General Instructions - USC Upstate: Faculty

Introduction to Blackboard
Logging in:
1. Go to http://blackboard.sc.edu .
2. Click the Login button on the left side of the screen.
3. On the next screen type your Username and Password in the
appropriate fields and click Login.
The next page you see will be your My USC screen with "Welcome <your
name>" at the top. You will see a list of all of the courses you are teaching
on the "My USC" page. To get a more descriptive list of your courses, click
the Courses tab at the top of the screen.
Announcements
Faculty members frequently post announcements to the Blackboard site.
Just click on the announcement link to see the content.
Where does my Blackboard email go?
You can send email to your fellow students (and they can send email to you)
from within Blackboard. All students, faculty, and staff at USC have an
email account on the University's Gamecock EMail system (GEM).
Your email address on the GEM system is (your
username)@mailbox.sc.edu. You can read any mail sent to you at that
address by going to http://webmail.sc.edu . The same username and
password that you use to access Blackboard will also allow you to access
GEM.
If you want your Blackboard email sent to an address other than GEM (for
example Groupwise) you can change your email address in Blackboard by
clicking on the "Personal Information" link in the upper left corner of the
"My USC" screen. Then click Edit Personal Information. Change your
e-mail address, then scroll down and click submit.
Discussion Board
Click on the communication button, then click on the discussion board link.
Click on the forum that you want to use. Then click on reply for one of the
current threads. The discussion board works similarly to e-mail. Just type in
a message and scroll down and click submit. Your message will be added to
the discussion thread.
Click on show options, then select all, then collect. This will show you all
the messages on one scrollable page.
Attaching Documents to Discussion Board
(To be used ONLY in submitting term papers for review & discussion)
Click the browse button next to the attachment box. Navigate to the file you
want to attach. Click on the file, click open, then click submit.
Checking Grades
Click on the tools button, then click on the check grade link.
Your grades will appear on the next page.
Submitting Assignments
If your professor uses the assignment manager, they will tell you where the
assignment is located. Usually it’s under an assignment button. Under the
assignment you will see a link that says view/complete. Click on that link
and follow your professor’s instructions.
You can view any files the instructor has loaded for you by clicking on the
link. To download a file, right click on the link, click save target as,
navigate to the folder you want to use, name the file and click save.
To add comments, just type them in the area provided. To attach a file, click
browse next to the file to attach box. Navigate to your file, highlight it and
click open. Always remember to scroll down and click submit.
Taking a quiz or exam
If you are taking a very long essay quiz, you would be wise to print it out
and type out your answers in a word processor. Then go back to take the
quiz and cut and paste your answers. If you click back when taking a quiz,
you will be locked out of your quiz.
To take the quiz, click on the link provided by the instructor and click OK
when it asks if you are sure you want to take this assessment now.
Some Quizzes are presented all at once. When you are done you scroll to
the bottom and click submit.
Others are presented a question at a time. After you answer the question you
click the arrow on the bottom left of the screen and then click OK when it
asks if you are sure you want to submit the question now.
When you answer the final question, click submit and your quiz will be
submitted for grading.