A
proud member of the Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education.
A
proud member of the Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education.Blackboard Glossary for Students
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
Address Book
The Address Book may be used by students and faculty to store contact information.
Announcements
Announcements allow the posting of timely information in a course. The instructor can add, modify, and remove announcements from the Announcements page. This is an ideal place to post a welcome or getting started message and time-sensitive material such as: when assignments are due, changes in the syllabus, corrections/clarifications of materials, and exam schedules.
Assignment Feature
Faculty may create Assignments and post them for students to complete. Faculty may attach separate files and students may send additional files to the instructor with the completed Assignment. Faculty view and grade Assignments, once they are submitted, from within the Gradebook.
Asynchronous
This term, meaning ‘not at the same time’, refers to methods of communication such as e-mail, voice-mail, and discussion boards, that do not rely on the sender and recipient being online at the same time.
Blackboard
Blackboard is a learning management system. Blackboard courses are accessed using a web browser.
Browser
A browser is a software program that enables a user to access hypertext files from any computer connected to the Internet. Commonly-used browsers include Internet Explorer, Netscape Navigator, Opera, AOL, Mozilla Firefox, and Safari. Blackboard recommends using Internet Explorer 6.0 or higher for best results in accessing course materials.
Cal U Library Tab
This Blackboard tab contains a link to commonly needed library information.
Calendar
Instructors can add items to the calendar as due dates, exam dates, or other events to be viewed by students.
Chat
Chat can be used for real-time (synchronous), online classroom discussions and question/answer forums. Chat is a text-based tool that is optimized for low bandwidth applications. It allows a group of users to conduct an online session through text based messages.
Collaboration
Virtual Classroom and Chat are now managed and accessed under collaboration.
Community Tab
The Community tab lists Organizations specific to each user and the Organization Catalog for the institution. Users click on the organization name in the Community tab to access an organization.
Course Link
A Course Link is a shortcut between one area in your Blackboard course and another. For example, you can have a Course Link in the Course Documents area that links to a Discussion Board Forum.
Course Menu
A course menu is displayed on the left side for each course. It provides access to course materials and a way to navigate through the course.
Courses Tab
This page shows all the courses you are enrolled in. Clicking on one of these courses will take you to that course page.
Detail View
This view of the course navigation menu displays the folder structure of all course content. It allows the user to navigate to a particular location in the course.
Digital Drop Box
The Digital Drop Box is used to exchange files between a student and an instructor. A user’s Digital Drop Box cannot be accessed by any other user. Instructors cannot access student’s drop boxes but students can send files from their drop box to the instructor’s drop box.
Discussion Board
Discussion Boards are asynchronous text discussion areas where faculty and students can exchange ideas on a topic, post requests for assistance or conduct informal conversation.
Discussion Forum
Discussion Forums facilitate class discussion by enabling users to discuss a topic outside of normal class hours. Online discussions may contain one or more discussion threads.
Discussion Thread
This is a series of posts and replies to a specific topic being discussed.
Glossary
The Blackboard Course Glossary allows faculty to add term and definition lists to a Blackboard course shell.
Help
The Help Button directs you to the Blackboard Online Support Center, where you can get additional information about how to use Blackboard, as well as chat assistance and support.
Home Button
The home button takes you to Cal U’s home web page.
HTML
HTML stands for Hypertext Markup Language, the common language used for web pages.
Java
A programming language specifically designed for writing programs that can be used in the environment of the internet.
Learning Management System (LMS)
The LMS provides a way to create and deliver content, monitor participation, communicate with and assess participants. Teaching and learning can take place synchronously and asynchronously.
Learning Unit
A Blackboard learning unit provides a specific content format for display of course materials. It enables the Instructor to require sequential completion of materials.
Login
Login is used to establish a connection to a computer or online service. Users login to Blackboard using their Blackboard username and password.
Logout
Logout allows you to close the connection to a computer or online service after using it. To log out of a Blackboard session, click on the Logout button at the top of the screen. The log out process removes your login information from the Blackboard system and is highly recommended when ending a Blackboard session.
Message
Blackboard Messaging allows you to send, store, and retrieve internal messages to another user in a course via Blackboard. These messages are not associated with your university email account and can only be sent to other users in your Blackboard course.
Module
Blackboard modules are information boxes appearing in the Blackboard portal after login to Blackboard. For example, in the My Institution Tab, Course Catalog and My Courses are modules.
My Grades
This gives students access to their grades, provided the instructor uses the Blackboard Gradebook and has made grade columns in the Gradebook available. Students do not see the grades of other students.
My Institution
The My Institution tab contains tools and information specific to each user’s preferences. Tools and information are contained in modules. Users can add and remove modules from their My Institution tab. The System Administrator may restrict access to or require specific modules.
Netiquette
People utilizing the internet should follow proper protocols and have good online “manners” generally known as netiquette, or etiquette on the Net. Visit www.albion.com/netiquette for information on rules for online behavior.
Personal Information
The Personal Information area is used to change your Blackboard password and set the visual text box editor options (set to unavailable if using the Vista operating system).
Plain Text
Plain text is an option available in text boxes when the virtual text box editor is set to unavailable. Text will appear just as it is entered. Links are not created automatically, and HTML tags are not recognized and rendered.
Quick View
This view of the course navigation menu is the traditional button or text view.
Review Status
The Review Status tool allows the instructor to track user review of specific content items. Once the instructor enables the tool for an item, each student tracks their progress. A Mark Reviewed button appears beside the item in the Content Area. After reviewing the item, the student clicks on this button to mark an item reviewed. The instructor can check the status of student reviews in the Performance Dashboard.
Send E-mail
Send Email enables users to send email to all or select Students, Instructors, Teaching Assistants, Groups, or other participants within a course. Users can create a message and attach a file. Senders receive a copy of the email sent.
Student Orientation Tab
This tab allows students to participate in Cal U’s Student Blackboard Orientation.
Support Services Tab
The Support Services tab contains information on the Blackboard support, Cal U computer support, and links to the student services available at Cal U.
Synchronous
Synchronous communication allows “real time” communication among users who are logged in at the same time.
Task
Blackboard instructors can set Tasks for students within a Blackboard course. Users (instructors, students and other participants) may also add Tasks to Blackboard which are viewable only by the individual user.
Virtual Classroom
The Virtual Classroom (available under Collaboration) provides an opportunity for synchronous communication. The Virtual Classroom includes facilitation of small breakouts, discussions, whiteboard functions, chat, a course map, and a question area.
Visual Text Box Editor
Back to TopThe Visual Text Box Editor allows users to modify content in an interface resembling a word processor, and perform basic HTML functions without knowledge of any HTML.
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