USAFSAM LibAnswers: LMS

Institution Page: This is the Landing Page after log in. The Institution page is the user resource for the USAFSAM community.  It will be populated with links, information, and other important content.

User Profile: Clicking on the username will bring up the user’s profile.  From here helpful information can be added, such as a phone number and email address.  A photo can be uploaded by clicking the pencil icon while hovering over the profile image.  Edit notification settings on the left and select privacy settings, like who can see your profile.

The Activity Steam: This is the main source of new information in all of the user’s courses, and courses can be entered from this page as well.  This prioritized list shows the most relevant information: Student discussion shows the latest submissions in real time, view grade information and new submissions, receive reminders about personal event and scheduled meetings, and filter out information to see the most pertinent information only. 
   The activity steam is broken into four categories:

• Important – shows information that needs immediate attention.  Dismissing an item removes it from the stream, and it cannot be recovered.  Overdue assignments appear in this section.
• Upcoming -  The top five events happening in the next seven days.  Select ‘Show more’ to view the complete list.  If there are no upcoming events, this section will not appear.
• Today – a list of everything happening in the next 24 hours.  Shows items that are due and institution announcements
• Recent – shows stream items previously found in the Today section for the past seven days

Courses: A list of all the courses where the user is enrolled.  This is the landing page for USAFSAMS’s Blackboard.  There is a search bar for finding specific courses, a filter selection for which type of courses to display and a favorites feature (enabled by clicking the star icon next to a course) to find often visited areas.  Courses can also be arranged into List view or Tile View by selecting the icon’s next to the search function.

Organizations: This section appears much like the courses do, and will contain Sandboxes, Alumni, and Academic Resources. 

Calendar: The calendar can show events by the day or by the month, and has separate sections for the user schedule and user due dates.  To make a new event, click on the Plus Sign in the upper left corner.  Calendar settings can be changed by clicking the gear icon, next to the plus sign.  The calendar can also be imported into an external calendar, to keep all events in one place, by clicking on the gear icon, and then the three dots in the upper left corner. 

Messages: Messages are arranged by most recent, although messages can be viewed for past, current, and future courses.  Jump into the course message section by clicking on a course card.  To make a new message, click the Plus Sign on the course card, select a recipient for the “To:” box and move them to the recipient’s box with the right facing arrow.

Grades: This opens the global grades page and provides access to all course grading tasks.  To the left of the course name, the average course grade appears, and everything that needs to be graded shows at once for each course.  To enter the Full Grade Center of a course, click on its title on the Course Card. 

Tools: This menu shows global functioning tools that are used outside of a course.  These include tools like the Content Collection, Enterprise Surveys, and Rubrics.  Only tools that the user has access to are shown. 

Admin: Menu for administrative tools, available only to those with administrative roles.

Sign Out: Formerly found in the far upper right corner, the sign out function is now found at the bottom of the menu.  Clicking this returns the user to the USAFSAM Blackboard log in page.