This are will be regularly updated with new questions and answers as time allows. Please do not be afraid to check back during the year for any new issues. If you do not see the answer to your question below, then please follow the directions found on the Reporting a Problem page.
If you do not already see the answer, then click on the arrow in front of each question to see the answer.
You can access Blackboard by going to http://pavcs.blackboard.com. Once there you use your login using your Blackboard account name and password. By default your Blackboard username and Blackboard password are the same. (After you log in the first time, you should change your password) The Blackboard username for students is created by combining the students last name (removing any hyphens, apostrophes, etc), first initial, and last three numbers of their student ID number. The Teaching Adult's Blackboard username is created by adding a "P" to the end of the child's username. If the family has more then one child enrolled, then you should be able to use the youngest child's username. Some examples:
Let's assume that Benjamin Franklin is the only student from his family enrolled in PAVCS.
Let's assume that George Washington-Carver has a younger sibling (named Mary and with a student number of 54123) enrolled in PAVCS.
If you cannot get in, check that you have entered the username and the password correctly. You have to be extra careful if you are copy/pasting from another document. Sometimes you can pick up a "hidden" character like a space or tab. Also check that Caps Lock is not on. If you still cannot get in, please contact your Family Support coordinator or your High School Homeroom Teacher.
You can use the Forgot your password? link found on the login page. Using Option 1, fill in your first name, your last name, and your Blackboard User ID (Note: You must enter the same name that was used when you registered with PAVCS. If you registered as "Robert", you can not put "Bob" in the box.). An email with instructions to change your password will be sent to your school provided email address.
You can access your school provided email account directly by going to http://mail.mypavcs.org. (Full directions for accessing your school provided email can be found on the PAVCS email support site.)
If you continue to have problems, please contact your Family Support coordinator or your High School Homeroom Teacher.
When you access Blackboard, you must go to http://pavcs.blackboard.com. Double check your shortcut/homepage/bookmark setting and make sure the address is correct. There can not be anything after the ".com" portion of the address. If you are typing it in by hand, make sure that Internet Explorer's "Auto Complete" is not adding the anything after the ".com" portion of the address.
This problem is likely to be due to the fact that you might not have "active scripting" enabled on your browser. Blackboard requires this for the login procedure to work correctly. You follow the directions for Trusted Sites, and make sure that pavcs.blackboard.com is one of the sites listed in your trusted sites.
PAVCS will disable a student's Blackboard Account for a small number of legal and/or financial reasons. If you find that your account has been disabled, you need to contact your FSC.
Blackboard does not have, nor will they have a "remember me" feature due to security issues. If your browser is configured to "remember password" then you might be able to to use your browser's feature. But since Blackboard uses frames, many browsers have trouble with saving the password of a framed page.
To change you password, click on the "Personal Information" link in the "Tools" box. The "Tools" box can be found on the My PAVCS and the My Courses tabs.
There are two places your courses should be listed. You should see them inside the box labeled "My Courses" on the My PAVCS tab. You can also find them listed in the box labeled "Course List" on the My Courses tab. If you do not see any courses, or some courses are missing, then contact the teacher to the course(s) you are missing. If you are not sure of who the teacher is, then you can contact your Family Support Coordinator or High School Homeroom Teacher.
You can watch a video tutorial by using this link Also take a moment and review the next FAQ - "How should I name my files?"
As for getting the 404 error, this could have been caused by how you named your file. As for naming the file, your teacher will probably have some guidelines for you to follow.
No matter what your teacher's guidelines are, there are some general, web related rules that you should follow. These rules do not apply only to blackboard, but to any document you want to put on the web.
For example, a file namedUnit 2: The Rise & Fall of Western Civilization.doc would not be a good name. You could rename the file to Unit2_RiseOfWesternCiv.doc. In this case, we have either removed spaces, or replaced them with underscore and camelcaseing, and we have removed the colon and the special "SHIFT+7" key (the & sign)
This is usually an issue of either not having a PDF reader installed on your computer, or the PDF reader plug-in is not working correctly. Please see the " Having Trouble with PDF files" for a detailed set of directions.
Be aware that Blackboard uses frames to deliver its pages. The top red portion, with the tabs is one frame, with the portion below being the main "content" frame. If you are in a course or organization, then the content frame is divided again with one frame on the left for the menu area, and one on the right for the course/organization content.
For both Firefox and Internet Explorer: Before you try to print, be sure to click inside the frame you want to print. Just click on any blank space. Then go to File -- Print Then choose the "Selected Frame" option.
Simply put, Backpack is a tool that allows you to take Blackboard offline. It is designed with college students/college courses in mind. This is something we are looking at, but as of now PAVCS is not using this tool. We are currently evaluating it for our situation to find out if it is a viable tool for our students.
In the Pupil Health section of the Parent Organization you can find a wealth of information like contact information for the Pupil Health staff, health educational and resources, health screening information, health forms, and an "Pupil Health FAQ"
Taken from the "My Grades" page on an Elementary course:
When you see a total of 1 point that means the assignment was submitted and reviewed. A blank score would mean no assignment was received by the teacher. If you have submitted all assignments, then your child would have a total score of 9 at the end of the school year. If your child's score is less than 9 points, then an assignment is missing, and you should contact your teacher to discuss.
You can find more info by going into your course, and reviewing the "My Grades" page. If you have any addition questions, then contact your teacher.
This is a bug with Blackboard, and has been addressed. The are working on fixing it. Until it is corrected, here is the legend: (If you want to save a copy for yourself, right click on the image and choose "Save Picture/Image As...")
There is no way for a student/parent to review past blackboard login records.
You can view the outing by going to school wide calendar. On your My PAVCS tab, you should see a box that is titled My Calendar and then click on the "more..." link to view the full calendar.
The short answer is "no". There is a feature in Blackboard that allows for a user to be placed in the "observer" role. Right now this is a very limited role. Once Blackboard expands the abilities of the observer role, there may be a way for a single login. Until that time, you will have to log each user in individually.