Intermediate Blackboard Tips for Students: Using the ... - Terri Senft

Intermediate Blackboard Tips for Students:
Using the Bulletin Board Feature
Prepared by Annette Markham
and Theresa Senft
Questions? Email tsenft@uvi.ed
Tip Page
Step 1: Find Your Class Discussion Board. 1
Step 2: Understand what Threads are. 2
Step 3: Learn to Read Existing Threads
Step 4: Learn to Respond to Threads.
Step 5: Start Your Own Thread
Step Six: Learn to Organize Discussion Threads
Step Seven: Learn to Search Discussion Threads
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STEP 1: Find Your Class Discussion Board.
Since there are a number of ways to set up a discussion board, it might take a moment
or two before you find the one for your Blackboard course. From the main course
page, look on the left hand menu for the words “Discussion,” “Communication,” or
“Tools.” Click through to find this icon:
Once you find your Bulletin Board, you’ll probably find it already has a few entries.
Below is a screen shot of a sample Bulletin Board.
STEP 2: Understand what threads are.
If you look at the screen shot above, you will see that this Bulletin Board features two
conversations, called threads. The first thread is called “If you don’t know how to
upload.” The other is called “This is a Sample Message.”
At this point, you have three choices:
1. Read threads without responding to any
2. Respond to an existing thread
3. Add new thread to the Bulletin Board
Although these choices make confuse at first, they have analogues in everyday
conversation. “Reading threads” is simply listening to what others are saying.
“Responding to a thread” is similar to agreeing, disagreeing, or adding your own
reflections to something already under discussion. “Adding a new thread” is just that:
proposing a brand new topic for the group to discuss. In everyday conversation, we call
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adding a new thread, “changing the subject.” To sum: Do you want to listen, to join in, or
do you want to change the subject entirely? It’s up to you.
STEP 3: Learn to Read Existing Threads
Because it’s a good idea to read what others have said before jumping in, let’s begin by
checking responses to the existing threads on the Bulletin Board. You can see responses
to the thread by clicking the “Expand All” option on the top of the screen. Your next
screen would look like the one below:
In the screen shot above, the phrases that begin, “Re: If you don’t…” are called
responses to the thread. To read threads and their responses click on the hyperlinks. If
you clicked on the thread called “If you don’t know how to upload,” for example, you’d
be taken to a screen that looks like this:
You can follow the trajectory of the conversation by going to “Thread Detail” at the
bottom of the page. Note that responses are arranged in chronological order.
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STEP 4: Learn to Respond to Threads.
Now that you’ve mastered reading threads, it’s time to start replying. It’s simple: click
the reply button located to the right of each thread.
When you hit “reply,” you are taken to a page that looks the one below (minus the
annotations.) Type in your response, add an attachment if you desire, and press submit.
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Step 5: Start Your Own Thread
\Once that you’re comfortable reading and replying to threads, it’s time to change the
subject, and introduce a thread of your own. To do this, you simply return back to first
page of the Bulletin Board and click the button marked “Add New Thread.”
You’ll see a page that looks like this:
Fill in your message (don’t forget a subject line!), attach any documents you’d like,
preview using the “preview” button, when you are satisfied, press “submit.”
Step Six: Learn to Organize Your Discussion Threads
Sometimes, you remember who said something in a discussion, but cannot remember
when it was said, or what it was referencing. To help, you can organize discussion
threads according to date, author or subject, using the pull down menu, as shown below.
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Step Seven: Learn to Search Your Discussion Threads
You can now search within individual discussion threads by using the “Search” feature,
which can be found below the “Expand” and “Collapse” boxes at the top right of the
discussion thread menu.
Choose
“Search”
Choose “search” and you will reach a page that looks like this:
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