Blackboard Open LMS Student Guide

Welcome to our University Virtual Classroom!

Account Basics
Open your profile

You can access your profile and set account preferences through your dashboard/profile preferences. If
your institution uses the Snap design theme, select My Courses > Your name > Preferences. If your
institution uses another theme, select Your name > Profile > Preferences.

Update your profile settings

If enabled, you can update and change your profile information and site preferences.

1. Access your dashboard.

Steps: My Courses > Your name > Edit profile.

2. Determine profile preferences and make the necessary changes. Required information is
marked with an asterisk.
 Update your name information.
 Your email address and whether to display your email address on the site.
 Update your location and time zone as needed.
 Select your preferred design theme for your course pages.
 Add a description about yourself.
 Update your picture for your profile.
 Add any nicknames or how to pronounce your name.
 Add any other contact information.
3. Select Update profile to save the changes.

Change your password

If enabled, you can update your password for your Blackboard Open LMS site. You can not update your
username. If you have any issues with password changes, contact your institution's system
administrator.

1. Access your preferences.

Steps: My Courses >
Your name > Preferences
2. Select Change password.
3. Type your Current password.
4. Enter your New password
according to your institution's
requirements.
5. Enter your New password again.
6. Select Save changes.
Personal menu is the best place to see everything important you need to know at-a-glance. Use it as
your landing page to stay engaged and keep current with what others are saying. The personal menu
supports Moodle's course end dates. Courses where the end date is in the past appear in separate tabs
from current courses, and are grouped by year.

View courses

Courses contain a collection of activities and resources supplied by your teacher for you to access and
complete. You can also view your grades and other participants in your course.

1. Log in to the site.

2. Select the course from the My Courses area:

Steps: Select your Profile and select the course.

Blocks and Tools

Blocks and tools are elements that add extra information about your course and supplied by your
teacher. From the blocks or Course Dashboard, you will be able to view content like grades and your
course calendar.

Activities
Activities are tasks you need to complete for the course, like an assignment to complete or a discussion
forum in which to participate.

Assignments
Tips for submitting an assignment

 Start your assignment as soon as you can. Plan to submit your assignment a day or two early.
That way, if you have an issue, you will have time to contact technical support and your
instructor.
 Be prepared. Have any materials that you need at hand.
 Read all of the instructions. If you have any trouble submitting your assignment or
understanding questions, contact your instructor immediately.
 Review the Submission status for your assignment. Advanced grading methods like rubrics can
be found in the Submission status of an assignment. Review this information before submitting
your assignment. It may help you better prepare.

Submit assignments

Assignments allow your teachers to collect your work, review it, and provide you feedback including
grades. Depending on how an assignment is configured, you can submit files (Word-processed
documents, spreadsheets, images, audio, video clips) or type your response directly into a text box.

Submit an assignment

Steps: Assignment > Add submission

Find the assignment and select the title. You can find assignments in your course and from the calendar.

You can review the Submission status, add Submission comments, or edit your submission.

Submit a SafeAssign assignment

Select the assignment to bring up the submissions area.

1. Select Add submission.

2. Upload your submission and select Save changes.
3. Only certain file types are accepted for SafeAssign assignments.
View your SafeAssign originality report

Once you submit your assignment, your originality report generates. This report can take several
minutes to generate, but you will see confirmation in your submission window when the report is
complete. Select the View originality report link to view your report.

Report completed
Report in progress

A SafeAssign Originality Report is divided into three areas:

 Report information
 Citations
 Manuscript text
Forum
Add discussion topics

Steps: Forum > Add a new discussion

After you create the forum you can add discussion topics to it.

1. From the forum, select Add a new discussion.

2. Type a meaningful Subject and Message. Select Use advanced editor if you want to format your
description.
3. Optionally, attach files.
4. Optionally, select Manage forum subscriptions to subscribe to the forum. Select what you want in the
email in the Email digest type menu.
5. Select Submit.

Reply to a discussion forum

Discuss coursework and other related educational topics with forums.

1. From your course, select the name of the discussion forum.

2. Within the forum, select a discussion topic to view its threads.

3. Select Reply beneath the post you want to reply to.
4. Type a subject for your post.
5. Type your post.
6. Optionally, select Use advanced editor to format your post.
7. Optionally, Choose files to add to the post.
8. Select Submit.
9. Your reply appears indented under the original post.
Quizzes
Tips for taking a quiz

 Start your quiz as soon as you can. If your instructor schedules three days for your quiz, plan to
take the exam early on the first day. That way, if you have an issue, you will have time to contact
technical support and your instructor.
 Be prepared. Have any materials that you need at hand.
 Read all of the instructions. If you have any trouble taking your quiz or understanding questions,
contact your instructor immediately.
 Check your Internet connection. You need to make sure that you have a strong internet
connection.
 Do not refresh the page, close the window, or click the browser's back button while taking a
quiz. If you experience problems during a quiz, contact your instructor immediately.

Take a quiz

Steps: Quiz > Attempt quiz now

1. On the Navigation menu, select My Courses, and then select the name of a course.
2. Navigate to the quiz and select the associated link.
3. Select Attempt quiz now.
4. Answer the questions.
5. At the end of a quiz you can view a summary of your attempt. You are shown if any questions
have not been answered and if you have any flagged questions.
6. Select Return to attempt to finish the quiz if you need to answer a question. Select Submit all
and finish to submit the quiz to your teacher.

Chat
The chat activity allows you to send instant messages to your teacher or fellow students when they are
logged-in to the site. You can save and archive your Chat transcripts, and your teacher may also decide
to grade a Chat.

Use chat

From your course open the Chat activity. Select Click here to enter the chat now. Type your messages
and select Send. Close the chat window to leave the chat.

Click here to enter the chat now

 Use more accessible interface

You have the option of using a simpler chat interface that doesn't use frames and javascript. This is ideal
when you are using a mobile device or screen reader.

Participate in a Poll, Survey, or Questionnaire

Your instructors may create different polls, surveys, or questionnaires to gather knowledge for course
improvement or for general discussion. These questions are available through your course.

Answer a poll - Polls are also referred to as choices in Blackboard Open LMS.

Answer a survey
From your course, select the survey. Follow the directions and answer the questions. Select Click here to
Continue to finish the survey.

Answer a questionnaire
A questionnaire is a combination of a survey and a poll where you submit the answers to your
instructor.

From your course, select the questionnaire. Follow the directions and answer the questions. Select Next
page to move to the next page and select Submit to submit the questionnaire.
What is Blackboard Collaborate?
Blackboard Collaborate is a fully interactive web conferencing environment that enables you to meet
and connect with your instructor or entire class. With Blackboard Collaborate you can use audio, video,
and recording capabilities to stay connected.

Join a Session from a Blackboard Open LMS Class

Collaborate sessions are in your course content. Each Collaborate activity module is a unique session.
Find the session you want to join and select the module. Select Join session.

Meet and Greet

Today 7:10 PM - 8:10 PM

View session recordings

If the session has been recorded, go to the Collaborate activity module to view it.

You can view recordings in courses you are enrolled in. You may be able to download recordings.
Moderators must allow session recording downloads for each session.

Go to Collaborate, open the Menu, and select Recordings.

Can I host a session?

If your instructor has given you moderator access to the room, coordinate with your class to host
sessions of your own.

Find your way around sessions

Imagine walking into a room that was perfectly outfitted for collaboration. The amount of tools to
engage and capture are potentially endless. Like any good classroom or studio space, we must be
organized.

We've organized everything into three convenient areas: a media space, the Session menu, and a
Collaborate panel.
Session menu

The Session menu opens a collection of high level session actions and information. Open it using the
Session menu button at the top left of the screen.

Collaborate panel

The Collaborate panel takes your session experience to the next level. You now have a single space to go
to engage other attendees with all the great collaborate tools

Don't just tell them. Show them.

The Ultra experience of Blackboard Collaborate makes it easy to share your knowledge. You can upload
content, including PowerPoint® presentations, or share your desktop screen to show more details.

Open the Collaborate panel and select Share Content to start sharing and collaborating with your
attendees.
Share application

Share video from sites like YouTubeTM. Or, open video and audio files you have on your desktop in a new
Chrome tab to share them.

1. From a Chrome browser, open the Collaborate panel and select the Share Content tab.
2. Select Share Application/Screen.
3. Select the Chrome Tab option.
If you are on Windows, you can also select Entire Screen.
4. Select the Share audio check box.
5. Choose the tab you want to share from the list.
6. Select Share.

Share files

Upload GIF, JPEG and PNG images, PDF files, or PowerPoint presentations of 60MB or lower to your
session. You can upload multiple presentations, however the total size allowed is 125 MB or lower for
any particular session.

Screen reader users can access text from PowerPoint and PDF files shared in the session. This provides
an easy way to follow along as slides change. Moderators and presenters must select Share Files and
upload the files to Collaborate for screen readers to access the text.

Select Add Files Here or drag a file into the box to upload it. Select Share Now when you're ready for
students to see the file.

You can prep for class at the beginning of the week, or even at the start of the semester! Join a session
and load the files you want to share. These files stay in the session until deleted by a moderator. Load
them once and reuse them as often as you want. If you can't join a session you want to upload files to,
edit the session and change the time to start now. Upload the files. Don't forget to change the start time
back to the original time! Attendees won't see the changes unless you send them another invitation.

You can choose to allow participants to mark up your shared file during a session in Session Settings.
Open the Collaborate panel and select My Settings. Go to Session Settings and make your choice.

Share the PowerPoint application

If you want, you can run your presentation in PowerPoint and share the application in Collaborate.

Make sure your presentation is set up and running on the screen you want to share before selecting
Share application in Collaborate.
Share whiteboard

Collaborate with your students using the whiteboard. Open a blank whiteboard to draw or just jot down
notes.

Status and feedback

Change your status to away or let others know how you feel about something said or shared in the
session.

From the main stage, select your profile picture.

Feedback appears with an attendee's profile picture on the main stage, in the Attendees panel, and in
Chat. After 30 seconds the feedback disappears.

The Away status stays until you return and select I'm back!

A summary of the feedback selected appears under the panel heading. It shows the current feedback
with a count of attendees using it.

You can sort the attendees by feedback in the Attendees panel. For example, if you want to know who is
happy about what was said, select Happy under the Attendees heading. Only those who are happy
appear.
Track and mark activities complete
Activity completion allows you to track your work in a course. Manually mark activities as you complete
them. Your instructor can also set specific conditions you need to meet before an activity automatically
gets marked as complete.

If activity completion is on, you'll see checkmarks on activities and resources in Snap. The checkmarks
turn green when you mark them as complete. If you are using another theme, you'll see checkboxes
beside the activities and resources.

Mark an activity or resource as complete

Steps: Select the checkmark on the activity or resource

View everyone in your course

Steps: Course > Course Dashboard > Participants

Want to know who is in your course? The Participants page displays user names and profile pictures.
Select a name to message that person.

From your course, select Course Dashboard and Participants to see a list of people enrolled in the
course.
Send Messages
From the Participants page

Go to the course Participants page. View the profile of the user you want to contact. Select Message,
compose your message, and select Send message.

Grades
How do I see my grades?

You can find your grades in several places. You choose where you want to check them!

 Activity: Open an assignment or quiz activity to see the grade in the activity summary.
 Open Grader: Use the Open Grader to see grades for your submitted assignments and forum
posts only.
 Gradebook: Go to the Gradebook to see how you are doing in all of your courses and on each of
your activities.
 Reports: Use the Reports to track your progress in your course.
 Personal menu: You can view your course grades from your personal menu. Select your name
and avatar to open your Personal menu.

View your grades

Steps: Course Dashboard > Gradebook

From the Gradebook you can view overview and user reports.

 Overview report: See how you are doing overall for each course.
 User report: See how you are doing on each assignment, quiz, and activity in the course. You can
select the activity name to view the submission.
Forgot Password
If you forgot your password please click Forgotten username and password.

Type your umindanao username/email address. Either search by username or search

by email address. Then click the Search button.

Continue and open a new tab on your browser to open your umindanao email account
through gmail.com
You will receive an email from Admin User (via LMS) that will give a link to reset your
password. Please click the link and you will be redirect to Blackboard Open LMS site to
set your new password.

Here’s the page for you to set your new password and you’re done!

For more Blackboard Open LMS online guide for students

https://help.blackboard.com/Blackboard_Open_LMS/Student

Thank you!