Step 3: Blackboard Course Preferences

Introduction

The secret to success is to know how to tame the tool that you will use the most - Blackboard Ultra, and the best way to do that is to learn everything about how to navigate around the system. Just like a map is needed in a big city, knowing where you are and where you need to get to makes the rest of the journey more enjoyable. In this step of the orientation, you will learn how to configure Blackboard to your liking by setting up your profile, configuring your settings, and setting your name pronunciation. By the end of this step, you will have a good understanding of the settings and navigation to make the most of its features. Let's get started!

Top Tips:

Favoriting a course is the best way to quickly get to the course next time you login.
Using the Name Pronounciation tool allows others to know your correct name pronounciation.
Your Blackboard calendar can be shared with third party tools, allowing you to see all calendars in one place.
You have control over your notifications and can decide which type and method of communication that works best for you.

Find courses using search or the semester drop down
Favorite the courses for easier access later
Some courses don't open until the first day of class. Many may open sooner. Most instructors open them about a week before classes begin.
Courses are archived after your course and content may not be available to you after so save any important work outside of Blackboard or else it will be lost.
The Concourse Syllabus is your contract with your Instructor for how the course will be taught.

Logging In

Login into your blackboard.umaryland.edu and sign in with your UMID and password. You may have to authenticate with Duo
Once you login, you will view your My Institution page.

Name Pronunciation and Blackboard Profile

You have probably been in this scenario before - you have a name that is uniquely yours but people pronounce it wrong. Now it’s time to share the preferred way to pronounce your name as well as tinker with other Blackboard Profile settings.

After logging into Blackboard, click your Name (1) on the left-hand menu.
Locate Pronunciation under the Basic Information section and click the Add Pronunciation (2) hyperlink.
Under the Pronunciation box that appears, type in your phonetic name (if desired)
Click Record Name Pronunciation (3) to verbally say your name. You will have to grant browser access to your microphone to allow the recording. You will have 20 seconds to record your name and a timer will count down.
Once recorded, you will be able to listen to your name played back.
Set your Pronouns using the Pronouns (4) dropdown arrow.
Click Done (5) to accept your recording.

A quick note about your profile picture. You cannot change your profile picture in Blackboard Ultra. It is locked down by the central administration department called CITS and is tied to your OneCard picture.

Set Up Notifications

Doing your best work is easier when your tools are in order and you understand what is expected of you. There are three types of notifications that can be customized so that you can find a balance between being notified of important content vs being inundated with too many notifications.

Notifications can be setup by clicking one of the three hyperlinks in the Profile Page under Global Notification Settings

Activity Stream notifications

You can control which activity appears in your Activity Stream. Select the Stream Notification Settings tab to open the panel.

Note: Notifications for due dates, grades, and feedback always appear in your stream.

Choose which notifications you receive about activity in all your courses:

Institution announcements
Course announcements
Graded items due
Graded item due soon Graded item past due
New content
Assessment added
Content added
Grades posted
New discussion
My grades and activity
New calendar event
New course or organization
Journal activity

You can choose to receive all or some notifications of a certain type. A checkmark appears when you select all notifications. A dash appears when you select some notifications.

Email notifications

Select the Email Notification Settings tab to open the panel.

If you haven't added an email address to your profile page, you won't see any options in the Email Notification Settings tab.

Organization activities won’t trigger email notifications.

Choose how often you want to receive emails for activities in all your Original and Ultra courses:

Email me right away: Receive individual notifications for each activity you choose from the list.

Email me once a day: All notifications are collected and sent once a day at a time set by your institution.

In the Notify me by email about these activities list, choose which notifications you want to receive:

New gradable items New messages
New discussion messages New content added
New and upcoming due dates Past due items
New courses available

Clear all the check boxes if you don't want to receive emails about the activities in the list.

Emails will come from an email address called noreply@blackboardsender.edu

Push notifications

Select the SMS Notification Settings tab to open the panel.

Note: If you haven't added a phone number to your profile page, you won't see any options in the SMS Notification Settings tab.

Organization activities won’t trigger SMS notifications.

In the Notify me by SMS about these activities list, choose which notifications you want to receive:

New content and discussions
New discussion responses
New grades and feedback
New and upcoming due dates

Clear all the check boxes if you don't want to receive SMS text messages about the activities in the list.

Note: you can set up more reminders for a specific number of days prior to due dates

Note: Due date push notifications always appear one day before the due date and can't be turned off like other push notification types.

When an instructor changes a due date, a new Test Due push notification is generated. The push notification doesn't state that it's a changed due date.

Check Your Calendar

Juggling competing responsibilities isn't easy. Use the calendar to keep track of upcoming assignments, events, and other due dates. Click each heading below to expand and learn more about the built-in calendar tool.

Locating Your Calendar

After logging in to Blackboard, the Calendar link shows your Global Calendar across all courses in one place. Here, you can see all your upcoming due dates and meetings across your courses—all in one place.

Choose Your View

Select Day or Month to zoom in on one day's tasks or plan for the weeks ahead.

Select Due Dates to focus only on your upcoming deadlines.

Create and Edit an Event

Add events to your personal calendar by selecting Calendar from the list where your name appears. Select the plus sign and add an event title, date, time, and location.

Select the title of an event you added to change its details.

Export and Share Your Calendar

Your schedule is a mix of academic and personal commitments. To help keep up with everything you've got going on, it helps to put everything on one calendar. You can share your Blackboard Learn calendar with external services so course events appear on an external calendar of your choosing.

Finding Your Courses

Select Courses from the side navigation. That provides a comprehensive view of the courses that you are enrolled in.

Note: not all courses may show up automatically, especially under "Current Courses," so we recommend using that dropdown to change to the current semester (ie. Fall 2026) or use the Search box feature to locate, and then favorite, your courses.

Note: It's possible that you won't see any of your classes until late August, right before your classes start. Instructors typically keep the course closed to students while they prepare course materials. If your course does not appear, or shows as being closed, this is not a reflection of your registration status, which you can view via the SURFS system.

In the early part of July, the SOWK 690 Pre-Requsite Course will appear available to you. That is a requirement for completion before courses begin in August.

Any questions about registration for classes should be made to sswregistration@ssw.umaryland.edu - including if you expect to but do not see SOWK 690, the Pre-Requisite course.

Favoriting Your Courses

On the Courses tab, after logging into Blackboard, change the Current Courses dropdown to go to select the current semester (ie Fall 2026)

That will limit the results to only your classes for that semester.

If you don't see your course listed, this may be because the courses are not yet in Blackboard or your instructor has not yet made the course available to you.

Most fall courses show up some time in late July/early August; most spring courses show up some time in January. Once all courses are in Blackboard and made available to you, you can always use the Search box at the top and search by course number (670, 744, etc.). Alternatively, you can just use the Search box to locate any of your courses at any time.

When you locate the classes you are in, click the Star icon on the right to "favorite" them, and they will then show up at the top of your list when you click on Courses each day.

If you can't find your course at all using any of these methods (and it is in August/January), there is a chance there was an issue with your enrollment, and it should be verified with SSW Records and Registration (sswregistration@ssw.umaryland.edu)

Accessing and Viewing a Course

Once you have located the course, click on the name of the course link you would like to view. You will be brought to the Course page. The next module will show you the navigation compoents inside a course.

Can’t Find a Course on Your Blackboard Home Page?

If a course you’re expecting doesn’t appear on your Blackboard homepage, it likely hasn’t been made available yet by your instructor. Check your registration status in SURFS or contact sswregistration@ssw.umaryland.edu if you aren't sure about registration status.

Blackboard courses are not automatically open - each instructor chooses when to open their course. Some may open them early, while others wait until the official start of the semester.

If you’re concerned or eager to begin, feel free to email your instructor directly to ask about course availability. Please note: the IDEA Team and other support staff will not open courses ahead of the semester unless faculty request assistance to do so.

Need to find your instructor's contact info?

Here is a UMB Directory where you can locate folks by last name
Another tip - in Outlook, typically, when composing a message, if you start typing a last name, it will pull up suggested people from the directory, as well as typically offer up a directory where you can search for folks.
If you feel you do not see courses for which you believe you registered, start by contacting Records and Registration (sswregistration@ssw.umaryland.edu) to get clarification on your enrollment status. If they are able to verify you are enrolled, but you still don't even see it listed in Blackboard, contact the IDEA Team and your instructor.

Archiving Courses

The IDEA Team, working with UMB CITS, archives Bb classes older than 3 years and removes them from Blackboard. The archives are able to be restored if at some point a faculty member requests this. There is no guarantee of access to course materials after a course is completed. If you intend to download/save any course materials, you should do so during the current semester. Access to Blackboard after graduation is managed by UMB CITS via the UMID, and will be removed according to their policies.

Page Summary

When navigating Blackboard, you can find courses using the search function or by selecting the appropriate semester from the dropdown menu. To streamline access, you can favorite courses for quicker retrieval. Keep in mind that some courses won't appear available to you until the first day of classes. While Blackboard courses share a consistent interface, instructors have the flexibility to modify certain elements. If your course layout differs from the images provided, it might be due to a navigation button you need to click. Additionally, courses are archived after completion, so it's essential to save any important work externally to avoid loss of content once the course concludes.

✅ Exercise 3:

Launch Blackboard from a Google Chrome Browser.
Set up your Name Pronounciation
Change your Notification Settings
Locate the Orientation Course by searching for it and star it to favorite it.
Complete the knowledge check to the right.
After the exercise is completed, please go to Step 4.

Step 2

Step 4

Page Last Updated: 5/12/2026

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