Frequently Asked Questions

What Faculty ask us about Blackboard

Q1 : I want to use Blackboard for my course . How do I request a course site?

Instructors interested in using Blackboard for their courses need only to fill out the course site request form at www.accc.uic.edu/itl/blackboard and then click on 'Request a Site" link. Make sure you provide us with the course call numbers (5 digit number) in the request form so that students are automatically enrolled into your site based upon the call numbers that you specify in your site request.

Q2 : How can I obtain a Blackboard secondary account?

To obtain a Blackboard-only secondary account, do the following:

1) Go to the ACCC home page - www.accc.uic.edu
2) Click on the link labeled "Accounts - Open an ACCC Account" under New Accounts
3) Click the login button and enter your UIC netid and password
4) Select: "Blackboard Secondary" account under New Accounts
5) Click the "Create Account" button, within a few seconds you should receive a "Success" Web page indicating that your request has been successfully queued

Within 30 minutes your new Blackboard-only secondary account will be created. This special account's netid will be of the form: netid.bb Its password is your same UIC Common password as for your real UIC netid. The passwords of your real UIC netid and your Blackboard-only secondary netid are always synchronized and will always be the same.

The email address used when creating Blackboard-only secondary netids will always be your real UIC email address, namely: netid@uic.edu

To see if your Blackboard-only secondary netid has been created, try logging in to Blackboard with its netid.bb username and UIC Common password.

To enroll your Blackboard-only secondary account in a Blackboard site as a student, proceed as you would to enroll anyone else with a regular UIC netid and password, as a student, namely:

6) Go into the Blackboard Control Panel
7) Click the link labeled "Enroll User" under User Management on the top right
8) Search for your last name, netid or email address
9) Check the box for your netid.bb Blackboard-only secondary account
10) Click the checkbox next to your netid.bb and click "Submit"

Q3: How can I add an instructor or TA to my course site?

For adding an instructor, TA or a student, follow the instructions below:

Go to your blackboard site and click on 'Control Panel'
Click on 'Enroll User' under 'User Management'
Search for the user you want to enroll using the NetID or Last Name ,make sure the correct radio button is selected at the bottom of the search box
Check the box besides the user you want to enroll ,in the search result
Click on 'Submit'.

By default, the user would be enrolled as a student .To change his or her access level to that of a TA or an Instructor, follow the instructions below:

After adding the user

Click on 'Control Panel
Click on 'List/Modify Users' under 'User Management'
Search for the user you want to make a TA/Instructor to your course using the NetID or Last Name, make sure the correct radio button is selected at the bottom of the search box
Click on 'Properties' besides the user you want in the search result
Select the appropriate role (TA or Instructor) by selecting the correct radio button under 'Role Availability'
Click on 'Submit'.

Q4 : How can I unenroll users from my course site?

For unenrolling a user from your course site, follow the instructions below :

Go to your blackboard site and click on 'Control Panel'
From the 'User Management' area choose ‘Remove users from course'
Click on the ‘List All' tab, then on the ‘List All' button if you want to remove list of users from your course site.
If you want to unenroll single user then search for the user you want to unenroll using the NetID or Last Name ,make sure the correct radio button is selected at the bottom of the search box
Check the box besides the user you want to unenroll and Click 'Submit'.

Q5 : I need to have an account created for an external(Non-UIC) user. What do I do?

A : Anyone affiliated with the University of Illinois at Chicago and having an activated UIC netid will automatically have a blackboard account. If you need to have an account created for an external user (someone not affiliated with the University) please send an email to accounts@uic.edu .

For trouble logging in to blackboard please visit one of the CSO consultants (available in any of the public computer labs on campus) - they have the ability to troubleshoot your common password related issues and assist you in logging in to the system.

If you are having problems identifying the username please contact us by sending an e-mail to blackboard@uic.edu .

Q6: Is there any space limit for the course site?

A : We initially limit each course site to 500MB, if a site goes over quota, we discuss current space usage and future space needs with the instructor(s), give tips to reduce file sizes or come up with alternative formats of presenting the content, and raise the quota as needed. Individual file uploads are not currently limited in size. However we highly recommend creating streaming media on our Realnetworks Helix Server and linking to it, instead of uploading audio or video to Blackboard. This server supports Realmedia, Quicktime, MPEG4, mp3, and Windowsmedia content.

Note that very large courses can cause problems during export/backup/import. Continuous-use sites that grow over a very long time eventually need to be recycled to remain viable.

Q7 : What happens to my site at the end of the semester?

Your site will be deactivated two weeks after the last week of classes, meaning students can no longer access them. You can extend the course duration from the Control Panel, under Settings > Duration. Shortly after the beginning of the next term, the site will be made invisible to students (Blackboard calls this "unavailable"). The materials in Blackboard sites can easily be re-used for later terms by simply copying the course's contents to a new site. To request such a content re-use, simply fill in our online site request form at http://www.uic.edu/depts/accc/itl/blackboard/request_site.shtml and specify which previous site you wish to re-use.

One full year after the class is over, the site is disabled, causing it to disappear from your view as well. However, the student records in your site are preserved by us for several years according to UIC policies, although the site appears to have been removed from the server. This also means that your content remains available for site re-use even after the site has been "removed".

Q8 : Will the students be automatically enrolled into the course site or do we have to manually enroll each and every student into the course site?

Yes, students are automatically enrolled into your site based upon the call numbers you specify in your site request. The batch enrollment process is run from two weeks before the semester begins until the Add/Drop deadline. The batch enrollment will add students into your course site, but you will have to un-enroll any students that drop themselves.

If you have a course site that doesn't have a call number you can send us the list of the Netids of the students that you'd like enrolled to blackboard@uic.edu .

If the students or users you wish to enroll in your site are not affiliated with UIC or do not have netid's. You will need to have an accounts created for them (someone not affiliated with the University) by sending an email to accounts@uic.edu .

If for some reason your students did not get captured by the batch upload process you can manually enroll student accounts already on the system into your course site.

Q9: My students are having problems. Can you help?

A: The Blackboard administrators provide support to faculty and developers working on Blackboard. Students should direct their questions to their instructors/TA's, who may contact the Blackboard administrators if they cannot solve the problem themselves. Problems of a general nature not directly related to Blackboard , such as dial-up issues, web browser problems etc., should be directed to the Client Services Office .

If you need help with a student's problem, please get all relevant information from the student before contacting the UIC Blackboard administrators for help. That includes all of the following:

What exactly he was trying to do when the error occurred.
Any error messages he got. Literally!
When exactly this occurred.
What browser he was using, what version, and what operating system.
How he was accessing the Internet (what ISP, or is he behind a firewall?).
Any other clues related to the problem

Q10: I have problems posting announcements.

A: If you are unable to post announcements with the new version of Blackboard. Please make sure that Java and Java script enabled in your browser and also we would suggest you to disable McAfee if it is installed on your computer. And also make sure you are at the latest version of your browser. Please do an update if needed.

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