Blackboard and Course Site Access
Accessing Blackboard
Logging into Blackboard
Creating a course site in Blackboard
Combining multiple sections or multiple courses into a single course site
My Blackboard course site is not listed
Accessing Blackboard
To access Blackboard, you need:
A computer with Internet access
A browser with cookies and JavaScript enabled
An active University of Saint Francis network user name and password
An active University of Saint Francis email account
Blackboard is accessible via major web browsers, including Internet Explorer, Netscape and Mozilla Firefox. Blackboard is best viewed using a Windows based operating system. While Blackboard is supported using Mac OS X there are some differences in the viewing of the Text Box Editor.
Logging into Blackboard
You can log into Blackboard either from following the Blackboard links off the USF home page or going directly to http://sf.blackboard.com
To log into Blackboard you must use your USF network username and password. (N.B. This is NOT the same as your ID and PIN used for Cougar Connection.)
If you need a network password reset or cannot remember your network username and/or password please contact the Help Desk at 260.399.7700 x 6027 for assistance.
N.B. For security reasons your network password requires updating every 90 days. You can change it either by logging onto a campus computer, through your USF student email account or by enrolling in the ANIXIS password reset feature.
Creating a course site in Blackboard?
Faculty and instructors no longer need to send in requests for the creation of a course site. Course sites for fall, spring, summer I and II are automatically created prior to the beginning of semester. Check the Blackboard Schedule for dates; the approximate schedule for course creation is as follows:
June - Fall courses
November - Spring courses
April/May - Summer I, Summer II courses
Combining multiple sections or multiple courses into a single Blackboard course site.
Because Blackboard pulls all of its information and data from Jenzabar when creating a course site it automatically creates a course site for every single section of a course. So for example if you are the instructor for Engl.101-01, 02, 03 and section 04 you will see 4 course sites on your My Blackboard homepage. If you teach both Nurs.265 and 268 which have always previously been combined you will see them as two separate course sites on your homepage. If you want to just use a single course site and combine students from different sections or courses into one site please complete the Course Site Combine request form, located in the Faculty FAQ sidebar.
When courses or multiple sections are combined a tertiary course site is created with the section designation of 00. Students will then be automatically pulled from the multiple sections into this new course site.
My Blackboard course site is not listed
If the course that you are teaching is not listed under the Courses you are teaching section of My Blackboard it may be due to the fact that you are not listed as the Instructor for that specific course in the Jenzabar system. To confirm this you can check with the Registrar's office. Please note that if you are a new or adjunct faculty member and have not yet completed the necessary paperwork with Human Resources it is unlikely that you will be listed as the instructor for the course in Jenzabar. If you are an adjunct or Teaching Assistant that needs access to a course site, the lead instructor for that course must request for you to be added to the course site.
