Communication with the Instructor: It is vital in an online course that you check your email every day and communicate with your instructor on a regular basis. Whenever you send an email to your instructor with an assignment or with a question, she/he will respond within a reasonable period of time. This instructor does not regularly answer e-mails sent on weekends or holidays, but will make every attempt to answer e-mails sent during the week within 24-48 hours.

Since your instructor teaches multiple web classes, it is extremely important that you correctly identify yourself and your class in all e-mail communications. In the subject line, list the call letters for your course (for example, Eng 112) and your last name. In the body of the e-mail, identify your full name and course. E-mails not following these conventions may not be answered in a timely manner.

Check Announcements Frequently: The instructor will use the announcements page in Blackboard to post important notices to the class. Login to Blackboard at least three times per week to check for new announcements. If you have not checked in for more than a week, you will need to click the "last 30 days button" on the announcements page to see postings you may have missed. Missing more than a week may result in your being administratively withdrawn from the course.

Navigation in your Blackboard Course: In Step #5 of your Online Orientation, you learned some general information about how to navigate in a Blackboard course. Following is some specific information about the navigation buttons you will see in your online course.
 

Announcements: The announcements button takes you to the main page of the Web course. This is where I will post important announcements for the class.  Course Information: On the course information page, you will find folders containing important information, such as the syllabus and other information that you will need to know for the course. Read everything in this section the first week of class so that you know what is expected of you in the course.  Faculty Information: This page contains information about the course instructor, office location and telephone number..  Assignments: This is where you can find all your work for the course. The course is divided into modules. Whenever you see the folder symbol in Blackboard, click the link beside the folder to open it. Each unit folder contains  a module overview multiple assignments due dates Communication: From this page you will be able to send e-mail to your instructor and join the class discussions on the Discussion Board.  Discussion Board: This button is a quick link to class discussions.  Web Sites: This page contains links to Web sites that you might find helpful in the course.  Student Tools: From this page, you can enter personal information about yourself, check your grades, and find a manual about using Blackboard.

Using the Discussion Board: When you click on the link to a Discussion Forum in Blackboard, you will see a screen similar to the one on the right. Follow these steps to read messages and post your own messages. To make a posting to the forum, click on the Add New Thread button (if it is available). If it is not available, you will need to Respond to one of the posted messages.  To read a posting, click on the link in the left column (do not click on the person's name).  To reply to a posting, click on the Respond button that will appear with the message you are reading.