Blackboard is the Learning Management System that Rider University uses for learning and teaching. Blackboard enables professors to provide students access to course materials, communication tools, online assessments, and grades, as well as the ability to submit assignments electronically.  

Blackboard can be accessed anywhere, anytime you have an Internet connection http://blackboard.rider.edu. You will login to Blackboard using your Rider’s easypass username and password.

Once you login, your classes will show up in the My Courses module located in the center of the screen. Simply click the appropriate link to enter a course.  

• You need a network connection (Internet connection) and a Web browser.
• Supported Web Browsers: Internet Explorer 8 or above, Firefox 3.6 or above, Safari 4 or above. Firefox is the recommended browser. If you are not sure what browser you are using, please visit following website http://www.whatbrowser.org/en/ to find your browser. For details on supported Web browsers, see Blackboard Browser Setup.
• The following technologies are not supported:
     Internet Explorer 6 and 7
     Firefox 1.x, 2.0, 3.0, and 3.5
     Safari 2.0, 3.x (or any version on Windows)
     Mac OSX 10.4 “Tiger”
     Java 5
• You must have Java (available for free download from the Sun website) and Cookies enabled.
• Some content may require specific Plug-ins and Players. This information will be provided by your professor.

 
 

• After you have officially enrolled in a course it can take up to 24 hours for the update to be made in Blackboard.
• The professor has not been assigned to your course. If there is no professor information available in MyInfo, you won’t be able to see the course link in Blackboard.
• The professor may not be using Blackboard for your class. Blackboard My Courses Module showed you all of courses which you are enrolled in this semester, but not all of them are necessarily using Blackboard. Contact your professor to see whether your professor will use Blackboard or not.

Different professors use Blackboard in different ways. If your course uses Blackboard, the professor should give you more information in the syllabus or during the first few days of class.  

On the left-hand side of a Blackboard course you will see the Course Menu. Your professor can add, delete, and customize the course menu to fit the needs of the class so there may be a variety of links in the course menu.

You will find an assortment of Tools in the tools area such as Send Email, Discussion Board, Virtual Collaboration Tools, Blogs, Wikis, Journals as well as the My Grades, which is your gradebook. Make sure and explore all the links to ensure success in the class.  

Your professors may or may not post content to Blackboard. In fact, some professors use it to post a syllabus or lecture notes. Some use it to send email to all students in the class. Some organize class discussions using the discussion board. Some post grades and some choose not to post anything at all. It is also important to remember that your professors may choose to post content one day and choose to delete that content the next day. The easiest way to locate and open content within a Blackboard course is to click the links on the Course Menu on the left side of that course’s homepage.

If you cannot find what you are looking for that way, click the Folder View icon at the top of the Course Menu and then, under Folder View, click Expand All. This shows you everything in your course. To return your Course Menu back to normal, click the List View button. If your professor informed you in class that he or she has posted a file to Blackboard but you cannot locate that file even in Folder View, please notify your professor in class, via email, or via telephone.  

To download a file—such as a Microsoft PowerPoint presentation, a Microsoft Word document, or an Adobe Acrobat file—from Blackboard to your computer, click on the file’s hyperlink. If you have a modern Web browser such as Microsoft Internet Explorer 8 or later, Mozilla Firefox 3.6 or later, or Apple Safari 4 or later, your web browser should, for most types of files, ask you if you would like to either Open or Save the file.

If you have Internet Explorer, you may need to click on that yellow security warning bar and choose Download File... To save the file to your computer, choose Save. Internet Explorer should ask you to choose where you would like to save your file while Firefox or the Mac version of Safari will just download the file to your default download folder or desktop.

Saving Adobe Acrobat PDFs is a little different. When you click on a link to a PDF, your web browser does not ask you if you would rather Open or Save the file. Instead, your Web browser just opens the PDF in a new frame. To save a copy of this framed PDF to your computer, click the Save button in the top left corner of the PDF—not the browser’s Save button but rather the Save button on the PDF itself.  

The best way to print from Blackboard is NOT to go to File > Print or to press Ctrl + P (or Command + P) in your web browser. Blackboard uses something called “iframes” which allows your web browser to display multiple pages—such as the contents of your course syllabus and Blackboard’s navigation menu—at the same time. The problem is that your web browser doesn’t know which frame of content you actually want to print. Instead of choosing File > Print, single-click on the portion of the Blackboard page you want to print—this tells your web browser to pay attention to this part of the screen—and then right-click (or Command-click) on that same area and choose the appropriate Print command.

• Internet Explorer: Right-click and choose Print
• Mozilla Firefox: Right-click and choose This Frame > Print Frame
• Apple Safari: Right-click and choose Print Frame.

If you ever get into a Blackboard course and you cannot see any of the course’s links on the left side of the page, that usually signifies that your Course Menu is hidden. Click the Show Course Menu [ > ] button to make your Course Menu reappear. To temporarily hide a course’s Course Menu, click the Hide Course Menu button. This collapses the Course Menu, making it easier for you to see the rest of your course’s contents. To unhide the Course Menu, click the Show Course Menu button.  

• Contact the HelpDesk at (609) 219-3000 Monday – Friday between 8:00am and 5:00pm. HelpDesk is located on the first floor of the Moore Library.
• Access the User Guide within your course by clicking on Tools in the Course Menu and selecting User Guide.
• Email blackboard@rider.edu.
• Student Survival Guide

• Changing the My Institution Page
• Adding and removing Modules on the My Institution Page
• Set your Notification Setting
• Send Email from your Course
• Submit an assignment
• Create a Thread
• Reply to a Discussion Forum Thread
• Taking a Test Online
• Creating a Blog Entry
• Creating and editing a Wiki page
• Checking your Grade