Blackboard is the e-learning system used by The University of Queensland (UQ) to provide online learning experiences and assessment to students.

• It can be used as a tool to facilitate communication and online learning between students and course co-ordinators and to foster an online community.
• It can also provide online assessment items, including online tests or electronic submission of assignments, as well as access to lecture theatre recordings (via Lectopia).

BEFORE YOU START: CHECK YOUR SOFTWARE

Web browser
As Blackboard is a web-based application, you will need a recently-released browser. Blackboard recommends that you use one of the following:

Internet Explorer 5.5 or later
Netscape 7 or later
Firefox 1.0 or later

Get the latest browsers
The latest browsers are available online from the UQconnect website or on a free UQconnect CD available from Ask I.T. and UQconnect .

Other required software
Some components of your Blackboard course (eg. Chat) requires the software Sun Java Runtime Environment (JRE) to be loaded on your machine before they will work. Check if your machine needs the software at the ITS website.

Get Sun Java Runtime Environment (JRE) from UQconnect
If you need to install Sun Java, you can download it from UQconnect. It is also available on a free UQconnect CD available from Ask I.T. and UQconnect.

A note on downloads
If you are using a free student dialup account you have a monthly download quota of 200 MB for accessing sites from outside of the uq.edu.au domain. If you attempt to download a web browser (for example) from a site outside uq.edu.au it will be charged against this quota, and can be a significant amount.

If this quota is exceeded in a month you will no longer be able to access external websites via your student dialup account. However if you download from the ITS or UQconnect websites these will not count against this quota.

HOW TO ACCESS BLACKBOARD

Via eLearning
You can access Blackboard directly via the UQ eLearning website .

At this page, click the Blackboard logo to enter Blackboard.



Via myUQ
You can also log in via my.UQ with your UQ Sign In username and password (the same ones you use for mySI-net). The eLearn link is located under Go Direct To on the left hand side menu of my.UQ. Click on the eLearn link to access the University’s eLearning website, which links to Blackboard.

LANGUAGE PACKS FOR BLACKBOARD

Language Pack via eLearning@UQ
You have a choice of languages from a Language Pack now installed on Blackboard. To access this from the log in page, you can scroll to the bottom of the page and on the right hand side there is a link to choose a language preference. Available preferences are Arabic ( Saudi Arabia ), English ( United States ), Espanol (Espana) and Francais (France). NB The language will still read left to right.

Language Pack via myUQ
Once you have logged on to Blackboard via myUQ as above, click on the User Preferences tab. Scroll to the bottom of this page and you will be able to choose a language preference. Available preferences are Arabic ( Saudi Arabia ), English ( United States ), Espanol (Espana) and Francais (France).

Forgotten your UQ username or password? Phone UQconnect (3365 6000 or 1300 738 082) or visit an  Ask I.T. Helpdesk.