Student’s Guide to Blackboard Basics

Blackboard is a web-based program providing access to information and utilities used in your courses.  In Blackboard, you will find announcements, assignments, readings, practice exams (and possibly actual exams), discussion groups and other features. The Blackboard system is shared by Haverford, Bryn Mawr and Swarthmore, so it may house course materials for classes you are taking from any of the three schools.

This guide provides an overview of the Blackboard system and popular features available to students. Additional information is available from Blackboard help.

Get Your Password and Log Onto Blackboard

Unlike the general Haverford, Bryn Mawr and Swarthmore web sites, you must log into Blackboard with a special Blackboard account. Every student enrolled at Haverford, Bryn Mawr and Swarthmore has such an account, personalized with their Blackboard courses and other personal data.

Blackboard accounts may hold private information, such as grades, tests and group projects. For this reason, accounts are password protected. Treat your Blackboard password as you do other passwords--keep it to yourself. Also, choose passwords which are at least six characters long and are not in the dictionary. A combination of letters and numbers may be used.

1. Go to the address for the tri-college Blackboard system, http://blackboard.swarthmore.edu/. You will be asked to log onto the system.
   

2. At Haverford, you will not be assigned a password. However, your Blackboard account is linked with your Haverford email account.The first time you use Blackboard, or anytime you have forgotten your Blackboard password, click on the Forgot your password link.
3. Fill out the Lost Password web page, giving your first name, last name, and Haverford email address in section 2.
   
4. Go into your Haverford email account (or account to which you are forwarding Haverford email). You will receive information in your email account explaining how to set your password. Follow those instructions.
5. Once you get your password, you can login with your Blackboard username and Blackboard password at anytime. Depending on which college you attend, your username will be your email username with one of three prefixes: hc. (Haverford), bmc. (Bryn Mawr) or sc. (Swarthmore).  For example, a student named Jane User who attends Haverford would have the username hc.juser. 
   
   
   

Your Blackboard Home Page

After logging in, you will see your customized, institutional Blackboard home page. 

At the top of the screen you will see the My Institution and Courses tabs. You can click on either tab to access the part of Blackboard you want.

• The Home tab accesses an overview of your Blackboard tools, including courses in which you are enrolled via Blackboard. This is what you see when you first log into Blackboard.
• The Courses tab gives access and information on those courses you are enrolled in via Blackboard.

In the Home section, you will see your own personal tools on the left side of the screen.. 

• You can modify your personal calendar, announcements, tasks, etc. by clicking on the appropriate button.
• To change your Blackboard password, go to the Personal Information link and find the Change Password option.  Type in the password of your choice in both the Password and Verify Password fields.  Click the Submit button.

The right side of the page displays all current announcements, calendar items, personal tasks and Blackboard courses in which you are enrolled. 

• If you have any announcements, calendar items or personal tasks, click the more… link in each section to view them in detail. 
• The Home page shows a quick list of courses in which you are enrolled via Blackboard. For more details on these course, click on the Courses tab at the top of the page, and will act as your gateway into any Blackboard course you are taking.

  

Accessing a class

Unless there is guest access to a class, you only have access to those classes in which you are enrolled via the Blackboard system. This will correspond to the Registrar's system, once shopping period is over. During shopping period, if you add a course to your on-line registration list, you will be enrolled in the corresponding Blackboard course.

Guest Access to Courses

Normally, only those enrolled in a course can access Blackboard course content. However, even if you do not have a Blackboard account, you can view particular classes, or portions of classes, if the instructor has allowed public access to the class. Many instructors opt not to have guest access.

1. At the login screen, log in as yourself or click on the preview button.
2. Click on the courses tab.
3. Click on the Browse Course Catalog link.
4. You now see a catalog. Click on any courses of interest and see what happens. When the course is open to guests, you will be allowed to enter that course web page. If it is not open to guests you will be denied access.

Find and Navigate Your Course Home Page

Once you are properly enrolled in a Blackboard class you can gain access to it.

• To enter your course home page, either click on the name of the course in the My Courses section of the institutional home page or click the Courses tab at the top of the page and then select your course from that page. If you do not see your course listed, you are not properly enrolled in Blackboard, talk with your faculty member. Until the enrollment problem is fixed, you may be able to access the class via the Guest enrollment option. (See next section.)

• On the left side of the screen on all course pages appears a list of guide links that will allow you to navigate the site. 

  

The Blackboard Course

Your instructor has set up Blackboard with the navagation links and structure he or she feels best for the class. As you click upon each area of the Blackboard course site you will find folders, pages of text, attachments, or links to the Web and/or discussion forums.

• There may be many layers of folders within folders, so explore the folders.  Click on the name of a folder to open it.  You will then see the contents of the folder in the main part of the screen.
• To navigate within folders, use the bracketed folder names that appear at the top of the list of items within the folder you are currently viewing.

Attachments

• If you are using Netscape, you are prompted to either save the document to a disk or open it immediately. 
  • If you choose Open It, the attachment should open immediately in the proper application (i.e., Microsoft Word if the attachment is a Microsoft Word document, Excel if it is an Excel spreadsheet, etc.).  However, your copy of Netscape must be properly configured for this to work.
  • If you choose Save it to Disk you will be prompted for a name and location for the attachment. Select a name and location and click Save to download the paper onto your computer.  You will then be able to view the attachment by finding it on your own computer and opening it. 
• If you are using Internet Explorer, the attachment will automatically be opened in Explorer.
• If you would like to download the attachment to your computer, from the File menu, choose Save As.