Staff Guide: An overview of our VLE, Blackboard, for new members of staff at the University.
Getting started with Blackboard
Blackboard is Southampton’s Virtual Learning Environment (VLE), where students access teaching and learning resources for their modules and information about the programmes.
Staff may also access CPD or informal training courses via Blackboard.
This guide brings together important information on using Blackboard for teaching or supporting teaching for people who are new to the university, or have started using Blackboard in a new way.
Blackboard Modules and Courses
Blackboard is divided into discrete areas called Courses. Modules (which make up a programme) will often use an associated Blackboard Course for teaching.
Most module courses are set up automatically from Banner courses, but some may need to be requested manually.
Depending on your role in a module, you may have different permissions of what you can do on a course.
Anyone using Blackboard
Anyone using Blackboard will benefit from:
- Updating your profile – your Profile tab is where you can add a profile picture, set a pronunciation for your name, and edit notification settings.
- Finding and organising your courses and modules – the Courses tab allows you to organise your courses in a way that suits you including favouriting frequently used courses.
- Discovering more about the following digital resources at Southampton:
- Blackboard Ultra Training – book onto training and keep up to date with the project.
- Blackboard Ally – a tool which creates alternative formats of files for students and provides support for improving the quality of those formats to instructors.
- Panopto – easily create and share videos with students and staff.
- Teams – deliver online teaching via Class Teams.
- Turnitin – mark assignments and compare submissions to sources across the web and other institutions.
- Reading Lists – support your students with access to digitised resources via the Library.
- LinkedIn Learning – enhance your teaching and develop new skills. Add LiL content to your course via the LTI.
- The JISC Discovery Tool – an online self-assessment that staff and students can take to determine their digital skills and confidence. Colleagues in Malaysia may need to update their role after logging in.
Anyone Teaching on a Blackboard Course
Anyone teaching on a Blackboard Course (e.g. instructors, teaching assistants) may need to know:
- The Blackboard Universal Standards – good practice recommendations for using Blackboard for teaching.
- What do to if you cannot find your module in the Courses tab.
- What role you should have on a course – your module lead is responsible for adding you to a course on Blackboard. Depending on how you support or teach on a module, you may benefit from being added to a course with a specific role.
- How to add teaching resources to a course – how to add files and other teaching content, as well as Panopto videos and other key education tools e.g. Turnitin assignments or reading list sections.
Module Leads
As a Module Lead, you are the first point of contact for anyone teaching on your module and may need to know:
- How to Prepare your course for the new academic year – key areas to check and update before making your module course available to students.
- What to do if you can’t find your module – you should check that you are correctly listed as the Module Lead in Worktribe/CRUMS and contact the Faculty CQA team to request updates Worktribe/CRUMS with the correct information.
- How to ensure your teaching team have the correct roles – checking the Class Register will allow you to review and reassign roles and enrol teaching staff.
Programme Leads
As a Programme Lead, you have access to a variety of tools to provide a holistic view of all modules on your programme. You should act as a point of escalation for issues with modules on your programmes to ensure more effective support.
Programmes Leads should:
- Check that you are listed as Programme Lead on Worktribe/CRUMS for the programmes you are leading this year. Contact the Faculty CQA team to request updates Worktribe/CRUMS with the correct information.
- Use the Programme Leads Staff Enroller to enrol yourself on modules on your programme if you require access.
- Use the Programme Leads Course Announcements tool to view key communications from all modules on programmes you lead.
You may use a Programme Course to deliver central information about your programme. Programme Courses should not be used for teaching or assessment, and should act as a central hub for communicating with students on a programme.
If you use a Programme Course, you should:
- Work through the eLearn Programme Course checklist.
And may need to know how to:
- Update Programme Course Content – as Programme Courses are continuous between cohorts, you may need to perform annual tasks such as removing announcements that are no longer relevant, updating key information, and making the course available to students. Programme Courses rollover on 1st August each year where students move to their next year of study.
Where to find support
A variety of support is available for staff using Blackboard at the University of Southampton:
- eLearn Guides – provide a variety of support guides written by the University’s Education Applications Support Team.
- Faculty A&A Teams – Contact your school A&A team for support with student enrolments via Banner and assessment questions.
- Blackboard Ultra Training Sessions – training to support the effective use of Blackboard Ultra.
- Raise a ticket via ServiceNow – we recommend Programme Leads raise tickets on behalf of module staff for technical issues with modules on their programmes.
- Custom Course requests – request and manage custom Blackboard courses.
- Learning Technologist Support – Learning Technologists can support you with migrating content from Blackboard Original to Ultra.
- Learning Design Consultancy – the Transform Pedagogy service focuses on reshaping teaching and learning practices to enhance the student experience through innovative digital approaches.
- Media Production – The Digital Learning Media Producers can collaborate with you to produce high-quality video, photography, animation, interactive media (including 360 tours), or offer support to create media yourself.
- CHEP – the Centre for Higher Education Practice support Education, Research, and Knowledge Exchange & Enterprise (KEE) professional development activities.