Blackboard is the University’s Virtual Learning Environment, providing you with access to your learning materials, resources, and services to support your studies.
For students returning in September, enhancements have been made to your module / course site giving a cleaner and clearer navigation to your materials making them more accessible. For more information see the Home Page of Blackboard.
Every course provides core learning information through dedicated blackboard sites for each module. To log in to Blackboard, you need your computing username and password.
Institution Page
When first logging in to Blackboard you will arrive on the Institution Page of Base Navigation. Here you will find links to important information, support and guidance as well as direct links to our other tools e.g. PebblePad, Padlet, Mentimeter, as well as Student Webpages.
Courses and Modules
Selecting the Courses and Modules link from the left-hand Base Navigation menu will display the list of courses and modules on which you are enrolled. Click on the name to open and view the site.
To be enrolled on your course and module Blackboards, you must be registered (if you are a new student) or re-registered (if you are a returning student). It make take a day or two after you are registered for you to be enrolled on your Blackboards. If you are studying part-time, it could be slightly longer as your Course team need to make sure you are enrolled on just the module Blackboards that are relevant to you.
If any of your module Blackboards appear as 'Private' (with a padlock symbol), this indicates that you are enrolled but your Course team has not yet made the content available to you.
You should expect all your learning and teaching materials to be available on Blackboard by the time teaching on your course starts.
Profile Page
Selecting your name from the left hand menu on Base Navigation will open your profile page. Please take a moment to hover and select the pencil icon that appears next to certain fields, such as your profile image, pronunciations, pronouns and notifications.
Activity Stream
The Activity Stream offers a consolidation of all the most important information and activities across all courses and modules you are enrolled on, so you can see what's new, what is due, and what needs attention.
Marks
This link will display a summary for each module course site with what has been marked or what is due to be submitted.
For further guidance and support using Blackboard please visit our online guides for Blackboard Ultra.
Blackboard Collaborate is the virtual classroom platform through which students will attend live, interactive tutorials and seminars. It also provides students the opportunity to meet in real-time for group discussion and collaboration.
Blackboard Collaborate is available through your Blackboard site, with a unique virtual classroom available for each session that is taught digitally. As with all University web services, we recommend students use Google Chrome as their standard web browser on PC, Mac or Android to get the best experience in Blackboard Collaborate. For iOS/iPadOS users we would recommend using Safari.
Information on how to use Blackboard Collaborate can be found on the Collaborate Overview pages, with guides available on how to get started and how to use the platform.
How do I set up my own Collaborate classroom space?
Dedicated Collaborate rooms for group work can be requested from academic staff on your module.
The University uses Turnitin for electronic submission (e-submission) of work.
This online service also allows you to upload draft versions of your assessments prior to final submission, and is designed to help you and your tutors check your work for originality and help guard against plagiarism.
Turnitin is accessed through your Blackboard.
Where possible the consistent University-wide Turnitin setup requires that:
Your Similarity Report will be available to view:
A few points to note:
PebblePad is the University’s e-Portfolio tool. It is a personal and private tool that can be used to support learning and professional development.
You can keep a blog or diary within PebblePad, store resources and files and you can create, and publish a website showing examples of your work and development.
Some academic courses may require you to use PebblePad in a specific way, but all students can use it individually to support their learning and development.
To access PebblePad, click on the PebblePad link located near the bottom of the Institution Page of Blackboard Base Navigation, under the Additional Technology and IT Services group.
On first opening, you will be presented with some introductory videos. Please watch these before closing the window.
From the PebblePad Home page select the Learning Centre for guidance on how to use PebblePad or select Get Creative to start building your e-portfolio.
It is also possible to convert your PebblePad account to a personal account so that your resources are still available to you even after you have left University. Personal accounts created in this way are free of charge.