Blackboard for Faculty

Why use Blackboard (even for Face to Face teaching!)

Every course, when created in CUNYfirst, receives a "shell" in Blackboard for you to set up and use. What is it good for?

• Store course materials (your syllabus, learning activities, readings, media, links to websites, exams and tests, ...) and make them available to you and your students anywhere there is an internet connection;
• Record grades, have Blackboard calculate them into totals, and make all available to your students so that at any point in the semester they can see "where they stand;"
• Create (self-correcting) tests;
• Make students participate in online discussions;
• Communicate with your students via email or via the Skype-like Blackboard Collaborate Ultra tool

Setting up your course in Bb can take anywhere from 20 minutes to 1.5 hours.

How to Access Blackboard (Bb)

1. Activate your CUNYfirst account. This is a very important account used to access all CUNY-wide applications and services including Blackboard.
2. Go to York College website > Faculty/Staff > Online Services > Blackboard. Use your CUNYfirst Login (also called "CUNY Login") credential to log in Bb.
   • CUNY Login username: firstname.lastnameXX@login.cuny.edu (XX stand for the last two digits of your CUNY employee ID)
   • CUNY Login password: your CUNYfirst account password.

Still having trouble? See our Accessing Blackboard FAQs

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