Blackboard FAQ

Questions regarding usage and problems you may encounter while using Blackboard.



How do I contact Blackboard support?

Office Hours: Monday - Thursday 8:00 - 5:00 PM EST; Friday 8:00 - 3:00 PM EST

What information do you need to send us?

  • First Name
  • Middle Name
  • Last Name
  • Are you a Senior, Junior, III, IV ... ? (This is related to your name, not your status at CVCC)
  • The online (Blackboard) class you are enrolled in
  • Section #
  • State where you paid your tuition. (If you paid your tuition at Troy you are a Troy student. Otherwise you are a CVCC student.)
    • If you are a Troy student we will need your Student ID #.
  • The website are you trying to login to.

What information should you not send us?

  • Social Security Number

Why should students not send their SSN#s?

  • Email is not secure. Information is unencrypted and can be read during transmission. You should never email your SSN# to anyone!

You sent us an e-mail, but we are not responding.

  • We have had several people email us from AOL accounts and not provide another means of contacting them. Replies to one student's email address were rejected, while replies to the other student email addresses have not been answered. If you send us an email and do not hear back from us within 24 hours give us a call so we can resolve your situation.

Where do you email Blackboard Support? You have two options of contacting us for help:

(The quickest method is by email during regular office hours.)

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I am a CVCC student, how do I login to Blackboard?

Keep in mind that Blackboard classes are not loaded until after regular registration.  Your Blackboard class will be unavailable until the first day of class.

Gaining access for the first time:

If you are a CVCC Student:

  • User Id = (First Initial + Last Name + Last 4 digits of Student Id Number)
  • Password = (Entire Student Id Number)

Example : (John Doe/123456789) would translate to:

  • User Id = jdoe6789
  • Password = 123456789

Notes:

  1. All letters are lower case!
  2. The above format for your user id and password is the same for the blackboard server and the mail server.
  3. Upon logging into the e-mail and Blackboard servers the first time, please change your password on both as soon as possible.
  4. Write the passwords down and keep them stored in a secure place for future reference.

If you have a Jr., Sr., III, II, or something similar listed as part of your name in our student records, and you have trouble logging in:

  • Your account was probably not created properly. You will need to contact us so we can get it resolved.
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I am a Troy student, how do I login to Blackboard?

Keep in mind that Blackboard classes are not loaded until after regular registration.  Your Blackboard class will be unavailable until the first day of class.

Gaining access for the first time:

If you are a Troy University - Phenix City Student (enrolled in a CVCC course):

  • User Id = (First Initial + Last Name + Last 4 digits of Troy University Student ID)
  • Password = (Entire Troy University Student ID)

Example : (John Doe/1234567) would translate to:

  • User Id = jdoe4567
  • Password = 1234567

Notes:

  1. The Troy University Student ID is not your Social Security Number. Please contact Troy University of Phenix City at 334-297-1007 to request help in determining your Student ID.
  2. All letters are lower case!
  3. The above format for your user id and password is the same for the blackboard server and the mail server.
  4. Upon logging into the e-mail and Blackboard servers the first time, please change your password on both as soon as possible.
  5. Write the passwords down and keep them stored in a secure place for future reference.
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I can't type any text in a quiz or discussion thread box!

Users of Internet Explorer 7 have reported problems with Blackboard's Visual Text Box Editor (VTBE).

Symptoms may include:

  • Problems typing text into the answer areas of a quiz
  • The text area not appearing for discussion threads

Thankfully there is an easy fix: Disable the VTBE which restores basic text entry functionality:

  1. Login to Blackboard
  2. Click on the 'My Institution tab
  3. Click on PERSONAL INFORMATION
  4. Click on SET VISUAL TEXT BOX EDITOR OPTIONS
  5. Choose Unavailable
  6. Choose Submit

Other browers may or may not be compatible with the VTBE. If you experience problems please disable the VTBE.

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I keep seeing an old page: Blackboard down or old content!

If you use Internet Explorer 6

  1. Open Internet Explorer
  2. Go to Tools
  3. Internet Options
  4. Temporary Internet Files
  5. Settings
  6. Choose Every visit to the page.
  7. Now choose Ok
  8. Now choose Delete Files
  9. Check the box Delete all offline content and click Ok
  10. Your system will now remove offline content known as the browser cache, or browser's cache. Your system should now grab the latest copy of the page when you visit the site.
  11. Choose Ok for all menus until you'sre back where you started. If you choose cancel instead the changes will not be applied.

If you use Internet Explorer 7

  1. Open Internet Explorer
    (See TIP if you do not see File Edit and so on across the top of the browser)
  2. Go to Tools
  3. Internet Options
  4. General (Tab)
  5. Browsing history (section)
  6. Settings
  7. Choose Every time I visit the webpage.
  8. Now choose Ok

You'sre back at the General tab now. There is one more thing you have to do: Remove the old content.

  1. Click on Delete
    (Which is next to the Settings button you clicked just a moment ago.)
  2. Click Delete files
  3. Choose Yes
  4. Choose Close
  5. Your system will now remove offline content known as the browser cache, or browser's cache. Your system should now grab the latest copy of the page when you visit the site.
  6. Choose Ok for all menus until you're back where you started. If you choose cancel instead the changes will not be applied.

Old content will be removed and new content will be fetched when you attempt to visit a website.

Choose Ok for all menus until you're back where you started. If you choose cancel the changes will not be applied and you will still have the same problem.

But what if you still are seeing old content?

This is likely on your end as some Internet Service Providers (ISP) perform the same service your browser was doing: caching content.

This means you will continue to see the old content until their servers fetch the new stuff.

You will need to contact your ISP's customer service to have the problem resolved.

$LastChangedDate: 2007-08-16 17:54:05 -0400 (Thu, 16 Aug 2007) $

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What do I need to view Tegrity sessions?

 To view Tegrity sessions you will need:

  1. The latest update of Java Runtime Environment 1.5.0.
  2. Microsoft Windows 98 or newer (Mac support forthcoming).
  3. Internet Explorer 6 or newer.
  • Currently 1.5.0 (update 12) is the most recent compatible version of the Java Runtime Environment.
  • Using older or newer versions of the Java Runtime Environment may give unpredictable results. During testing both current and older Tegrity sessions had issues with the latest release of the Java Runtime Environment Version 6.

To determine what version of Java Runtime your computer system has, follow the steps below:

  1. Click on the Start Menu
  2. Click on Run
  3. Type 'cmd' (without quotes)
  4. Hit enter
  5. Type "java -version" (without quotes)
  6. If you see java version "1.5.0_12" then you have what you need.

To install the most recent version of Java Runtime 1.5.0, follow the steps below:

  1. Visit this page
  2. Look for Java Runtime Environment (JRE) 5.0 Update XX (where XX is a number)
  3. Choose the Download option next to that.
  4. Read the End User License Agreement to install it
  5. Click the 'Accept License Agreement' radio button
  6. Click on the link that says: "Windows Offline Installation, Multi-language "

Once you have downloaded and installed Java Runtime Environment 1.5.0, you should be able to view the sessions without difficulty.

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