FAQs
Hofstra Blackboard is an online course management system.
For instructors, it is a powerful tool that enables instructors to post
announcements, documents, quizzes, and other materials in password-protected
class web sites. It also enables instructors to build web pages with no
knowledge of HTML. Instructors can easily control the dates when items
will appear to the students and send information to all or part of your
class in just a few steps.
For students, it provides a means of accessing all of the web-based course
materials through one site. Each of your courses that has an available
Hofstra Blackboard site can be accessed from the My Hofstra Blackboard
page. You can easily view announcements, documents, quizzes, and other
materials for each course. You can also use Hofstra Blackboard to e-mail
your instructor or your class mates, submit assignments electronically,
and check your grades.
How do I access my courses on Hofstra Blackboard?
Log in to the My Hofstra Portal (there
is a link on the left side of the Hofstra main web page, or you can
go directly to : http://my.hofstra.edu )using your network ID and
password. Under the "Academics" tab, click the link to
Hofstra Blackboard.
I tried to log in with my Social Security Number or 700****** number and six-digit PIN
and could not access Hofstra Blackboard. What is the problem?
Hofstra Blackboard is now part of the
My Hofstra Portal system. Log in to the My Hofstra Portal (there is
a link on the left side of the Hofstra main web page, or you can go
directly to : http://my.hofstra.edu )using your network ID and password.
Under the "Academics" tab, click the link to Hofstra Blackboard.
Who can use Hofstra Blackboard?
All students and all faculty members at Hofstra can use Hofstra Blackboard.
This group includes all registered matriculated, and continuing graduate
and undergraduate students in the School of Communication, School of Education
and Allied Human Services, Zarb School of Business and Hofstra College of
Liberal Arts and Sciences, Law School students, New College, School for
University Studies students and NOAH students are able to access Hofstra
Blackboard .
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Which classes are available on Hofstra Blackboard?
Instructors have access to all of the courses to which they are assigned.
When the instructor is ready to have students enter the site, she or he
must make the course "available." After instructors have made
the courses available, students have access to all of the courses for which
they are registered. If the course is not available, students who are registered
for the course will not see a link to the course.
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How does it work? What do I need to access the system?
Hofstra Blackboard requires Netscape Navigator 4.5 or higher or Internet
Explorer 5.0 or higher. AOL users should visit http://www.hofstra.edu/AOL
for further instructions. From Hofstra's homepage http://www.hofstra.edu.
Integration with The Hofstra Online Information System will automatically
generate a Web site for each course and an account for each instructor
and student.
Students will not see links to courses until the instructor marks the
course as "available."
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When is the system available?
Hofstra Blackboard is available seven days a week, 24 hours each day.
There is a maintenance window between 3 and 5 a.m. Saturday morning.
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How do I create a user account?
Hofstra Blackboard gets the information to generate all student and instructor
user accounts and all enrollments and assignments from information in the
Hofstra Online Information System. If you are an enrolled student or an
active faculty member, you already have an account. If you are a faculty
member, and you want an account created for a person who is not officially
enrolled in your class or an enrollment created for a TA, and ITA, or a
Peer Teacher, contact blackboard@hofstra.edu.
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How do I enroll a user in my class or enroll in a class?
Hofstra Blackboard gets the information to generate all student and
instructor user accounts and all enrollments and assignments from information
in the Hofstra Online Information System. If you are an enrolled student
or are an active faculty member, you already have an account. Visit the
Hofstra
Online Information System to check your schedule for the current
semester to see if you are correctly registered for or assigned to the
course. If you are a faculty member, and you want to add a user who is
not an enrolled student or an active faculty member, contact blackboard@hofstra.edu
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How do I remove a user from my class or cancel my enrollment in a class?
Hofstra Blackboard gets the information to generate all student and instructor
user accounts and all enrollments and assignments from information in
the Hofstra Online Information System. When a student's enrollment is
cancelled through the Hofstra Online Information System prior to midnight,
that information will be sent to Hofstra Blackboard before the next morning.
Visit the Hofstra
Online Information System to check your schedule for the current
semester to see if you are correctly registered for or assigned to the
course.
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How do I modify a student's information or my own information?
Hofstra Blackboard gets the information to generate all student and
instructor user accounts and all enrollments and assignments from information
in the Hofstra Online Information System. Information cannot be updated
through Hofstra Blackboard. If there is information that should be changed,
it must be changed in the Hofstra
Online Information System . Students must go to Student Accounts room
206 memorial Hall. Faculty members must contact Human Resources. Information
that is changed in the Hofstra Online Information System before midnight
will be available in Hofstra Blackboard the next morning.
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How do I change my e-mail address in Hofstra Blackboard?
E-mail addresses are transferred from the Hofstra Online Information
system to Hofstra Blackboard. E-mail addresses cannot be updated through
Hofstra Blackboard. Instructors must use their Hofstra e-mail accounts.
Students must either use their Hofstra Pride e-mail accounts, or put forwards
in those accounts that will send the mail to accounts that they check
regularly. Information on Hofstra Pride e-mail accounts and forwarding
Hofstra Pride e-mail is available from: http://www.hofstra.edu/StudentServ/CC/SCS/SCS_Email_basics.cfm
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How do I forward my Hofstra e-mail?
Instructors must use their Hofstra e-mail accounts. Students can find
information on Hofstra Pride e-mail accounts and forwarding Hofstra Pride
e-mail at: http://www.hofstra.edu/StudentServ/CC/SCS/SCS_Accounts.cfm
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How often is information transferred from the Hofstra Online Information
System to Hofstra Blackboard?
Information (including reset PINs, new account information, course information,
course registrations, and instructor assignments) is transferred from
the Hofstra Online Information System to Hofstra Blackboard every night.
Information that is submitted to the Hofstra Online Information System
before midnight will be available on Hofstra Blackboard the next morning.
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When I log in to Hofstra Blackboard with the same User ID and PIN that
I have been using to log in to the Hofstra Online Information System,
I do not see any classes. Why not?
If you are a student, you may be registered in classes which do not use
Hofstra Blackboard. If the professor is not using Hofstra Blackboard,
you will not see a link to that class. If your professor is using Hofstra
Blackboard, and you do not see a link, visit the Hofstra Online Information
System to check your schedule by day and time to verify that you are correctly
registered in the class and check with the professor to make sure that
the class has been made available.
If you are an instructor, you must be assigned to the class in The Hofstra Online Information System.
Visit the Hofstra
Online Information System to verify your assignment.
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My course is up and ready to go, but my students cannot see it. How
do I make the course available to them?
Check the Course Availability setting under Course Settings on the Control
Panel. The setting should be Yes when you are ready to have students access
the site.
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What do I do if the system won't let me in during the semester?
Visit the Hofstra
Online Information System and check your schedule for the current semester.
If you are not correctly registered in the class, you will have to visit
the Student Administrative Complex in Room 206 Memorial Hall.
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The list of students that appear on my Hofstra Online Information System
roster is not exactly equal to the list in Blackboard and/or one of the
class lists available in the Blackboard site shows students that do not
appear on the other lists.
The first reason that there might be a difference between the Hofstra Online
Information System and Blackboard is that data is transferred from one system
to the other once each night. Any changes made to the Hofstra Online Information
System after the nightly transfer will not appear in Blackboard until the
subsequent data transfer.
Within each Blackboard class site there are actually four places where
lists of students appear. You can generate the most complete list by clicking
the search button (with nothing in the field) on the List/Modify Users
page of the Control Panel. The other lists are the e-mail list, the online
Gradebook, and the list of users to be added to a group
After clicking the search button (with nothing in the field) on the List/Modify
users page, you should see a list of all of the students that were registered
in your class as of midnight last night. Some of the names may be in gray
with a red X in front of the name. Either these students have not yet
reset their PINs through the Hofstra Online Information System, or there
is another problem with their accounts. You must encourage the students
to visit the Hofstra Online Information System and change their PINs from
the preset date of birth to a new six-digit number. Once they reset the
PINs, the information will be transmitted to Blackboard that night and
the student will have access to your site the following morning. If the
student has a problem resetting the PIN, or if there is another problem
with the account, the student will have to contact Student Accounts (with
proof of ID which may be required in person) to have the PIN changed back
to the date of birth, so it can be reset, or to straighten out the problem
with the account.
The list/modify users list may also contain some other accounts that
have the role -- student -- in gray with the red X there. These students
are no longer enrolled in your class.
If either the account (name) or role (student) is in gray with the red
X, the student will not appear on the other three lists; the e-mail all
students list, the online Gradebook, and the add user to group list.
If a student has been working in the class and has a problem with his
or her account that causes him or her to lose the eligible status, he
or she will disappear from the grade book. However, because we do not
purge anyone from the system until after the end of the semester, when
they straighten out the problem and regain the EL status, they will reappear
in your grade book with all of the grades they had earned still intact. .
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The list of courses which I am teaching has gotten too long. What can
I do to remove courses which I am no longer teaching or courses which
I teach without Blackboard?
To remove courses from the list of classes you are teaching, make sure
that the course is set to unavailable. Go into the control panel and use
the List/modify users utility to search for yourself. Your role in the
course is instructor. Change the role in that one course to student. As
a student, you will not see the unavailable course. This is however, a
one-way ticket. Once your role is set to student, you cannot get back
to the control panel, so make sure that you have all of the information
you want out of the site stored on your own hard drive (or that you have
archived the site) and make sure that the course is unavailable before
you change the role.
You can also use this with current or future courses for which you do
not (or will not) use Blackboard.
If you need to get back into the site after it has been removed from
your course list, e-mail blackboard@hofstra.edu,
and we can switch your role back to instructor.
A course which I taught last semester has disappeared from the list
of courses which I am teaching, and I need to get back into it. How do
I get the link to my course back?
Most likely, your role in the course has been changed from instructor
to student. In the student role, you cannot see links to courses which
are unavailable.
Contact blackboard@hofstra.edu
and we will look into changing your role back to instructor.
As an instructor, what housekeeping tasks must I perform at the end
of the semester to take care of my Blackboard sites?
You should perform several tasks at the end of the semester for each
of your Blackboard sites.
First: Save a copy of each site.
In the control panel, under Course Utilities, select Export Course.
Select the parts of the course that you want saved. You can choose to
save: the Content -- the Announcements, Documents, Assignments, External
Links, etc. The Course Settings: the areas and tools that you allow the
students to use, the entry point, and the button style and color. The
Users and Groups. The Assessments and Pools - all of the quizzes and surveys.
And the Discussion Board. (As a permanent record of the class, you probably
want to save everything. If you want only the material you need to carry
forward to a new class for next year or semester, you may need only the
Content, Settings, and Assessments and Pools.)
Click Submit.
The process will take a few minutes. After it finishes collecting the
zipped file that is the exportable copy of your class site, you will be asked
to click here to save the file. On a PC, right click to get the pop-up
menu, and then choose "Save Target As" (or the equivalent).
On a Mac, Control + Click will get a similar pop-up. Be sure to choose
the location to which you are saving the file. You should keep a Blackboard
Courseses folder in some place that you can find again next year and the
year after, and you should name the each of the archive files in some
way that will mean something to you when you are looking for the file
again.
Second: After Exporting the Course, Make the course Unavailable.
When you are sure that you and your students are through with the material
available on the site, go into the Control Panel, and click Course Settings.
Under Course Availability, change the answer to No.
Third: Change your Role to Student.
As an instructor, you will continue to see the link to the unavailable
course site. If you want to shorten the list of courses under "Courses
you are teaching" on the My Hofstra Blackboard Page, you can remove
the links to the course sites you no longer need. Once the course is set
to unavailable, go into the Control Panel and choose List/Modify Users.
Search for your last name. (The first couple letters will probably be
enough.) Click the properties button and change the User Role to Student.
Your account will still be associated with the class site, but you will
no longer see the link.
If you need to get back into the class site in the future, you can contact
blackboard@hofstra.edu
and we will change the role back to Instructor.
Who do I contact for assistance?
We are anxious to assist you with any questions that you may have regarding
Hofstra Blackboard.
If you are having a problem with your PIN, access the Hofstra
Online Information System and follow the instructions there.
If you are a faculty member with any questions regarding Hofstra Blackboard,
please contact the Help Desk (516) 463-7777 or e-mail blackboard@hofstra.edu.
If you are a student with any questions regarding Hofstra Blackboard,
please contact:
Student Computing Services Room 106B Calkins Hall in the back of Calkins
Lab
or the ResNet Office Room 110 Student Center,
SCS Main Line - 516-463-6500
ResNet Line - 516-463-3000
ResNet@Hofstra.edu
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