1- How do I log on my CUNY Portal account to access Blackboard?
2 - I forgot my CUNY Portal user name or password
3 - How can I get a new Blackboard course shell?
4 - How do I make my Blackboard course available to the students?
5 - What web browser should I use with Blackboard?
6 - When is students enrollment updated to reflect their add/drop information?
7 - How can I add a Guest to my course?
8 - How can I merge multiple sections or courses I am teaching be combined into one Blackboard shell?
9 - What will happen to my course when the semester ends?
10 - I do not want to see my old course shells listed in my account, how do I remove them?
11 - How can I copy content from one course to another?
12 - What happens if I copy content into a course that already has content?
13 - Is there a limit to how much information can be uploaded to a course?
14 - How do I enroll a TA or grader in my course?
15 - I cannot see the last student in my Grade Center.
16 - I am getting security messages asking if I want to display mixed (secure/insecure) content. What do I do?
17 - Students are not receiving e-mails that were sent through the Blackboard send mail function.
18 - I would like to create an Organization site in Blackboard designed for a Club/Group/Workshop/Lab, what do I require?
19 - Who may participate in a Blackboard Organization?
20 - How can I get a cartridge (CourseSmart eTextbook) for my Blackboard course?
21 - How do I install a cartridge into my Blackboard course?

1 - How do I log on my CUNY Portal account to access Blackboard?

To access your CUNY Portal Blackboard account from a web browser:

• Type in the following URL: https://cunyportal.cuny.edu
• Enter your User Name and Password and click "Login"
• In the APPLICATIONS / RESOURCES module select the link "Blackboard"
• Find your courses listed in the "My Courses" module located on the right side of the Blackboard home page.

2 - I forgot my CUNY Portal password.

• Type in the following URL: https://cunyportal.cuny.edu

You have two choices to reset your password, find the following link (options) to reset your password on the CUNY Portal site:

a. - Click on "Account and Password Reset"
(re-validate your account using your confidential information)

b. - Click on "E-mail a New Password" (a new password will be sent via e-mail)

3 - How can I get a new Blackboard Course shell?

All course shells are automatically listed in the instructors Blackboard accounts at the beginning of each semester, this eliminate the need to send a request.

4 - How do I make my Blackboard course available to students?

All course shells are created "Unavailable" by default so the instructor has time to prepare the course materials.

Students registered for that course will not see it in Blackboard until the instructor changes the course status to "Available".

To mark your course available, go to the control panel of your course,

- Course Options
- Settings
- Course Availability
- Make this course available to users?
- Make Course Available: Yes/No
- Submit.

5 - What web browser should I use with Blackboard?

Internet Explorer 7 and Firefox 3.0 are compatible with Blackboard 8.0 Keep your browser up to date to avoid problems.

6 - When is students enrollment updated to reflect their add/drop information?

As a policy, the CUNY department does not allow instructors from any of the CUNY schools to manually update their rosters because it will cause errors in the scripts files from CUNY CIS.

If your student was dropped from your course due to a bill issue, the student must allow 24 to 48 hours to be re-enrolled in their Blackboard courses.

The enrollment data is performed in an automated process by SIMS and CUNY CIS each night during the business week.

Any changes will be reflected in Blackboard within 24 to 48 hours.

7 - How can I add a Guest to my course?

People who are not recognized as student, faculty, or staff at a CUNY college can access the Blackboard 8 system as "Guests."

Guests can access courses and organizations that are set to allow guest access, but access is limited to areas that are designated as available to guests by the instructor or organization leader, and cannot include access to the discussion board, tests, assignments, or grades.

To change the settings of your course to allow guest access go to:

- Control Panel of your course,
- Course Options
- Settings
- Guest Access
- Allow guests to access this course?
- Yes.
- Submit


Step 1:
To access the Portal as a "Guest", click the link "Register for a New Account!"
- Select the link: "(Visitor)" I have no current affiliation with the university."

- Fill out the required information.


Step 2:
Instructions to login to Blackboard 8 as a "Guest"

• Type in the following URL: https://cunyportal.cuny.edu
• Enter your User Name and Password and click "Login"
• Select the link "Blackboard" located on top of the page.
• Click the "Preview" button to access Blackboard as a guest.
• Click on : "Course Catalog" and enter the 4 digit section number of the course.
- Click the button "Go"
- Found the course ID link, click to access the course content.

8 - How can I merge multiple sections or courses I am teaching be combined into one Blackboard shell?

Merging Your Courses

- Locate the Course Merge Tool module on your Blackboard Home page.

- Create a new merged course. You will see the Manage Merged Courses page.

- Select the source courses. You will see the Select Courses to Merge page, which lists all the classes you are teaching.

- Select the target course. You will now see the Select an Existing Course page. Select the class that you wish to merge into (the target course).

- Go through the steps in the “After the Merge” section of this document. The course
merge is complete, but there are some critical steps you must take to work successfully with your merged courses.

After the Merge

After the courses have been merged, students will be enrolled in both the course they registered for and the merged (or target) course. Merging does not affect course content; if content is updated in the target course, it is not updated in the source courses.

- Confirm that the courses have been merged. Note: Unlike in Blackboard 6, you will not see any indication in the My Courses module that the courses have been merged. You can view a list of merged courses by returning to the Course Merge Tool. The target or merged course appears in the left column and all source courses that were merged with it appear in the right column.

- Determine whether the source courses should be available to students.

- Rename the target course. Students in the source courses you have merged will now see the target course, for which they did not register, in their My Courses module. To avoid confusion, we recommend that you rename the target course to indicate to students that it is a merged course that includes the course for which they did register. To change the name of the target course:

a. Go to the control panel and click on the Settings link under Course Options.
b. Click the Course Name and Description link.
c. Type the desired course name in the Name field and click the Submit button

9 - What will happen to my course when the semester ends?

All courses will be archived within three semesters after their creation.

*It is highly recomended to keep a copy or your course with you.

Follow the steps below to download your course package through the control panel of your course:

- Click the "Export Course" link in the "Course Options" section.
- On the next page, select one or more course areas they would like to include in the package then click the submit button.
- On the Receipt page, "Click the right mouse button and select Save As" Or click on the course link to download the package file.
- Click on the .zip file and choose to Save it.
- Save zipped course to the hard drive or onto a removable storage device (CD, Flash drive).

10 - I do not want to see my old course shells listed in my account, how do I remove them?

Your "My Courses" module in Blackboard features a new function that lets you choose which courses and announcements appear in your Blackboard homepage.

- Click the Pencil icon in the top-right corner of the "My Courses" module to change your display options.
- Select or unselect the course (name or ID) to be displayed in the home page of your Blackboard account
- Then click "Submit".

11 - How can I copy content from one course to another?

OPTION 1- E-mail us at Blackboard Support provide your old course and new course SIMS code and we will gladly copy your course information into the new course shell.

OPTION 2 - You can upload a course content package to your new shell from a previous semester.

First step: Download the course content by exporting it:

From Content area of your course:

From the Control Panel: (old course)

- Click the "Export Course" link in the Course Options section.
- On the next page, select one or more course areas they would like to include in the package then click the submit button.
- On the Receipt page, "Click the right mouse button and select Save As" Or click on the course link to download the package file.
- Click on the .zip file and choose to Save it.
- Save zipped course to the hard drive or onto a removable storage device (CD, Flash drive).

Second Step: Importing a course
(Uploading a course package into a new course shell)

From the Control Panel
- Click the Import Course link in the Course Options section.
- On the next screen, browse for the course package, you are looking for a file with a .zip extension.
- Choose the file and click Open.
- In the next section, choose which parts of the course to import.
- Click the Submit button.

Click here to view steps in PDF

12 - What happens if I copy content into a course that already has content?

The content copied will not re-write any content you already may have posted in your course.

13 - Is there a limit to how much information can be uploaded to a course?

Each course file has a space limit of 25.0 megabytes per uploaded file. This limit is in place because of the space restrictions in the CUNY server.

14 - How do I enroll a TA or grader in my course?

Step 1: Adding a user (faculty/adjunct) to your course: (By default, all users get enrolled as students)

1. From your course, click the "Enroll User" link in the Control Panel under User Management.
2. Enter the user GroupWise e-mail address in the e-mail field and click on the search button.
If unable to find the user, select "Search by Username". Enter the user 20 digit UUID "00000000000000000000". This number can be found in the user's Bb account home page.

Go to, Tools> Personal Information> Edit Personal Information> Account Information >*Username.

Step 2: Changing the user role:

1. Go to the Control Panel and click on "List/Modify User" under User Management.
2.Type the last name of the person whose role you wish to change and click on the Search button.
3. Click on the Properties button next to the user’s name.
4. Scroll down to section 4, Role and Availability.
5. Change the Role field to ‘Teaching Assistant’ and make sure the Enrollment Availability is set to ‘Yes’
6. Click Submit.

15 - I cannot see the last student in my Grade Center.

Re-ordering the Grade Center in reverse alphabetical order should solve the problem.

However, the problem is most likely related to the Scrollbar setting in Windows XP. By changing the Windows XP Scrollbar size back to 20 or smaller, this usually solves the problem.

To change the Scrollbar setting in Windows XP:

•Click the Start Button
•Open Control Panel
•Open Display
•Click the Appearance tab
•Click the Advanced button
•Click the Item list to see options. Select Scrollbar.
•Change the size to less than 20. (the default is 17)
•Click OK.

You may also try to change your text font size if too large.

- Go to the View menu of your browser, find the "Zoom" or "Text Size" option, and make the text smaller.

You may need to reload the Grade Center for this change to go into effect.

16 - I am getting security messages asking if I want to display mixed (secure/insecure) content. What do I do?

When logging into the CUNY Portal and or Blackboard using IE 8, you will receive a dialogue box asking whether you "want to view only the web content that was delivered securely. " You must select NO to allow External Links to open within Blackboard

(click here for an example).

Otherwise, External Links in your course configured to launch within Blackboard will fail to open. You may also configure External Links in Blackboard to open in a new window.

Alternatively, you may also enable IE 8 to simultaneously access secure and unsecure, or mixed, content with the following steps.

- Go to Tools, Internet Options.
- Select the "Security" Tab and then click on the "Custom Level" button.
- Scroll down until you see the option: "Display mixed content". Select "Enable".
- Click Ok. Then you will get a "Security Warning" pop-up. Click Yes.
- Click here for a demonstration ( please follow these steps)

The problem is limited to Internet Explorer 8 and does not occur when using Firefox.

17 - Students are not receiving e-mails that were sent through the Blackboard send mail function.

Student e-mail accounts information is automatically entered into Blackboard by SIMS . Please direct students to check their college e-mail accounts at http://www.lagcc.cuny.edu/live

* If you attempted to e-mail all students listed in your Blackboard course roster and some of the e-mails bounced back with the message:
"(reason: 550 Requested action not taken: mailbox unavailable)", please have your students log on their Student Live accounts immediately.

Once students log on their college Live accounts for the first time, it activates the accounts and enables them to receive e-mails. Students who have not previously accessed their Live accounts won't be able to receive emails, all messages sent to their mailboxes will bounce back to the sender.

In order to insure that your e-mail was sent correctly, you should check the box labeled SEND A COPY OF MESSAGE TO SELF. This will send a copy of the email to your account as well as the students you selected.

18 - I would like to create an Organization site in Blackboard designed for a Club/Group/Workshop/Lab, what do I require?

An Organization is similar to a Blackboard course, but designed for use by non-academic community, they are intended for large groups such as committees, work groups, clubs, and teams.

To request an organization site in Blackboard e-mail us at Blackboard Support

Include:
- your name and contact information
- the name you wish for the Organization
- at least one person to be the Organization’s leader.

19 - Who may participate in a Blackboard Organization?

Students who are listed in SIMS and have an entry that can be activated in the CUNY Portal will be able to access Blackboard.

Faculty, adjuncts, staff and members of the CUNY community who have a CUNY portal account can be enrolled in the organization as well.

20 - How can I get a cartridge (CourseSmart eTextbook) for my course?

You can adopt a CourseSmart eTextbook and offer your students up to 50% savings over the printed text.

Consult Jeffrey Tousignant (Pearson Publisher's Representative) at Jeffrey.Tousignant@Pearson.com C: (508) 317-9930
before you place your book order to ensure you are ordering the most cost effective option for your students.

Browse Pearson eCatalog at www.pearsonhighered.com/educator

Everything is fully customizable and you can even receive a printed desk copy within 2 weeks. Visit www.pearsoncustomlibrary.com

21- How do I install a cartridge into my Blackboard course?

The Pearson vendor will send you an e-mail containing a Download Key that needs to be uploaded into your Blackboard course.

To enter the book Download Key, go to the "Course Options" area in the
control panel of your course:

- Click on "Import Course Cartridge"
- Enter a Course Cartridge download key (in the blank field)
- Click on "Submit"