Blackboard Learn is the Learning Management System available to the Saint Louis University
community at both the St. Louis, Missouri and Madrid, Spain campuses.
Blackboard provides an online space for instructors to share course content, manage
student work, and access to tools that can support activities such as group work,
class discussions, and student projects.
Types of Courses in Blackboard Learn
Access your courses by clicking on the Blackboard Learn icon on the Tools tab of mySLU.
Depending on your role at SLU and course enrollments, you may see two kinds of courses
in Blackboard Learn:
Courses from Banner: All courses in the Banner catalog are automatically created in Blackboard Learn;
however, the instructor has the choice whether or not to utilize Blackboard Learn
and when to make the course available for students.
Courses not in Banner: Departments, programs, and instructors may have a need for a course or organization
in Blackboard Learn that is not tied to a course in Banner. These courses can be used
for course development, department/program orientation content, or other purposes.
Faculty and staff can request a non-Banner course in Blackboard Learn by sending an
email to facsupport@slu.edu or calling 314-977-4000.
The Create Assignment screen has been updated to include the Delegated and Anonymous
Grading options and has arranged other current options into collapsable sections to
make navigating the display more efficient.
Courses that are hidden on the My Course module will also be hidden on the calendar.
This makes the calendar much easier to use because you will have fewer course calendars
to turn off.
Spell Check is off by default. It can be turned on by navigating to Control Panel/Customization/Tool
Availability. Scroll down to Spell Check, click the box and then click Submit.
Instructors can delegate grading to specific users from the create Assignment screen.
(Smart Views in the Grade Center will still be available.) The Delegate Grading option
offers many grading scenarios including Parallel Graders, Blind Parallel Graders,
Sample Double Graders, Sample Double Blind Graders and Instructor + Colleague Grader.
Courses can be made available to students with a click of a button. Click the small
red lock icon at the upper right side of your Blackboard course. Click the button
again to turn off availability. Note that the icon is only visible in content areas.
For example, if your course entry point is set to Announcements, you won't see the
lock. Click the home page or any other content area and the icon should be visible.
My Content, like My Portfolios, is located in the Tools & Links module of the Blackboard
Homepage. It is a place to store files and resources outside of a particular Blackboard
course. Every user has 250mb of space to put folders, files or any other data.
My Portfolios is a tool that allows students or instructors to gather and organize
work into an area outside of a particular Blackboard course. It is accessed from the
home page of Blackboard in the Tools & Links module. Students can create, manage and
share their work with multiple Blackboard users.
Organizations are basically courses that are designed to be used for department or
groups as opposed to Banner courses. Instructors are called 'leaders' and students
are called 'participants.' Organizations are great if you need to put up documents
for a group of faculty members in a department or if you want all students in a particular
major or club to have a shared but still secure web presence. To have an Organization
created, email facsupport@slu.edu or call 314-977-4000.
Several tools have been added for easy integration of publisher content. These include
McGraw Hill Connect, McGraw Hill Create, Pearson MyLab & Mastering and Macmillan Sapling
Learning.
One of the most requested features has been included in the latest Blackboard version:
Student Preview Mode. This allows you to switch, with the click of a single button,
to see your Blackboard course as your students do.
TurningPoint Cloud is an interactive polling tool that uses student phones, tablets
or laptops for interactive, real-time surveys.
Supported Browsers & Operating Systems
View the Blackboard Learn Browser Compatibility List to find an appropriate supported operating system/browser for your computer. Please
note that other applications you may use, such as Panopto, may have different supported
browsers.
Faculty Support
Faculty Blackboard Support can be contacted at 314-977-4000. Tickets can be entered
24/7.
Be aware that not all issues can be resolved over the phone and will be escalated
to the ATC Team. Faculty can also email facsupport@slu.edu. or visit help.slu.edu. The ATC team can provide individual technical training for faculty to explain the
features and tools in Blackboard Learn.
Faculty can get help incorporating Blackboard Learn into a course from the Reinert
Center for Transformative Teaching and Learning. Contact the Reinert Center at cttl@slu.edu to discuss why and how best to use this or any other technology to achieve your instructional
goals.
Student Support
Students can visit the Tech Services Center or contact 314-977-4000 for assistance using Blackboard.
Maintenance
Any downtime for maintenance will be communicated to the University community.