Welcome to the Blackboard Academic Suite™! The Blackboard Academic Suite offers a robust set of tools, functions, and features for learning. Besides the features that are included as part of the Blackboard Academic Suite, there are numerous additional tools that can be added to Blackboard Academic Suite as Blackboard System Extensions.
The Blackboard Academic Suite Student Manual details the tools and functions included with the platform from the Student or general user perspective. Other Blackboard manuals detail the construction, customization, and management features that Instructors and Administrators use to build an impressive education environment on the Blackboard platform.
The flexibility of the Blackboard Academic Suite means that not all the tools and functions that are available are documented in this manual. Blackboard System Extensions allow System Administrators to add a variety of materials, tools, and functions to Blackboard Academic Suite. Individual System Extensions are not documented in this manual. For assistance with a System Extension, please contact your System Administrator. In addition, the tools and functions that are documented in this manual may not be available to users or only available in certain areas of the platform because Administrators and Instructors can customize the availability of most aspects of the platform. Finally, some tools and functions may appear differently in the Blackboard Academic Suite than the examples in this manual because System Administrators and Instructors can customize the name and appearance of many aspects of the platform.
The Blackboard Academic Suite™ includes:
· Blackboard Learning System™ (Release 6.1)
· Blackboard Learning System - Basic Edition™ (Release 6.1)
· Blackboard Portal System™ (Release 6.1)
· Blackboard Learning System - ML™
For most users, it is only important to know what Blackboard products are in use when determining if a particular function is available.
This document does not provide information on Blackboard Learning System – ML.
The Blackboard Academic Suite User Manual begins by introducing the Blackboard Academic Suite. The second section of the manual is dedicated to the course Web site environment of the Blackboard Learning System and the final section provides a review of the Blackboard Learning System basic portal and the advanced features of the Blackboard Portal System.
To make this manual easier to use a number of conventions appear throughout. These conventions are detailed in the table below.
|
Symbol |
Description |
|
[r] |
Required field |
|
Bold type |
A button or field name. |
|
Courier font |
Text that users should type. |
|
Steps |
Tasks users should perform. |
This manual is best read as a reference, rather than as a book to be read from cover to cover. If the manual is viewed online, the embedded links enable the reader to navigate quickly through topics and follow the same workflows that appear in the software. For readers that prefer to print out and read a paper copy of the manual, refer to the table of contents to locate topics that are referenced in the text.
Please note that the Blackboard Academic Suite User Manual is updated periodically. Check the Date Last Update at the beginning of the manual to ensure that it is the most recent copy. Any updates are listed in the Appendix.
The HTML version is available through the Student Manual feature in each course and at http://www.blackboard.com/products/services/support. Also, the Behind the Blackboard extranet includes the most current versions of the user manuals in PDF format for those who would like to print a hard copy.
To report any comments or suggestions regarding this manual, please contact Blackboard Support.
To find out which Blackboard product you are using contact your System Administrator.