About Blackboard

The Blackboard Learning System CE is a web-based Learning Management System (LMS). It facilitates learning by creating sophisticated Web-based educational environments and private communities for the exchange of information like dates, files, notes and other resources while also providing communication tools such as:

• Mail
• Discussion boards
• Chat
• Grade book
• Assessment tools
• Interactive calendar
• Assignment submission
• Plagiarism detection
• Other tools for incorporating and linking content.

Blackboard allows for course presentation design (color schemes, page layout, etc.) and provides educational tools to facilitate learning, communication, and collaboration. It also provides a set of administrative tools useful for a broad range of teaching methodologies to assist instructors in the process of management and continuous improvement of courses that make it easy to experiment with new techniques. Blackboard can be used to create entire online courses or to simply publish materials that supplement existing courses and requires minimal technical expertise on the part of the developer of the course and on the part of the student.

Faculty and Student Access

Faculty can complete and submit the online Blackboard Course Account Request Form to request a Blackboard course shell for use in their course.

Blackboard is entirely web-based, so there is no software to install (other than a Web browser such as Netscape or Internet Explorer) on the computers used by the students or instructors. Requirements are:

• Microsoft® Windows 98 2nd Edition, 2000, or XP and Internet Explorer 5.0, 5.5, or 6.0 or Netscape Navigator® 6.2. x, 7.0, and 7.1 or AOL® 7.0 and 8 .0 or Mozilla 1.5 and 1.6
• Macintosh OS 9, OS X 10.1.x, 10.2.x, 10.3.x and Internet Explorer 5.1 (OS 9.x and OS X 10.1) or Internet Explorer 5.2 (OS X 10.1, 10.2, 10.3) or Navigator 6.2. x (OS 9.x and OS X) or Navigator 7.0 & 7.1 (OS X) or AOL (OS X) or Mozilla 1.5, 1.6 (OS X) or Safari 1.2
• For a full list of supported browsers, visit the Blackboard Supported Browsers website.

Student and Faculty Login

1. Open this location in a Web browser:
   http://courses.uark.edu/
2. Click the Log in to Blackboard link and log in using your UARK username and password (same as email).
3. Click the Log in button.
   The myBlackboard screen shows a listing of your courses using Blackboard.
4. Click on the course ID (for example: ANTH 1023) to enter that course's home page.
5. You should now see the home page for your course.

Training and Support

Frequently asked questions, support articles, video tutorials, the Course Request Form, and the Support Request Form are available from the Blackboard Support site.

Group and one-on-one overview and training sessions are available for departments or groups of instructors to demonstrate how Blackboard can benefit academic courses. Group sessions can include a general overview of the system, instruction on adding syllabi, materials, and using the gradebook, and question & answer time. Specific topics can also be arranged. One-on-one training can be done to assist individual instructors on getting the most out of Blackboard and making their Blackboard experience specific to their courses.

Firewalls

Many employers and companies set up firewalls as security measures against hackers. Firewalls provide security by closing certain Internet ports, which disables student access to interactive computer applications like Blackboard.

In cases where students have been given permission to complete school work at their place of employment, employers have requested the port numbers required to modify their network and provide their employees with greater Internet access. The port needed is the Chat Port: (TCP) 2304.

Domain Name & IP Address: courses.uark.edu / 130.184.5.63

Course Publishers

Blackboard has been chosen by many of the largest higher education publishers as their tool to build web-based courses to complement their course textbooks. Most notably, Bedford, Freeman and Worth Publishing Group; Cambridge Physics Outlet; Harcourt Higher Learning including Archipelago, Dryden Press, Harcourt College; John Wiley and Sons; McGraw-Hill Higher Education; Pearson Education including Addison-Wesley, Allyn & Bacon, Prentice Hall; Thomson Learning including Brooks/Cole, Course Technology, Delmar, Heinle & Heinle, South-Western College Publishing, Wadsworth; and W.W. Norton are using Blackboard to create online material to supplement their existing textbooks.

Troubleshooting

Downloading Files from Blackboard

Internet Explorer includes a file download notifier that can prevent downloading of files from content pages, attachments, and other areas of Blackboard.

1. In an Internet Explorer window, click Tools, Internet Options.
2. Click the Security tab at the top.
3. Click the Custom Level button.
4. Scroll down until you find the setting Automatic Prompting of Downloads, and check ENABLE.
5. Click OK, Yes, OK to close the Internet Options window.

Install Symantec AntiVirus to check and clean your system of spyware.