Blackboard User Guide for Participants - Ranked #1 …Timely, relevant knowledge and tools for...

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Blackboard User Guide for Participants

Mail Code 4120 ▪ 411 N. Central Ave ▪ Suite 500 ▪ Phoenix, AZ 85004-0691 ▪ 602-496-0500 ▪ Fax: 602-496-0952 http://nmi.asu.edu ▪ http://lodestar.asu.edu

Welcome

Welcome to your NMI online course. Before you begin your course, please read through this Blackboard User Guide for Participants. This document contains information on how to login to the course, where to find class materials, how to participate in discussion questions, where to find help if needed, and the overall navigation of the course.

This course is made up of five sessions. Each session is three days in length, making this course 15 days. In each session, you will have assigned readings, 1-2 activities, and three discussion questions to complete. Read through your Participant Guide’s Guidelines for more information regarding what is required of you during this course.

Please note that since none of your work is graded, you must complete all discussion questions and activities in order to receive credit for this course. The purpose of the NMI Certificate courses is to allow you to build upon prior knowledge and receive feedback and comments from professionals in the nonprofit sector.

Login The first step in starting your online course is to log in at myasucourses.asu.edu.

Copyright © 2012 Arizona Board of Regents for and on behalf of the ASU Lodestar Center for Philanthropy and Nonprofit Innovation, College of Public Programs, Arizona State University.

https://weblogin.asu.edu/cas/login?service=https%3A%2F%2Fweblogin.asu.edu%2Fcgi-bin%2Fcas-login%3Fcallapp%3Dhttps%253A%252F%252Fweblogin.asu.edu%252Fblackboard-sso%252Fauthn%253Finit%253Dfalse%2526d%253Dmyasucourses.asu.edu

Navigate to Course After logging in to My ASU, the following screen will appear. Find the course you are taking in the “My Courses” section and click on its name.

After selecting your course, you will be directed to the ASU Blackboard.


Course Features On the left hand side of the screen, you will see a maroon bar of links. Each of the sections listed below can be found therein.

Announcements The first section of the course homepage is Announcements. This is where your instructor will list announcements for this course. This will also be where your instructor will announce availability, tips, and possible updates to the Participant Guide.

Participant Materials The Participant Materials section contains five resources that you will need to complete this course: Participant Guide, Successful Online Learning, ASU Help Center, Plug-in Software, and the Blackboard User Guide for Participants.


After you enter your course for the first time, you must download and review the Participant Guide. This document provides you with information about the learning objectives, methods, activities, and due dates for this online course.

The second resource in the Participant Materials section is a document entitled “Successful Online Learning.” If you are new to the online learning environment, this document can help increase the likelihood of your success and satisfaction in this NMI online course.


Technical issues may arise during your participation in this course. If this occurs, you can contact the ASU Help Center for technical and computer support 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Just visit the ASU Help Center link in the Participant Materials section to gain access to live chats, frequently asked questions, to open a ticket, and contact the ASU Help Center directly. Or, you can find the Help Center directly at help.asu.edu.

In this course, you will need access to Internet Explorer 8 or higher, Adobe Reader 8 or higher, and Adobe Flash Player. If you do not have this software already, you can download a free version by going to your Participant Materials and selecting the folder entitled “Plug-in Software.” Here you will find links to download Adobe Reader, Adobe Flash Player, and MS Word 2007 Compatibility Pack.


http://help.asu.edu/

Sessions

As stated previously, there are five sessions in each NMI online course. Each session will contain your readings, videos, websites, presentations, and activities for you to complete. There will also be a link to the discussion forum for you to answer and reply to each session’s three discussion questions.

Please note that many of the discussion questions and assignments refer to the nonprofit organization you currently work for. If you do not work for a nonprofit organization at the time of taking this course, please use a nonprofit that you either volunteer for or are familiar with to complete these learning activities.

Session

Websites

Reading

Video

Presentation

Activity


Class Biographies

Your instructor’s biography can be found in this section of the ASU Blackboard. After reading your instructor’s biography, you will be asked to reply to his/her post with your own biography. More information can be found in your Participant Guide.

Activity


Discussion Board As stated previously, each session of the course will have three discussion questions in which you will be required to participate. Your instructor will post all three discussion questions at the beginning of each session. Please locate the due dates for each session’s discussion question posts in your Participant Guide.

Access Discussion Board Forum

Step 1. Log in to the desired course (http://myasucourses.asu.edu).

Step 2. Click the Discussions link in the course menu, or a direct link to a specific discussion forum in a content area. Instructors should define the proper procedure for accessing Discussion Boards for their class in the syllabus.


http://myasucourses.asu.edu/

Step 3. From the list of forums available to users, click the topic link.

Step 4. All threads in the forum are displayed on the page. To read a thread, click on the appropriate subject link.

Step 5. After clicking on the subject link, the message is displayed in a preview pane under the list. Click the Next Post icon (as shown below) to navigate to the next post in the Discussion Forum.


Create a New Thread

Main topics in a discussion forum are called threads. A thread begins a discussion point and eventually contains a list of connected posts called replies.

Note to Learners: If you do not see the Create Thread button, then the instructor or forum manager is not allowing you to create new threads. You should still be able to reply to existing threads set up by the instructor.

Step 1: In the forum, click the Create Thread button.

For example:

Step 2: Type your Subject (required) and Message. For example:


Note: If the Visual Text Editor is not showing up right away, set your global availability of the editor via My Places > Personal Information.

Step 3: Click the Submit button to post your message.Everyone who has access to this forum will now see your message.

NOTE: If you click the Save button (instead of Submit), your message is NOT posted for all to view. To access saved messages, see article How do I find messages I saved so that I can post them to the forum in this knowledge base, for details.

Reply to a Thread

Step 1. After reading any message you can reply to it by clicking the Reply button located at both the top and bottom of the preview pane.


Step 2. The response window is displayed. Complete the fields as indicated below:

Subject: this will contain the same subject as the original posting with Re: added before it. You have the option to change the subject to something more descriptive. It is suggested you leave it the same so that the thread and its replies can be easily located based on this field.

Message: type your message in the text box or paste text from another source.

Attachments: you have the option to attach a file to support your posting. Click the Attach a file link and browse for your file.

Submit: when you are finished with your thread, click Submit.


Step 3. Your new message is now displayed indented from the original message. Any replies to your reply will be indented further one level.

Course Surveys

At the end of your course, there will be two surveys for you to complete.

The first is the Feedback Survey. This survey allows you to express your overall opinions and thoughts about the course you just completed. Your feedback on this course is extremely important to us and will be used to make improvements in our face-to-face and online programming. Your answers will remain anonymous, but we will know whether you have taken the survey or not.


The second survey we would like you to complete is the Learning Objectives Survey. This survey allows you to reflect on the course and indicate your level of agreement for meeting each learning objective. Again, your answers will remain anonymous, but we will know whether you have taken the survey or not.

Tools

In this section you will have many tools available to you. Not only can you view announcements and get blackboard help in this section, but you can also send messages to your instructor and other participants, get contact information for other participants, send emails, and much more. I suggest you review this section in great length before starting your class.


Submitting Activities/Assignments Under each session will be a list of the activities each participant will need to complete. You can submit assignments from the Assignments link in your course. In order to submit your assignment to your instructor, follow the instructions below or watch this Video Tutorial.

Step 1. Click on the link for the assignment.

Step 2. The first section gives details about the assignment.

Step 3. Depending on the assignment, type text into the Submission box and/or click the Browse for Local File to add a file from your computer (such as a word file).


http://www.asu.edu/courses/oasis/BBAssignments/StudentSubmit/StudentSubmit.html

Step 4. Add comments, if desired.

Step 5. Click Submit to submit your assignment, or you can click Save as Draft to save your work without submitting (for example, if you started on an assignment and ran out of time and want to return to it later).


View Graded Activities/Assignments Access the video “View a Submitted Assignment” by clicking on the link below. For your NMI course, intead of using the “My Grades” tab to locate your graded activities, you will click on the “Submitted Activities” tab. It is under this tab that your instructor will submit your activities with feedback.

http://www.asu.edu/courses/oasis/BBAssignments/StudentViewSubmitted/StudentViewSubmitted.html


http://www.asu.edu/courses/oasis/BBAssignments/StudentViewSubmitted/StudentViewSubmitted.html

Blackboard User Guide for Participants - Ranked #1 …Timely, relevant knowledge and tools for...

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