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Email
The email tool allows you to send email to other people in your course without launching an external email program, such as Gmail, Hotmail, or Yahoo. You can send email to individual users or to groups of users.
Important: Blackboard Learn keeps no record of sent or received email. When you receive or send an email, the email appears in the inbox of your external email program. Keep a copy of important messages in case you need them at a later date.
You can send email to the following users:
- All Users : All users in your course.
- All Groups : All groups in your course.
- All Student Users : All students in your course.
- All Teaching Assistant Users : All teaching assistants in your course.
Updated 8 June 2020
- All Instructor Users : All instructors in your course.
- All Observer Users : All of the observers in your course.
- Select Users : Select the users from a list.
- Select Groups : Select groups from a list.
- Single/Select Observer users : Send email to a single observer or select observers in your course.
Note: Recipients of each email will not see the email addresses of other recipients.
Before You Begin
- UNM Learn is configured to send email to your UNM-preferred address. If necessary, this can be updated to use a different address (e.g. yahoo mail or gmail) via Demographic Self Service:
https://unmvpn.unm.edu/https/dss.unm.edu/
- Blackboard Learn requires some text content in the subject line to send email successfully. If you leave the subject line blank, the message will not be delivered.
How to Send Email
- On the course menu, click the Tools link. On the Tools page, click Send Email. -OR- On the Control Panel , expand the Course Tools section and click Send Email. -OR- On the My Institution tab, in the Tools panel, click Send Email and select a course.
- On the Send Email page, click a link, such as All Users.
- For Select Users or Select Groups , select the recipients in the Available to Select box and click the right-pointing arrow to move them into the Selected box. A back arrow is available to move a user out of the recipient list. Click Invert Selection and selected users are no longer highlighted and those users that are not selected will be highlighted.
The new tool link appears last in the course menu list. Press and drag the arrows icon to move the link into a new position. Access the link's contextual menu to rename, delete, or hide the link from students.
Troubleshooting
- Your email address is not visible unless you choose to make it visible to course members. Find this setting in the global navigation menu > Settings > Personal Information > Set Privacy Options. On this page, you can choose the information you want course members to see.
- You can change your external email address used in your course. Change your email address by accessing the global navigation menu > SettingsPersonal Information > Edit Personal Information. Type your preferred email address and click Submit. Some institutions do not allow users to change their email addresses of record. To learn more, contact your institution.
- Email programs, such as Gmail, Hotmail, or Yahoo, may identify email from Blackboard as junk mail, and either automatically delete it or move it to a junk mail folder. If you have problems, check your user preferences or options for settings regarding the handling of junk email.
Course Messages
Course messages are private and secure text-based communication that occurs within your course and among course members. Although similar to email, you must be logged in to a course to read and send course messages. Using the course messages tool instead of the email tool can also be more reliable. Problems with incorrect or out-of-date student email addresses do not affect course communication.
Note: Course messages are not the same as messages sent using My Blackboard. To learn more, see About Messages.
The What's New module on the My Institution tab and the Home Page notifies you when you receive new course messages.
Both incoming and outgoing messages are saved in the course messages tool. The course messages area has two folders— Inbox and Sent— that you cannot rename or delete. You can delete a message—the action is final and irreversible.
Note: Your institution can choose to allow or not allow users to create personal folders and add file attachments. By default, users may notnot create personal folders and add file attachments.
How to Forward a Course Message
- On the Course Messages page, click a folder.
- On the Folder page, click the link in the message's Subject column.
- On the View Message page, click Forward to send a copy of the message to someone else.
- On the Forward Message page, select the recipients in the Select Recipients: To line box and click the right-pointing arrow to move them to the Recipients box. Tip: For Windows, to select multiple users in a row, press the Shift key and click the first and last names. To select users out of sequence, press the Ctrl key and click each name needed. For Macs, press the Command key instead of the Ctrl key. You can also select all course members with the Select All function.
- Click Submit.
How to Add a Course Messages Link to the Course
Menu
You can add a link to the course menu for one-click access to the course messages tool. You can also customize the name of the link.
- Change Edit Mode to ON and point to the plus sign above the course menu. The Add Menu Item drop- down list appears.
- Click Tool Link.
- Type a Name for the link.
- From the Type drop-down list, click Messages.
- Select the Available to Users check box.
- Click Submit.
The new tool link appears last in the course menu list. Press and drag the arrows icon to move the link into a new position. Access a message's contextual menu to rename, delete, or hide the link from students.
Announcements
With announcements, you can post timely information critical to course success. On the Announcements page, you can add, edit, and delete announcements. This is an ideal place to post time-sensitive material including:
- Due dates for assignments and projects.
- Changes to your syllabus.
- Corrections/clarifications of materials.
- Exam schedules.
When you add an announcement, you can also send the announcement as an email to students in your course. This ensures that students receive the announcement even if they do not log in to your course. If you include links to course content, the email will not include links to that content.
Reorder Announcements
Announcements appear directly below the repositionable bar. Reorder by dragging the bar or announcements to new positions. Move priority announcements above the repositionable bar to pin them to the top of the list and prevent new announcements from superseding them. The order shown is the order presented to students. Students do not see the bar and cannot reorder announcements.
Edit and Delete Announcements
To edit or delete an announcement, access its contextual menu and click Edit or Delete. The deletion action is final and irreversible.
Calendar
You can use the course calendar to provide students with dates for course-related events. Course calendar events appear to all members of the course. Common entries include the following items:
- Meetings
- Instructor office hours
- Exams
- Guest speakers
- Course items with due dates
Note: Instructors and your institution control which tools are available.
The calendar displays a consolidated view of all your institution, course, organization, and personal calendar events. You can view events by day, week, or month. You can view and organize upcoming and past events into categories.
You can also set the first day of your week by changing your personal settings in My Blackboard.
Course calendar events appear to all members of the course. Common entries include upcoming tests, due dates for assignments, or special lectures. Course items with due dates automatically appear in the course calendar. Only instructors may create course calendar events.
distinct color for each calendar easily displays which calendar the event is associated to without opening the event.
Note: All institution events appear in the institution calendar. All course events, such as assignments due, appear in the course calendar. If your system administrator has upgraded to the October 2014 release, any courses you hide in the My Courses module on the My Institution page, will also be hidden in the Calendars list.
- Get an iCal URL for importing your Blackboard Learn calendar into an external calendar application. After the Learn iCal URL is set up in an external calendar, it is updated dynamically with new Learn calendar events. For example, log in to Google Calendar and access the Other Calendar drop-down list. Select Add by URL and paste the iCal URL generated by Blackboard Learn.
Note: You cannot import external calendars into this calendar.
How to Create an Event
- On the calendar, click the plus (+) to create a new event. You can also click a specific date to create an event.
- Type the New Event Name.
- Select a calendar to associate the event to, such as your personal calendar.
Note: Only instructors and administrators can add events to the course and institution calendars.
- Select the Start and End times.
- Type the Event Description. There is a 4,000 character limit for event descriptions.
- Click Save.
Recurring Events
Optionally, you can make events repeat by selecting the Repeat check box. Additional options appear that allow you to create multiple events based on a repeating pattern.
Specifics on Repeating Events and Limitations
Repeat Options Daily, Weekly, and Monthly Supported Daily End after X number of times -OR- on a particular date.
Repeat Options Daily, Weekly, and Monthly Supported Weekly Repeat Day of the week supported. End after X number of times -OR- on a particular date. Monthly Repeat Day of the month (1-31) or day of week (first Sunday, second Monday, and so on) supported. End after X number of times -OR- on a particular date. Bulk Add (Series) Create a series with the repeat options. Bulk Delete (Series) Delete the entire series created using the repeat options. Edit an Instance Edit an instance of the series. If you change the date/time of the instance, that particular instance has a “broken” icon to indicate that it no longer conforms with the original series rules.
Note: Changing the name or description of an instance does notdoes not break the instance from the series.
Edit Series (Known Limitation)
At this time, you cannotcannot edit the series. After you create a series, you can bulk delete or make changes to individual instance.
Edit or Delete an Event
On the calendar, navigate to the date of the event in the main view to perform the following tasks:
- Click the event to edit or delete it.
- Press and drag an event to another date in the main view to change the date of the event. The time of the event and calendar it is associated with remain the same.
- Press and drag an event from the main view to another date on the smaller monthly view to change the date.
