How to access Blackboard and podcasts for your course
The teaching and learning activities within your courses are enhanced and supported by the use of Blackboard. All of your courses/spaces are listed in My Manchester under the 'Blackboard' tab.
Within this tab you will find:
- a list of all the courses you are registered to take, under the ‘Course List’,
- a list for Programme spaces or other ‘Organisations’, in the ‘My Communities’ list.
You can also access Blackboard on your smartphone using the Blackboard Mobile Learn app. For guidance, search for ‘How to: Access your Bb9 course through a Mobile Phone or Tablet’ in the Knowledge Base. Courses become available to students one week before the start of teaching.
To ensure that you have access to all of your courses within Blackboard, you must be enrolled on them through the Student Records system. Once enrolled, your courses should appear in Blackboard within 24 hours. Also, your tutor needs to have ‘activated’ your Blackboard course in order for you to access it. If you cannot see a course you expect to see, please:
- contact your Programme Administrator to check that you have been enrolled;
- check with your tutor that they have made the course available.
Note: If you change your course selections there will also be a delay of up to 24 hours in being able to view your new courses on Blackboard and removing those you are no longer taking.
Your Blackboard course(s) will contain different elements, depending on how your tutor(s) have set them up. They may be used for course materials, lecture handouts, coursework submission, quizzes, additional resources, discussion boards or blogs, for example. If you have any queries about the content, please check with your tutor first.
After enrolment or changing your enrolments, if your courses are not correctly listed in Blackboard after 24 hours, please let your Programme Administrator know which course(s) you are missing by going through the service desk.
If your course is assessed by coursework, and the submission of coursework is done online via Turnitin, you can find detailed guidance on ‘Submitting an Assignment via Turnitin’ in the Knowledge Base.
If your tutor decides to release your coursework feedback online you can use the following guidance to help you access this feedback and download it from Turnitin.
How do I access podcasts for my courses?
To view podcasts for the courses you are enrolled on, you simply need to visit the Podcast Video Portal and login here.
I can’t see my course(s) listed in the Video Portal
If you are enrolled on a course but cannot see it in the list of podcasts on the Video Portal, there may be a number of reasons:
- The lecturer has opted-out of having recordings made so they are unavailable to view
- The lectures take place in a room that is not equipped to record podcasts.
If you believe a course unit is being podcasted but you are unable to see it, you should raise a support ticket and include the course code.
Videos do not play, there is an ‘X’ and an error message
Once you log in to the University’s Central Authentication Service (CAS) there is a timeout period of 4 hours – so if you have been logged into CAS for longer than this time, you will find that podcasts no longer play. To remedy this – you simply need to logout and log back in (via the button to the top right of the Video Portal) and videos should play correctly.
Can I download Podcasts?
You can download podcasts to watch on your own device by pressing the ‘Download’ button which is beneath the video player on the Video Portal – videos will be saved as MP4 files. Please note that you can only download videos on a desktop/laptop device as the download button will not be visible on a mobile device. Downloaded recordings are for your own personal use only – you are not permitted to give the recordings to anyone else, post them online or distribute them in any way. Students found to be in infringement of this may be subject to disciplinary proceedings.
What is recorded?
By default the Podcasting Service records the output of the projector, which might include PowerPoint presentations, document cameras, PCs, tablets, mobiles and other media (depending upon what is sent to the projector). From September 2017 onwards 30 lecture theatres were equipped with video cameras which can record in addition to, or instead of, the projector output. The use of cameras is voluntary and teaching staff must choose to use them on their opt-out web page. When a video camera is recording three red lights will appear around the camera base to show that it is in use. See the camera page for more details.