Student eLearning (Blackboard) Tutorial Videos
This page provides an overview of eLearning, the official learning management system (LMS) used at Texas A&M International University. eLearning is currently hosted by Blackboard.
Quick Links: Logging into Blackboard | Blackboard Original Videos | Blackboard Ultra Videos
Blackboard Student Tutorials
Online Tutorials
Visit the "*eLearning (Blackboard) Student Orientation*" when you gain access to Blackboard as a student. This resource will remain available to you throughout your time at the University.
Visit the following links to view our orientation to Ultra Base Navigation and to the upcoming Ultra Course View.
and
Additional detailed training videos may be found below under "Blackboard Student Training Videos".
Face-to-Face Tutorials
Face-to-face Blackboard orientations are available the first two weeks of every semester. To check the Blackboard Student Orientation schedule, go to the OIT Professional Development website, log in with your student credentials, and self-register for a workshop. You can also schedule a one-on-one Blackboard orientation by contacting the OIT eLearning Team at 956.326.2792 and asking for an eLearning Coordinator's assistance.
Option 1
- Log into Uconnect (http://uconnect.tamiu.edu/). Under My Apps, click the eLearning (Blackboard) logo located between My Records and Email.
Option 2
- In a web browser's address bar, type https://elearning.tamiu.edu/.
- Locate and click the "Log In" button.
- On the next page, log in with your student credentials. (Your NetID (username) and password are the same as your University NetID and password.)
After you have successfully logged on, you will automatically be able to see links to all courses for which you are enrolled inside the Blackboard Learn system.
Blackboard Student Training Videos by Infobase Learning Cloud
Below are a list of selected student training videos from Infobase Learning Cloud on the Blackboard Learn system.
Click on a link and log in with your TAMIU student NetID and password to view these videos.
Blackboard Original Course Videos
- What you'll learn in this training - Optimize online learning with Blackboard 9.1 features: navigate courses, use learning spaces, handle assignments, utilize discussion boards, set up groups, stay updated on grades, and explore organizational tools.
- Global Navigation menu - Navigating Blackboard 9.1: Optimize online learning with course navigation, integrated spaces, assignments, tests, discussion boards, groups, grades, and organizational tools.
- View common area information - The Blackboard Common Area is a central hub for accessing tools, modules, courses, community features, and institution-specific services, facilitating easy navigation within the platform.
- Add module content - The My Institution page in Blackboard allows students to organize information, add modules, personalize, and manage content for efficient online learning.
- Module settings - My Institution modules in Blackboard enable users to adjust settings, customize announcements display duration, and open modules in separate windows for efficient online learning management.
- Change the workspace look - Personalize your Blackboard experience by selecting the personalized page button, choosing color palettes unique to you, and reverting to default settings through the color palette library.
- Arrange the modules - Rearrange Blackboard modules for a personalized browsing experience on the My Institution page by dragging, dropping, or using arrow keys.
- Explore the notifications dashboard - Manage course notifications in Blackboard's common area: view, dismiss, and customize based on preferences for efficient tracking and engagement.
- Institution tools overview - Explore the benefits of Blackboard's "my institution" area, emphasizing the "Tools" module for centralized and customizable organization of resources for online students.
- Use the announcement tools - Explore the functionality of "My Announcements" in Blackboard, highlighting its role as a valuable communication tool for instructors and efficient navigation for students.
- Use the calendar tool - Explore the calendar functionality in Blackboard's My Institution Tools, allowing instructors and students to create events, customize color codes, and stay organized online.
- Use the task tool - Discover the personal tasks feature in Blackboard's My Institution Tools, enabling students to create, edit, and manage tasks for enhanced organization in online courses.
- View your grades - Access and review grades, including assignment feedback, in Blackboard through My Grades in My Institution's Tools or the Global Navigation menu, enhancing performance in online courses.
- Send an email - Send emails in Blackboard to individuals or groups within a course using the Send Email feature in My Institution's Tools or the Global Navigation menu.
- Use the directory - Use Blackboard's Tools module User Directory to search and connect with other students, emphasizing search criteria and privacy settings.
- Edit your personal information - Control your personal information display in Blackboard by editing details through the Tools module or Global Navigation Menu, emphasizing customization and management flexibility.
- Add an avatar/edit settings - Personalize your Blackboard experience by uploading an avatar and managing settings, including links in the My Settings navigation menu, with step-by-step instructions.
- Change personal settings - Customize your Blackboard experience by adjusting personal settings, such as language, calendar display, and page instruction visibility, with a step-by-step guide.
- Change privacy options - Manage privacy in Blackboard by selecting information to display or hide from classmates, covering email, contact details, and roster visibility, with potential privileged user overrides.
- Content area overview - Discover consistent elements in Blackboard courses like the Home Page and course navigation menu, providing modules for organization and navigation.
- Modify the course navigation menu - Customize your Blackboard course view by toggling the visibility of the course navigation menu and using the folder view option for a detailed and collapsible display.
- Navigate the content menu - In an online course, the course navigation menu is a tool for students to access and explore different content areas.
- Use the my groups menu - Explore Blackboard's group functionality, emphasizing the group navigation menu, collaboration tools, home page customization, and features for effective online group work.
- Open an assignment - Navigate and understand different assignment types in Blackboard: surveys, chats, file submissions, and quizzes. Open each assignment separately to comprehend and meet specific requirements.
- Send an assignment - Submit a document in Blackboard for an assignment: open, browse, upload, add comments, and submit to the instructor, with post-submission options and grading procedures overview.
- Take a test or survey - Overview of quizzes and tests in Blackboard: instructions on taking a test, different question types, saving and submitting answers, and reviewing results.
- Understand learning modules - Explore Blackboard's learning modules, where instructors organize lesson plans and activities to guide students through sequential content, using an MS Word example.
- Course tools overview - Explore Blackboard's student tools through the course navigation menu, including Atomic Learning, blogs, collaboration tools, messaging, discussion boards, glossaries, groups, journals, grades, rosters, email, tasks, and wikis.
- Modify the course list - Customize and modify the display of information about enrolled courses in the Blackboard common area, including changing order, toggling visibility, and managing appearance.
- Post a blog entry and comment - Explore the function and usage of blogs in Blackboard, serving as personal chronicles for students on course concepts, both individual and group activities, involving creating, editing, and commenting on entries.
- Create a journal - Explore Blackboard's journal functionality, emphasizing private records of learning for students and instructors, allowing creation, editing, and commenting for reflective learning in a course.
- Send a message - Explore Blackboard's communication feature, focusing on sending and managing messages within the course, emphasizing self-contained messages without reliance on email.
- Search the glossary - Instructors set up a glossary in Blackboard, accessible through course navigation or Tools, with alphabetical organization for easy reference to course-relevant terms and definitions.
- Use the groups tool - Explore how instructors facilitate online group work in Blackboard's Tools section, covering both instructor-created and student-created groups with various collaboration tools and functionalities.
- Work with wiki - Explore the use of wikis in online courses, emphasizing student collaboration, knowledge sharing, and content creation with examples of creating, editing, and navigating wiki pages.
- Access the discussion board and view threads - Navigate and use discussion boards in Blackboard, highlighting access methods, forum structure, identifying read/unread posts, and engaging in discussions with classmates.
- Create a discussion thread - This passage provides a step-by-step guide on creating a thread within a forum on a discussion board, highlighting the process of initiating a response to a prompt, attaching files, submitting, understanding the thread order, and identifying unread posts for further engagement within the platform.
- Reply to a thread - This passage explains the process of engaging in discussions within a forum on an online platform, detailing how students can reply to threads, respond to specific posts within threads, and how the platform organizes these interactions for better discussion flow and clarity.
- Organize discussion board using subscribe, flag and collect - "The passage explains the functionalities of Blackboard's discussion boards within an online learning environment, detailing how students can subscribe, unsubscribe, flag threads, and print specific parts of discussions to organize and manage information effectively for learning purposes.
- Use different forum views - This passage highlights how users can personalize their view within a discussion board, including options to sort threads, utilize different display settings like list view, tags, and tree view, offering flexibility in organizing and navigating through forum topics and threads for a more personalized user experience.
- Search the discussion board - This passage explains how the search functionality in Blackboard's discussion board allows users to search for specific threads or words/phrases within the board, providing options to filter results, sort them, and manage displayed content, enabling efficient retrieval of relevant information in a course's discussions.
- Discussion board feedback - The passage discusses the various ways feedback is facilitated on Blackboard's discussion boards, including instructor grading with specific feedback provided in the grade section and a peer-to-peer rating system, offering students opportunities to receive and provide assessment and constructive criticism within the platform.
- Overview - Basic and advanced tools for text, multimedia, previewing, word count, spell check in posts.
- Content editor: simple text tools - Text formatting—bold, italics, underline, font changes, lists, hyperlinks, spell check.
- Content editor: formatting tools - Blackboard's advanced content editor: extensive formatting tools for layout, editing—cut, copy, paste, alignment, indentation, undo/redo options.
- Content editor advanced tools - Blackboard enables HTML/CSS modifications: adjust structure, apply custom styles in content editor, offering flexibility for proficient users.
- Content editor HTML mode - Modify Blackboard's content with custom HTML/CSS: alter HTML structure, apply personalized CSS styles within the editor.
- Insert a file - Insert files in Blackboard's content editor: create clickable hyperlinks for others to download and view linked documents.
- Add an image - Embed images in Blackboard's content editor: upload, adjust alignment, dimensions, and settings for effective visual incorporation.
- Add other media - Use Blackboard's content editor: add webcam recordings, YouTube videos, uploaded files, math editor for enriched content, considering accessibility options.
- Add mashups - A description was provided starting with "This topic..." Shorten the topic sentence to less than 20 words. Remove the words that say "This topic...". -- (
- Overview - Explore "My Blackboard": personalized space managing coursework, updates, grades, and calendar information from enrolled courses.
- View posts - Access and manage course posts in Blackboard's "My Blackboard": filter, reply to contributions from multiple courses together.
- Updates - Manage Blackboard's "Updates" page: view, dismiss, open notifications; customize settings for personalized course update alerts.
- Grades - Explore My Grades in Blackboard: comprehensive overview, grades, assignments, feedback across courses, efficient filtering and management.
- Notifications - Edit Blackboard notification settings: adjust general, course-level, bulk settings for personalized notification types, delivery methods.
- Quick Links tool - Introduce Quick Links in Blackboard: enhance navigation, provide content outline, landmarks for accessibility, organized course materials.
- Use the Calendar tool - Students manage course events in Blackboard calendar: create, modify, repeat with multiple options for customization.
- Import the Blackboard calendar to another calendar - Students add, modify, repeat events in Blackboard course calendar, exploring various options for customization.
- What you'll learn in this series - Introduce Blackboard's portfolio tool: organized artifacts showcasing skills, achievements, focusing on creation, pages, artifact inclusion.
- Planning for your portfolio's design - Set goals, outline for Blackboard portfolio; explore online samples for inspiration and content ideas.
- Accessing the portfolio's homepage - Access Blackboard portfolios: navigate "My Portfolios," manage artifacts, create/search portfolios; next tutorial covers first portfolio creation.
- Creating your portfolio pt. 1 - Start creating a Blackboard portfolio: access tools, select "Portfolios," provide name, template choice (optional), explained in next tutorial.
- Creating your portfolio pt. 2 - Name and describe Blackboard portfolio, emphasizing settings, guided tour option; next tutorial covers page addition.
- Defining the first page and adding headers and footers - Process of adding a header/footer, edit text, renaming pages, navigating structure; future tutorial covers and additional pages.
- Adding pages to your portfolio - Add pages to Blackboard portfolio: use navigator's plus sign, create/edit pages as per outline, conclude with "done editing."
- Working with sections of pages - Rename, add new (using "Program of Study" as an example), with a future tutorial on reordering.
- Reordering portfolio pages and sections - Customize Blackboard portfolio sections: rename existing, add new, using "Program of Study" as an example, preceding section reordering tutorial.
- Deleting portfolio pages and sections - Delete pages or sections in Blackboard portfolios; multiple section deletion includes artifacts, with confirmation or cancellation option.
- Beginning to create an artifact - Add artifacts to "Brief Introduction" in Blackboard's "About Me" page for section visibility; consider external programs for formatting.
- Creating an artifact in the my artifacts section - Guide to adding artifacts in Blackboard's "My Artifacts" section: create with titles, descriptions, typing content, attaching files, and including in page sections.
- Adding an artifact you've created to a page - Present self-introduction(s) into Blackboard portfolio: access page, add artifact, select content, finalize inclusion for seamless access.
- Including an artifact from your course work on a page - Incorporate Blackboard course work into the portfolio: access page, add artifacts, select work, specify preferences, view added artifact.
- Customizing your portfolio's style - Customize Blackboard portfolio appearance: style, layout, color schemes, experiment, save preferred choices for implementation.
- Determining your portfolio's settings - Adjust Blackboard portfolio settings: modify title, description, availability, comment privacy, and submit specified changes.
- Previewing and customizing your portfolio - Users navigate and preview Blackboard portfolios, accessing individual pages and customization options for appearance.
- Sharing your portfolio with others pt. 1 - Sharing a Blackboard portfolio involves selecting "share," choosing recipients, and understanding the shared portfolio's snapshot nature.
- Sharing your portfolio with others pt. 2 - Sharing portfolios in Blackboard involves providing the recipient's email, customizing the message, setting access parameters, and submitting the request.
- Viewing comments posted - Users learn to view and manage comments on Blackboard shared portfolios, including steps to access and delete comments.
- Downloading your portfolio - Users are guided on downloading Blackboard portfolios, explaining initiation steps and locating the downloaded zip file.
- Deleting your portfolio - Users learn how to permanently delete Blackboard portfolios, acknowledging the irreversible action and providing confirmation options.
- Viewing a portfolio collection - Users can customize Blackboard portfolios by choosing view, and managing displays with edit paging features
- Searching through a portfolio collection - Blackboard's portfolio tool facilitates efficient searches for specific terms in titles or descriptions.
- Overview - Unlock the full potential of Blackboard in this tutorial series, mastering online class navigation, profile setup, content access, assessments, and more, so you can focus on your course content with confidence.
- Creating Your Profile - Craft your unique profile with ease: select your name, edit details, and hit "done"; add a personal touch with an uploaded image using the edit icon.
- Changing Your Password - Change your password by clicking your name, selecting "change password" under basic info, type in your old and new passwords, confirm, and save.
- Adjusting Your Privacy Settings - Tailor your privacy with a few clicks: find your name, explore system settings, and effortlessly choose who gets a glimpse of your profile—whether it's just instructors, your course mates, or administrators, then seal the deal with a save at the bottom.
- Selecting Your Notifications - Stay connected on Blackboard: customize your notifications, shape your activity stream, and tweak email updates. Save your choices and adjust anytime.
- Viewing Your Activity Stream - Stay in the loop on Blackboard: your activity stream on the left menu shows due dates, discussions, and grades; use the upper-right filter for a focused view on assignments, tests, grades, or messages.
- Accessing Your Course - Explore your courses on Blackboard: find them with a click on "courses," filter for current or completed ones, and effortlessly jump into your selected course by clicking its title.
- Viewing The Roster - Discover your course community: in the course menu, click on "roster" to see your instructor and fellow students. Want to know more about someone? Just click the eyeball icon to explore the profile information they've shared.
- Accessing Content - Explore your course: click "courses," choose your course, and find all you need for success, from documents to discussions, effortlessly in one place.
- Viewing Assignments - Discover your assignments: check the content tab for a paper icon, click your assignment title for key details like due dates and attempts, and explore the assignment essence at the top of the page with a simple "view assessment" click.
- Submitting Assignments - Immerse in your assignment: click, explore, submit effortlessly with "add content," and confirm with a simple "submit" in the corner.
- Uploading an Assignment File - Streamline your assignment submission: click the title, explore content, add your document or cloud file, and easily attach web content if needed. When satisfied, a simple click on "submit" in the lower right corner wraps up the process.
- Group Assignments - Explore group assignments effortlessly: click for details, engage through class conversations or video calls, and submit seamlessly with text or files from local or cloud storage. Enjoy a connected group assignment experience.
- Using Course Tools - Discover course tools like Hoonuit and Turnitin.com in "books and tools" to enhance your learning on Blackboard. For assistance, connect with your instructor or classmates in the discussion area. (More on discussions in upcoming videos.)
- Taking Tests and Quizzes - Explore online assessments on Blackboard with the test or quiz icon. Click, view details, and start seamlessly with "view assessment." Navigate through different question types, share insights with "add content," and finish with a quick "submit" in the bottom right corner. Grades may appear instantly or show as pending for subjective assessments.
- Accessing Discussion Board - Access the discussion board to find and read posts related to main content through a conversation bubble icon or the discussion tab, with topics varying based on instructor organization.
- Writing Posts - Access the discussion board through a post icon or a tab, varying by instructor preferences, read threads by selecting titles, and view related posts within folders.
- Editing Posts - Access the discussion board through individual posts or a tab, noting instructor variations like post icons or folders with related posts.
- Accessing Your Messages - Access the discussion board through a post or tab, varying by instructor; find posts indicated by a conversation bubble or in folders; read threads by hitting the title.
- Writing a New Message - Access the discussion board in Blackboard through finding posts on the main content page or using the discussion tab, considering instructor variations like icons or folders for related posts.
- Replying to a Message - Instructions on accessing the discussion board in Blackboard, explaining methods, addressing instructor variations, and emphasizing identification of posts or folders for reading threads and responses.
- Deleting Messages - Guidance on accessing a Blackboard discussion board, explaining methods, noting instructor variations, and emphasizing identifying posts or folders for reading related threads and responses.
- Viewing Your Calendar - Instructions for accessing a Blackboard discussion board, explaining methods, addressing instructor variations, and highlighting the presence of posts or folders for reading related threads and responses.
- Adding an Item to Your Calendar - Guidance on accessing a Blackboard discussion board, explaining methods, addressing instructor variations, and emphasizing identifying posts or folders for reading related threads and responses.
- Finding Your Grades - Instructions for accessing a discussion board in Blackboard, outlining methods, explaining instructor variations, and highlighting posts or folders for reading related threads and responses.
- Using Your Course Room - Instructions on accessing a Blackboard discussion board by finding posts or using the tab, addressing instructor variations, and emphasizing the identification of posts or folders for reading related threads and responses.
- Top 10 Tips for Online Students - Instructions for accessing a Blackboard discussion board, explaining the process through finding posts or using the tab, addressing instructor variations, and emphasizing identification of posts or folders for reading related threads and responses.
Office of Information Technology
Instructional Technology & Distance Education Services
Sue and Radcliffe Killam Library (KLM) 259
Phone: 956.326.2792
Fax: 956.326.2299
E-mail: elearning@tamiu.edu