Computing
and Information Services

Some frequently asked questions have been addressed below.  For more information, please refer to the Blackboard's Quick Start Guides For Instructors.  You can also email blackboard@vassar.edu for help.

http://blackboard.vassar.edu. (Note that there is no www in the URL)

To set up a Blackboard course, fill out a Course Request Form.

Registered students are automatically enrolled in each Blackboard site when it is created by CIS staff. To enroll additional students, use the "Enroll User" function in your site's control panel.

To Remove Students:

1. Go to Control Panel > User Management > Remove Users
2. Either Search for the particular student or List All
3. Check the box to the left of the name of the student(s) you wish to remove
4. Type the word "Yes" in the box at the bottom right of the page exactly as it appears. (Must be capital "Y")
5. Click Submit
6. Click OK in the warning box

The student(s) will no longer appear in your class roster, or have access to the course information. NOTE: removing a student from a course will permanently delete all of their information in the Online Gradebook; these items can not be recovered by Blackboard Support

Student access all Blackboard courses by going to http://blackboard.vassar.edu. Their user id is the same as their Vassar email user id and their initial password is their student ID number.

To change your password, log into Blackboard. Under the Welcome tab, in the Tools section, click on Personal Information. Then click the link for Change Password.

When Blackboard courses are created, the default setting makes them unavailable to students. This allows you to post and organize course content before students have access to the information. You may need to make your courses available to students before they are able to view any of your course content.

To make your courses available to students:

1. In the Control Panel, under Course Options, click Course Settings
2. Click Course Availability
3. Choose Yes, and click Submit

Downloading a copy of the gradebook

1. Go to your site's Control Panel
2. Click on Gradebook
3. Click on Download Grades
4. Choose the Comma delimiter type and click on the Submit button
5. Right-click (Windows) or Control-click (Mac) on the Download button. This will produce a pop-up menu; from that menu, make the choice to Save or Download the link. The resulting file can be opened into Microsoft Excel

Downloading a copy of the discussion board

1. Go to your site's Control Panel
2. Click on Discussion Board
3. Click on the Discussion Board that you want to save
4. Click on the Forum that you want to save
5. Click on Go button next to Select All
6. Click on Collect
7. The postings will be compiled into a single page
8. In your browser, click File > Save As... to download this page to your computer