mail- or forum-like conversations,
organized in threads, which you can follow
and reply to. Click on the Discussion Board
button in the menu.

As a student you can view threads in the

different forums, create new threads, reply to
existing threads, flag or subscribe to threads
etc. To do this you can use the various
buttons you will find in the Discussion Board.

Quick Start Guide Blackboard 9.0 for Students

Leiden University

Assessment
There are two forms of online assessment
you might be asked to take within Blackboard,
Quizzes and Surveys, and you may also be
asked to submit work to tutors electronically,
via Assignments (see following chapter).
Quizzes provide multiple choice-type
questions in a variety of forms, and may be
used as quick revision tests at the end of
topics, or as a longer diagnostic tool. They
are most likely to be self-assessed and
formative, with feedback to help you revisit
problem areas.
Surveys follow a similar format to quizzes,
and may be made up of multiple choice or
short answer questions, and can be used to
provide formative feedback. Surveys are
anonymous, your views are not associated
with your name.

Assignments
Lecturers may place an Assignment in any of
the content areas of your coursewhere you
can upload a completed assignment in the
form of a Word file, Excel file, etc. to
Blackboard. To do so, click on the desired
menu button and then on the desired
Assignment, which will be recognisable to the
following icon:

After clicking the link you will see the

following form to fill in.

Use Browse for local file to upload a

document from your computer. You can only
upload a document once so make sure you
upload the right document. After completing
the form click Submit (Note: dont click safe
as draft. In that case your assignment wont
be sent to your instructor.)

Viewing Grades
If your lecturer has created a number of
quizzes for you, or asked you to submit
material electronically via assignments, then
they may also enable you to quickly see your
grades. This will allow you to review your
answers and any feedback for assessments
submitted via Blackboard. Lecturers choose
how much information to make available
regarding quizzes. They may choose to
display only a score, additional information
about which questions you answered
correctly, or even the entire list of questions
with correct answers. Any questions
regarding your grades should be directed to
the lecturer. If your instructor wishes you to
access the grade center, there will be a menu
button available in the course.

Help
If you have questions about the content of
the course, please contact your lecturer. If
you have technical questions, try the tab FAQ
Student in Blackboard. If you still have
questions, contact the Blackboard helpdesk of
your faculty.

Logging out
When you have finished working on a
networked computer, always click Logout.