Blackboard LMS
Learning Management System
What is the Blackboard Learning Management System?
The Blackboard Learning Management System (LMS) is a system for online teaching, learning, community building and knowledge sharing. Depending on the teaching approaches you'll be using, the LMS is geared to assist you and adapt to your approach. The many features and functionalities of the LMS enables the system to be flexible and open, centring on students' achievements.
As you navigate your way in getting started, you may find that teaching online shares some similarities with teaching face-to-face. For the best experience in Blackboard, we recommend using Chrome. For more information, visit this page.
The LMS enables you to publish lecture notes and other learning media resources, manage interactive learning modules as well as set up assignments, quizzes and other tools to assist students with their learning. You'll be able to log in the LMS anytime, anywhere, at your convenience when connected to the internet.
Other associated learning technologies include the Lecture Capture System Echo360, Blackboard Collaborate and Turnitin.
Guidelines to get started
Here are some guidelines you can follow to assist you in developing your unit and providing learning options for your students.
- Get to know UWA's Learning Platform.
- Determine the pedagogical approach you wish to use and which educational technologies best support your teaching approach. You may refer to the sites below for further information.
- The EEU provides LMS-related workshops on a regular basis. Find more information on the workshops offered. Choose aspects you'd like to know more about and undertake self-driven professional development or attend organised workshops.
- Developing the unit is always a rewarding experience. Organise some time to develop or remodel the Unit Outline and lecture materials. Once the learning materials are ready, make it available for download and organise the learning materials into sequenced chunks.
- Post an announcement to your students via Blackboard. Include a discussion board activity and student discussion lounge to drive collaboration.
- Create collaborative group areas for your students and monitor your students' activities.
- Record your lectures with Lecture Recording System or Echo360 Universal Capture. Explore further options on developing your teaching material.
- Use the Turnitin or Blackboard Tests to mark assignments electronically.
- Try something new. Integrate a new learning technology into your unit to enhance your students' learning experience.
How-tos
- Logging in and finding your LMS units
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To log in to the LMS
Visit lms.uwa.edu.au.
Your UWA Person ID and an active Pheme account is required to log in.
How to find your LMS units
Once you have logged in to the LMS, click on the Units tab at the top of the page. You'll then be shown the list of units you are enrolled in.
If you can't find a particular teaching unit within your unit list, you may not be enrolled.
To submit a request for LMS unit enrolment, unit coordinators will need to complete the online request form.
- Experiencing the LMS
- Get LMS help
Developing your unit
Guides, resources and best practices for developing your unit.
Units may vary in design depending on the nature of the components you are teaching, your personal preferences and the way in which you intend students to use your learning materials in the LMS. It's good practice to think how to best structure and design your unit in the LMS online environment and what you hope to achieve for yourself and your students. Your answers will shape how you'll use the LMS, and design and build your unit.
The heart of your LMS unit is the content you provide. A well-designed unit in the LMS has a predictable, understandable structure to its content alongside learning materials that are accessible to students with disabilities. The sections below will get you up and running with developing your LMS unit. Take note of the Copyright Act when constructing your unit online.
How-tos
- The essentials
- Customising and personalising your unit
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This section focuses on simple changes you can implement in your LMS unit that could improve and enhance student experience.
Although the tips below may not fully transform your unit, they can improve your students' experience by making a more seamless experience for students transitioning from other platforms while being engaged with online content. Unlike platforms such as Instagram, Facebook and Twitter, which students commonly interact with, the impersonal nature of the LMS makes it a challenge when competing with these platforms.
These tips can improve students' experience and, consequently, increase the level of engagement in your unit.
Tips:
- The landing page is the one tool that will ensure students see all the important information when logging into your unit, making it a valuable asset in improving student experience. To find out how you can achieve this, click here.
- By having your student's name on your unit's landing page, it will create a more personalised and welcoming feeling. To achieve this, key in the code @X@user.full_name@X@ into the Content Editor; refer to images below.
Image 1: Welcome Message Example
Image 2: Code key in Content Editor - Watch a video on how to design your unit's landing page/entry point:
- Creating content in your unit
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- How to edit and manage content in you unit
- How to create learning modules
- How to copy and move contents in your unit
- How to add tables
- How to add social media in your unit
- Watch a video about creating tool links:
- Accessibility and inclusivity
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With some minor modifications and a little planning, we can make our online classroom in Blackboard easy for students of all ability to use. For more information about Blackboard’s accessibility compliance:
- Use Blackboard successfully with a screen reader
- Check whether your content is accessible for a screen reader
- In practice
Communication and collaboration
Whether your classroom is mostly face-to-face or fully online, you'll want to communicate or interact with your students within your LMS unit. A number of tools exist to help you do this.
The LMS offers features to support communication and collaboration within subjects and communities. The various communication tools can help manage the sharing of information and promote interactions between members.
This page includes guides and resources on how you can interact and engage with your students via the LMS. It also contains information on how to promote communication and collaboration between your students in your unit.
How-tos
- The essentials
- Interact with your students
- Tools to promote communication and collaboration
