Introduction

On this page, you will be introduced to the discussion board feature in Blackboard as well as learning how to send emails to individuals or an entire class within Blackboard.

Key Points on this Page

• Provides information on Blackboard orientation via email for students.

• Emphasizes the importance of accessing Blackboard for course materials, assignments, and announcements.

• Highlights key features of Blackboard, such as the course menu, announcements, and grades.

• Encourages students to explore the platform's resources and reach out for support if needed.

• Provides contact information for technical assistance and further questions.

• Concludes with a reminder to check email regularly for important updates and notifications.

Email Tool

The email tool is generally available in the left navigation in your courses. It is possible your instructor removed or changed those links. If it is not available, contact your instructor with a request to add them to your course navigation.

This tool does not send email within Blackboard - it relays the email to the email address in your profile. This is why it's important to make sure that the email address in your profile is set to the correct email address. 

Steps

To begin, select one of the options, depending on whom you'd like to contact: all users (everyone in the course)? groups? TA users? Just other students? Only instructors?  

Important

When you send a test email for this orientation, please select only to send to instructors and not to all students or all users!

If your message is about an aspect of the course which other students may want to know about, also consider posting it in the discussion boards instead. 

If it is about your grade or personal in nature, you may want to simply email the instructor separately, by opening your email account and sending them an email. 

Keep in mind that "All Instructor Users" includes members of the IDEA support team as well.

Also, please do not use Messages or Email within Blackboard to reach out to IDEA Team for technical support. Instead please use the Help! link under Resources in your course. 

Discussion Forums

If your comment or question could be beneficial to other students, you should probably use a discussion forum, rather than email, so that the whole class can see and/or respond to it.

Discussion Forums can be used for students to:

• • ask questions about the class that other students would benefit knowing about

  • post links to resources or information relevant to class topics

  • carry on a discussion beyond what was discussed in class OR as an outside of class assignment

  • submit thorough, concise, researched, cited responses to instructors' questions

You are expected to include citations to journal articles or other relevant resources in rigorous discussion posts.

Avoid short posts like "I agree": post informative replies with evidence from readings to back up your claims.

Use netiquette when responding to other students. If you disagree, do so in a collegial way that is constructive, specific, evidence-based, sensitive, and balanced manner.

Please view the video, and read the Blackboard Discussions help page to learn more on how to engage with discussions. 

Additonally, visit the Discussion FAQ with info about subscribing to discussion threads to receive email notifications. Most forums have a button at the top to subscribe to the forum, so that you are notified when there are new posts.

In terms of your @UMaryland email, it is managed via the UMB Helpdesk (help@umaryland.edu) and you can always reach it via office.com by logging in with your @umaryland email address and UMID/password/DUO). You can also configure forwarding so that all email to your Umaryland.edu address is also forwarded to an email of your choosing. 

• Click the Settings gear wheel in upper right

• Search for Forwarding or click "View all Outlook Settings" in blue near the bottom 

• You will be taken to the Mail > Forwarding settings page.

• Type or paste your preferred email. 

• Click to enable forwarding, and we recommend keeping a copy of forwarded messages. 

Pictures in Discussion Boards

If you need to add a picture to a discussion you are unable to paste in an image.  Instead, click the + icon on the lower right to insert an image and upload the image. 

This tutorial shows how.

Page Summary

This page taught you how to send email directly from within Blackboard. You also learned what discussion forums are and what the difference might be between sending your instructor an email vs. posting on a discussion board. As always, you are reminded to check email frequently so you do not miss any important updates from your classmates or instructor. 

Exercise 5

• 1. In SOWK 690, Go into Course Email > All Instructor Users and send an email to the instructors of this course. (Please do not send to All Students or All users!) and please do not use the Course Messages tool - but use the Course Email tool. 

  2. Also in SOWK 690, return to the Step 1: Blackboard Orientation page. Scroll down to the item that says Test Forum Sandbox.. This is an optional item that we highly encourage trying out if you are taking any online classes or any classes that may have online discussion board posts.

After you finish this exercise, please go to Step 6.