Welcome to the Blackboard Mailbag, where we feature a commonly asked question that has been hitting our mailbox recently: blackboard@fordham.edu. You’ll find an archive of all of the previous questions and answers on our fordham.edu/blackboard website.
Note: Features may change with future updates.
Happy New Year and Welcome Back for the Spring Semester!
We’re thrilled to welcome you to the spring semester and the continuation of Blackboard Mailbag! Whether you’ve been following along or are tuning in for the first time, this weekly blog is your one-stop resource for tackling Blackboard questions, sharing best practices, and making the most of your teaching experience.
Throughout the semester we’ll be sharing:
- Best Practices: Tips to organize your courses, engage your students, and maximize Blackboard’s potential.
- Feature Spotlights: Deep dives into tools and features to save you time and effort.
- Timely Guides: Resources to streamline your workflow throughout the semester.
Qwickly Attendance Tool
To start off the semester we’d like to highlight the Qwickly tool. Qwickly’s Attendance is a major timesaver because it streamlines the process of recording and managing attendance, whether you’re teaching online or in person, allowing you to focus more on teaching and less on administrative tasks.
Every Fordham instructor has access to an easy-to-use attendance plugin for our Blackboard environment – Qwickly Attendance. Qwickly Attendance allows instructors to record attendance either by marking students as present/absent or by allowing students to self-report. Attendance can be taken in online or in-person classes.
To access Qwickly Attendance, simply open your class Blackboard, and choose to open the alphabetical list of Blackboard Tools:
Once you’ve started Qwickly Attendance, you can mark your students’ status and even add comments, if you wish:
Qwickly Attendance also allows Student Check-Ins. To get started, simply click the Start Check-In button and students can then enter a PIN to confirm they are present in your class.
Once the attendance is complete, you can click the Submit Attendance button and begin your class.
Other Qwickly Tools
Qwickly has additional time-saving features beyond attendance such as
- Post Announcements to Multiple Courses: Quickly post announcements to several Blackboard courses at once.
- Distribute Content Across Courses: Share files, assignments, or other course materials simultaneously across multiple sections.
- Email Multiple Classes: Send emails to students across various courses from a single interface.
- Course Availability Management: Make multiple courses available (or unavailable) to students in just a few clicks.
- Batch Assignment Creation: Create and deploy assignments across multiple courses or sections with ease.
- And more!
To access these Qwickly Course tools, after you log in to Blackboard, click on the “Tools” button and then select “Qwickly Course Tools.”
If you’d like to learn more about using Qwickly, please see the Qwickly Course Tools User Guide for Blackboard Ultra.
Here’s to a successful and engaging semester ahead! Stay tuned for tips, tricks, and solutions to your most pressing Blackboard questions.
For additional FAQs and resources about Blackboard, visit fordham.edu/blackboard, attend one of our workshops, sign up to meet with us on our EdTech Consultation Calendar via Zoom, or reach out to us with your availability and we will work with you to accommodate small groups and one-on-one sessions.
Have feedback or suggestions on features? Blackboard’s parent company Anthology hosts The Idea Exchange. This is a place specifically for Blackboard to track and manage enhancement requests. It allows for things like upvoting ideas and sharing development plans and statuses. You will need to create an account to access the Idea Exchange.