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Frequently asked questions about Blackboard for students at ACU National

Besides the list of questions below, Blackboard also have a built in help menu. The help menu can be seen in the top right hand corner of the page once you have logged into the system. Most FAQ's have been categorized into the following headings.

Getting Started

What is Learning Management System?

A Learning Management System (or LMS) is a term used to describe web-based software technology especially designed to plan, implement, and assess learning. It allows for the creation and delivery of content, monitoring of student performance and participation while allowing for communication to be enhanced. LMS also allow for '...any time, any place, any pace access to the learning content and administration...' (Wikipedia, accessed March, 2008). Through interactive tools such as threaded discussions, blogs and forums students are able to communicate with the teacher as well as with other students.

Currently, ACU National uses the LMS platform, know as "Blackboard" (previously WebCT).

What is Blackboard?

Blackboard is the elearning system which provides online learning experiences and assessment to students.

Throughout the University, Blackboard has a number of potential applications for the delivery of fully online courses, as well as enhancement of face to face courses. Blackboard can be used to facilitate communication and online learning between students and course coordinators/facilitators as well as providing assessment, online tests or electronic submissions of assignments.

For more information on Blackboard please go to their website.

Some of Blackboard's tools include:

  • Class mailing lists (all students, all instructors, all users, selected users)
  • Threaded discussion boards
  • Online chat
  • Content areas for posting documents, files, or web links
  • Electronic grade book
  • Rule-based access to course materials
  • Creation of online quizzes, tests, and surveys
  • “Dropbox” for submission and return of online assignments

Browsers

It is important to ensure that you complete a Browser check before commencing any work in Blackboard. To complete this you need to....

Hardware and Software Requirements

Your computer should have:

  • Memory: Minimum 64 Mb RAM; 1 G of free disk space (more RAM is strongly recommended)
  • Operating System: Windows 95, 98, 2000, NT, XP, or ME; MacOS X
  • Processor Speed: 150 MHz or higher (400 MKz or faster is strongly recommended)
  • Internet connection: 56K modem or faster (High-speed internet connection is strongly recommended)
  • Monitor: set at 800px X 600px resolution or greater
  • Software: Microsoft Word, Microsoft Powerpoint, Adobe Acrobat Reader

Your browser must be:


PC Users:

  • Microsoft Internet Explorer 5.5 with Service Pack 2 or higher (get it) or Netscape Navigator 4.7 or higher
  • JavaScript and cookies must be enabled
  • Other browsers (Opera, HotJava, etc.) may work, but we cannot guarantee their compatibility with all Blackboard functions and we will not be able to assist you with any problems you may encounter
  • To use the Chat program Java 2 Runtime Environment version 1.4.1 or higher must be installed
Macintosh Users:

I'm using Internet Explorer and I keep getting a prompt to dowload files, and when I click it, I get sent back to the My Blackboard page. Will I have to go through this everytime I download a file? Can I disable this in any way?

You can disable this in Internet Explorer. In the menu at the top, select Tools -> Internet Options. Click on the Security Tab and then click on the Customize Level... button. A new window will pop up. Scroll down to the Downloads are. Beside the setting labelled "Automatic prompting for file downloads," click the Enable button. Click OK to save the setting and close the window. Click the Apply button in the Internet Options window and click OK to close it. Refer to the graphic below for more guidance.
Browser settings

Required browser settings for logging into Blackboard include the following:

Accept all cookies
Security Level set at Medium
Enable JavaScript
Enable JavaOther general hints for problem-free Blackboard use: Disable pop-up blocker software while using Blackboard
Check firewall settings to make sure ACU sites are not being blocked.

You may need to make sure your browser preferences are set up so that you load the latest version of a website each time you visit a URL.

Login and Access

I'm trying to login to Blackboard, but it's not working - what can I do?

To login to Blackboard you need to have your browser properly configured. You need to have:

A supported web browser
Popup windows enabled
Cookies enabled
Javascript and Java enabled

The best way to make sure you have all of these, is to click the 'Run a Browser Check' link on the Blackboard login page. If when you try and login you get a message saying "You have entered an incorrect user name or password", then please read the login help page.

How do I log in to Blackboard?

To log in to ACU's Blackboard server, go to www.acu.edu.au/eLearning and click the "Login" button on the left hand side. Use your ACU network username and password.

If you (or your students) have problems getting logged in, please call the Blackboard support staff at 1800 730 288 or ACUonline Project officers at your campus.

Student Access
How are students enrolled in Blackboard course sites?

Students are automatically enrolled in course sites based on information in the registration database (BANNER). We normally start enrolling students into Blackboard approximately two weeks before the semester starts. The release date for your course can be altered through the staff portal (www.acu.edu.au/eLearning ).

Course site enrolment is updated at regular intervals during the semester. If you would like to run the enrolments again, please send an email to blackboard.support@acu.edu.au or contact the Netspot Help desk on 1800730288.

If more than 24 hours have passed and a student is unable to access the unit on Blackboard, then please contact the Netspot Help desk on 1800 730 288.

How will students enrol in my Blackboard course?

Students who are registered in your unit of study via Banner will automatically be enrolled in your Blackboard course. The course list for them will be updated once access has been given.

Course (Unit of study site) Content

Should I back up my course?

Yes. The backup will serve as the most current and most accurate picture of your course information. A backup is recommended before and after any significant change (e.g., adding content, quizzing, grading, discussions, presentations) is made to your course.

Can I reuse a course I taught in a previous term?

Absolutely. If you've taught a class on Blackboard in the past and want to re-use the course content in a new course site, the Blackboard support staff will be happy to copy all or a portion of the course material to the new course site when they set it up for you.

If you want to copy items from a site to another site that already exists, you can do this with most types of files by going (via the file manager control panel) to the content area in which the files you want to copy are located. Next to each item, you will see a "copy" button. Click that button, and you will see a screen that allows you to choose the destination course and folder to which you want to copy the item. Click the "submit" button at the bottom of the screen, and the item should be copied into the other course site. If you run into any problems, contact the Blackboard support staff.

One of my students has posted a file, but no one can open it:

Make certain that the file name does not contain any characters other than the standard letters, numbers, hyphens, and underscores. Other characters (apostrophes, etc.) in file names may cause people who try to access the posted file to get an error message "Requested file could not be found." Ensure that you have the correct version of the software program (i.e. correct Microsoft office version)

Tools

Assignment Drop box Problems
  • A student claims to have placed a file in the Assignment Drop box for my class, but I never got it.
  • After students have added a file to the Assignment Drop box, it is necessary to click "send." Files that are added to the student's drop box but not sent will not be visible to the instructor.
  • A student submitted a file, but I am unable to open it.
  • Be certain that any of your students who are Macintosh users know that filenames of files they submit should not contain spaces or any non-alphanumeric characters other than periods (no ampersands, commas, quotes, slashes, colons, etc.) They must also add a file name extension to the name of any file they submit so that PC's will "know" what program to use to open it.

Common file extensions include:

  • .doc Word documents
  • .xls Excel spreadsheets
  • .txt Text documents
  • .ppt Powerpoint files
  • .html or .htm HTML documents
How can I stop students from being able to print out tests and quizzes?

Unfortunately, there is no foolproof way to prevent a determined student from printing, capturing, or otherwise saving a copy of the exam, but there are some things you can do to make it more difficult.

One simple thing you can do is to set up the exam so that it displays only one question at a time. It's considerably more trouble to print 100 pages with one question each, than to print a single page containing 100 questions.

Presenting the questions in random order and drawing questions randomly from a large pool of possible questions are also good strategies, since no two students will have the same exam.

Text Editing Problems
Can't right-click and copy/paste text in the editing window

Workaround: Use the keyboard shortcuts to copy and paste text. To copy text in the editing window, select it and use Ctrl-Insert or Ctrl-C. To paste text, use Shift-Insert or Ctrl-V.

Can I put folders in my Assignment Drop box so that each student has a specific place to submit their files?

No, unfortunately this is not possible right now. It is a feature for which there does seem to be some demand, so it may become available in an upcoming Blackboard update.

Can I change the order in which my class announcements appear?

The order of announcements cannot be changed. Permanent announcements appear at the top, after which non-permanent announcements are displayed in reverse order of creation (most recent announcements first.) The system-wide announcement "Information for All ACU Blackboard Users" is displayed in every ACU class site on Blackboard and cannot be moved or hidden.

Chat Problems

Blackboard is generally easy to use, but the Chat tool is the one area where students and instructors may run into problems. The good news is, once you get access to the Chat for the first time, you should not have experience further problems. Please contact an ACUonline Project officer for assistance with this particular area.

Tests & Quizzes
A student gets an error message when submitting a quiz:
Cause 1: Make certain that students know to hit the "save" or "submit" button only once. Double-clicking may cause an error message and may also delay submission of their answers.
Students click on the quiz, but nothing happens:
Cause: They may need to turn off their pop-up blocker software.
When students try to access an online quiz, they get a message saying that they have already taken it.
Cause 1:
Depending on students' PC and internet connection speed, it may take a little while to load a quiz. Make sure that, when accessing a quiz, they know to only click the link once. If they click a second time (on the "keep-pushing-the-button-to-make-the-elevator-arrive-quicker" principle) they may find themselves locked out.
Cause 2:
Students should not resize their screen after entering a quiz. Some browsers will refresh the screen when you resize the window.
Cause 3:
Students should not use their browser's "Back" button, or + Left Arrow to navigate to a previous page; they need to use Blackboard's navigation tools instead.
Cause 4:
Depending on the settings for the quiz, students who attempt to view material on another website or in another area of the Blackboard course site may find themselves unable to return to complete the quiz. Instructors using restrictive quiz settings need to make sure that they are communicating these restrictions to their students in the quiz instructions.
Students say that they can't post to my course site's discussion board

Make sure that you have allowed students to start new discussion threads or -- if you don't want to allow students to start threads -- make certain that you have begun a thread to which they can respond.

Special case: if your course uses the group discussion board tool, you will need to create a forum within each group's discussion board area before members of the group will be able to post messages.