Glossary

There are a number of tools and options in the Blackboard; below is a list of all the major tools and options with a brief description of what they do and what they can be used for. Most, if not all of these tools are available from different places. Also remember that some of the tools can be turned on or turned off within a course/organization based on the course/organization leader's needs.

If you do not see something explained below that you need to know, feel free to contact the Blackboard Administrative Team. We may even add your inquirer to the list below.

A-C | D-F | G-I | J-L | M-O | P-R | S-U | V-Z

A-C

Return to top of page

Address Book: Allows you to keep your own list of contacts. Your address book is personalized to your username, so no one else we see it. To be able to add a user to your address book, that user must have allowed him/her self to be listed in the user directory.
Announcements: Allows staff members of PAVCS to keep you informed of what is going on. There are a number of ways you can view/sort the announcements that are visible to you. See the Blackboard Student User Manual for more information on viewing announcements.
Calendar: Allows for you to keep track of events offered at the school. The calendar events you see are populated based on your enrollment. Only events from the courses/organizations (and any school wide events) are visible to you. You can also add your own events, and these events are only visible to you.
Courses: The term used to cover those activities that have a student grade associated with it. Also see Organizations

D-F

Return to top of page

Digital Dropbox: Allows you to submit your work to your teacher electronically. NOTE: This should only be used if you teacher has told you to do so. For most courses, you will use the Assignments page of the course to turn in you work.
Discussion Board: There are 2 kinds of Discussion Boards. There are discussion boards within each course/organization that can be used to discussion topics within that course/organization. There is also the public discussion board. Both kinds are an open forum were Blackboard users can share ideas.

Module: All the little boxes you see on the page, these are the modules. They are used to contain (or modularize) the information on a given page.
Organization: In Blackboard, Organizations and Courses are treated the same way. We use the Organizations to create groups where grades are not taken/needed. See Courses

P-R

Return to top of page

Personal Information: This is where you can set your password, opt into, or opt out of, the user directory, check your personal information (phone, address, etc), and a few other options.

S-U

Return to top of page

Tasks: A kind of "todo" list. Tasks can be added by your teacher, or you can add your own task.
User Directory: A list of all users in Blackboard. This is like a phone book of Blackboard users. For a user to be displayed in the User Directory, he/she must have "opted-in" to be listed. (This can be changed from the Personal Information section of Blackboard.

V-Z

Return to top of page