Blackboard Instructor Help and Support Resources

You can share your Blackboard course site with your students by following the steps below:

Ultra Courses

1. Click the Course Settings link at the top right of the screen.
2. Under Course Status select Open.

Original Courses

1. Under Control Panel (left column of course home page) expand Customization.
2. Click the Properties option.
3. Click the Yes radio option next to Make Course Available.
4. Click the Submit button.

Your students should now see your Blackboard course listed in the "Courses" section when they log in to Blackboard.

• Blackboard FAQ for Instructors
• Blackboard FAQ for Students

Visit the Distance Learning office for Online Learning Resources.

The online Blackboard Learn Instructor Manual is authored by Blackboard support. By default, much of the content displayed is in regards to "Ultra" courses, however many of our courses still use the "Original" course view. The course view is generally labeled at the top of the article.

If you are teaching multiple sections of the same course you can request to have the student enrollments merged into one site by completing the Merge Multiple Course Sections Request (Dynamic Forms).

All official courses will automatically be assigned a Blackboard course site. However, if you would like to use Blackboard to support a project, committee work or to develop a course that you can later copy from, please complete the Blackboard Course Request (Dynamic Forms).

In most cases, Blackboard enrollments of students and instructor assignments occur automatically during a synchronization process with our student records system. However, there are some rare cases where a manual enrollment may be required. Some examples of these cases are as follows:

• a peer tutor is needed in a course
• another staff member needs to review a course
• a Blackboard course may not be an "official" course in the student records system

When a manual enrollment is required please complete the form linked below:

Blackboard Enrollment Request (Dynamic Forms)

Course content can be copied between Blackboard sites. This is helpful when building new course sites each semester. Please note that if you plan on requesting to have your Blackboard course sections merged you should do this prior to copying content into your empty course sites.

Keep in mind that the course copy feature should ideally be used once for each destination course. If used more than once to copy materials into a particular course site, multiple copies of your course contents may be added to the Blackboard site.

Blackboard Ultra Course Copy Instructions (Original to Ultra and Ultra to Ultra)

1. Begin in the new course.
2. Click the kebab menu (three dots) at the top right of the Course Content area.
3. From the expanded menu, choose "Copy Items."
   NOTE: You can also click one of the "plus" icons in the Course Content area and choose "Copy Content." This can be useful for more exact placement of copied content.
4. Search for the course you would like to copy from and check the box next to the desired course.
   OR
   Drill down into the course and select particular areas or documents to copy.
5. Click “Start Copy” to confirm.

NOTE: It can take several minutes for the course copy to complete. 

Blackboard Original Course Copy Instructions (Original to Original)

1. Go to the Control Panel in the originating Blackboard course (course site with content).
2. Expand Packages and Utilities and click Course Copy.
3. For Copy Type choose Copy Course Materials into an Existing Course.
4. Click Browse next to "Destination Course ID."
5. A Courses window will pop-up. Click the radio option button next to the course you want to copy content into and click the Submit button.
6. In the Course Materials section select the content you would like to copy by checking the appropriate boxes*.
7. In the File Attachments section select "Copy links and copies of the content."
8. IMPORTANT: Under the Enrollments section DON'T check the box next to "Include Enrollments in the Copy."
9. Click the Submit button.
10. You should see a message that the process has been queued and that an email will be sent when it is complete.

*Note:

• If you are copying tests, quizzes or surveys you will need to check off the box next to "Tests, Surveys, and Pools." Choosing the content area where the tests are deployed will not copy the tests. Be sure to also check the box next to "Grade Center Columns and Settings."
• Assignments (that were created using the "Assignment" tool) need to be copied by choosing the content area they are deployed in and checking the box next to "Grade Center Columns and Settings."

Blackboard Ally, Blackboard’s companion accessibility tool, is now available within all courses at Fitchburg State University.

Ally provides immediate, in-course feedback on the accessibility of your content, identifying areas for improvement and offering clear guidance to help you enhance accessibility. These insights help make course materials more usable for a wide range of student needs and highlight where small changes can make a meaningful difference in how students engage with your content.

You can begin exploring Ally in your Ultra courses today—no setup needed.

In your courses, you’ll notice a small circular gauge icon next to your course files:

Clicking the icon opens clear, in-context feedback and step-by-step guidance to help you improve that specific item.

With Ally, you can identify accessibility issues within your course content, understand why they matter for diverse learners, and follow step-by-step guidance to improve materials. Students can also benefit from alternative formats (such as audio, mobile-friendly, and HTML versions), supporting a more inclusive learning experience.

Find more Blackboard Ally resources in the "Faculty Toolkit" in each of your Blackboard course.

Turnitin is a comprehensive solution that helps students learn by facilitating personalized feedback. Faculty can check students' work for improper citation or potential plagiarism by comparing it against the world's largest academic database. For more information on Turnitin, please contact Meagan Martin at mmart100@fitchburgstate.edu.

“My helpful hint is to provide detailed grading rubrics and directions for any paper assignment and if possible one or two exemplars of an "A" paper ... especially for students just starting ... students who follow the rubric and read the exemplars nearly always do much better than those who do not ... I also believe more frequent but short writing assignments help students acquire or re-acquire the basics of professional writing rather than a twenty page term paper, unless it is a capstone course.” - Robert Dumas, Former Graduate Program Chair, Forensic Nursing

• Turnitin Instructor User Manual

• Embed a Librarian into your course.
• Embed online library resources into your Blackboard course.
  • Access articles, images, eBooks, et cetera through the library's databases. Click on the item you want.
  • Most of the Library's databases provide a "Permalink" or "Permanent Link," which is a static link directly to that specific item. Copy this link and paste it into your content area as an Item or a Web Link.
  • If the database doesn't provide this link, contact a librarian for help.
  • If the item is in a PDF format, you can save the file and load it directly into Blackboard. Be sure to include the citation for the item for copyright. For questions about copyright and fair use, visit the Library's copyright guide.

Learn more about the library services available at the Fitchburg State Online Learning and Extended Campus page.

• United States Copyright Office
• ACC Copyright and Fair Use
• Stanford Copyright and Fair Use