How to Use the Course Discussion Board

These instructions were written for my online Introduction to American Literature, but I hope that they will be helpful in this course.

Follow the directions below to access the Discussion Board and to post a response to one of the assigned prompts.

1. Go to Tech's Blackboard site by selecting it from the Quicklist on Tech's home page. You will see a screen like that shown in Figure 1 below.

Figure 1: Blackboard Main Screen

2. Click on the "Login" button. That will take you to the login screen shown in Figure 2 below.

Figure 2: The Blackboard Login Screen

3. Type your username and password into the appropriate fields. Your username will be your "stuxxxx" e-mail identification. Unless you have changed it, your password will be your social security number. When you have typed in the username and password, click on the "Login" button. This should take you to your personal Blackboard main page, which will look something like the example in Figure 3 below.

Figure 3: Your Blackboard Main Page

4. Click on English 6213 -- in your list of courses. It should be in the box marked "My Courses" in the list titled "Courses in which you are participating." Clicking on the course title should take you to the course's announcement page as in the example in Figure 4 below.

Figure 4: Course Announcements Page

5. Click on "Discussion Board " in the left-hand menu. That should take you to the Discussion Board forum screen pictured in Figure 5 below.

Figure 5: Discussion Board Forums Screen

6. Clicking on a particular forum will take you to the specific list of assigned questions for the selected week, as shown in Figure 7. Student responses to the individual questions will be displayed under the questions.

Figure 6: Weekly Discussion Board Question List

7. Clicking on a specific question's title line will display the question screen as shown in Figure 8 below. Clicking on responses under a question will allow you to read through other student's responses

.

Figure 7: Individual Question Screen

8. To respond to a question, click on the Reply button to the right of the question. That will display a response screen such as that shown in Figure 9 below.

Figure 8: Response Screen

9. Type your message in the large box next to the heading "Message." You can edit it as you would any word processing document. When your response is complete, click the submit button to post it.

Using the Discussion Board

In addition to responding to at least one question a week, you should read through the student responses to other questions. I will occasionally add my comments to the discussions. Remember that many of these posted questions will be on the examinations.

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updated May 29, 2006