Blackboard student user guide
Teaching materials are delivered to students in Blackboard through courses. To participate in a course you will need to be enrolled; this is administered by your Faculty or Department. If you are not enrolled on a course that you believe you should be, then contact your Departmental Office or Course Leader and they will be able to help. If there is a technical issue, then they can raise this with ICT on your behalf.
If there is incorrect or missing information on a course, then this should also be reported to either your Course Leader or Departmental Office.
Accessing your course - announcements - submitting - grades
Accessing your courses
Courses that you are enrolled upon will be displayed in the My Courses module on the My Home page. This is the first page that you see once you have logged in to Blackboard and is the main navigational screen. On the My Home page, each area is a Module and additional ones can be added by selecting Add Module.
My Courses module
Courses that you are enrolled upon will appear in this module, divided by academic year and course role.
If you have a large number of courses displayed here, you can edit this to display fewer courses. To do this, hover over the My Course module and then click the cog icon that appears in the top right-hand corner. The Personalise: My Courses page gives you different display options for you to configure.
- To remove a course, deselect the Course Name and select Submit.
- Selecting Group by Term will group your course list by academic year.
- You can drag and drop a course to change the display order.
Self-Enrolment and the Course Catalogue
Some courses require you to self-enrol in order to participate and your Course Leader will be able to advise you further on joining instructions for these courses. Please follow the steps below to enrol on a self-enrolment course:
- Go to bb.imperial.ac.uk, enter your College username and password and select Login
- Select the Courses tab in the top right corner of your screen, next to My Blackboard
- Use the Course Search field to search for the required course in the Course Catalogue
- Click on the course name, select Enrol and then Submit to self-enrol on the course
- Click OK to confirm enrolment
- Click on the course link to access the course. You will now be able to interact with the course in the same way as other courses in Blackboard.
Announcements and notifications
The My Announcements module on the My Home page displays announcements from the College and the courses that you are enrolled upon. These announcements will communicate important, time-sensitive information regarding your studies.
Announcements will also display as a red and white notification symbol next to your name in the top right-hand corner of Blackboard.
Managing Notifications 
You can set how you would like Blackboard to notify you about recent course activity.  Notification preferences can be set per course. You can manage the type of notifications you receive, including when new course content is created, when an assignment is due or when someone posts in a discussion forum.  
 You can view and edit notifications in two ways: through the Blackboard Overview menu or from the My Notifications Dashboard.
Blackboard Overview menu
- Go to the Blackboard Overview menu. You can access this by clicking on your name in the top right-hand corner of Blackboard
- Then click on Updates (the clock icon)  
- Select Show/Hide notifications (the grey cog icon on the far right of the screen)  
- Select which notifications you would like to receive and click Save.
Notifications Dashboard
- From the My Blackboard home page, select My  Notifications Dashboard located on the top left-hand side of the screen
- Within the Needs Attention module, click on Edit Notification Settings  
- From this page, you can edit the notification settings for individual courses or for all courses that you are taking. Select a course to change its particular settings or select one of the options under Bulk Edit Notification Settings to make changes to an entire group of courses.
Submitting assignments
There are two different assignment submission tools available in Blackboard: Blackboard Assignments and Turnitin Assignments.
Your Course Leader will provide you with instructions on how they would like you to submit to an assignment. If you require further guidance, please contact your Course Leader or Departmental Office.
Submitting to a Blackboard Assignment
- Go to bb.imperial.ac.uk, enter your College username and password and select Login
- Navigate to the course you would like to submit to in the My Courses module on the My Home page
- Locate the assignment within the course and click on it to access the submission area. On the Upload Assignment page, review the instructions, due date, and download any files provided by your instructor. If your instructor has added a rubric for grading, you can view it here
- Either enter a text submission by selecting Write Submission or submit a file/files from your computer by dragging it into the Attach Files dashed lined box
- Add any further comments in the Add Comments area
- Select Submit
- Once submitted you will receive a receipt number ID. Copy and save this as proof of your submission.
Accepted File types
If you experience issues with Blackboard not accepting your submitted file, check that it is supported on the Blackboard website.
Submitted the wrong file?
If you have submitted the wrong file to your assignment, contact your Course Leader for assistance.
Access marks & feedback
You can view your grades and feedback for completed assignments in the My Marks area.
To access My Marks, click on the menu with your name that appears in the top-right corner of all pages in Blackboard. From the drop-down menu that appears, select the My Grades area (grey icon of a page with a tick on it).
Your grades and feedback will only appear in the My Marks area if your tutor has decided to release them. If your grades are not present and believe they should be, please contact your Course Leader or Departmental office.