Blackboard tools explained:

Announcements: create and send text announcements to members enrolled in a course, that also appear as pop-up messages
Assignments. You can use the Assignments tool to view an inventory of homework and projects that are in the course. Students can work on projects individually or in a group. You can also provide feedback, grades and suggestions on how they can improve their work.
The Assessments tool supports the following assessment activities.

1. Quizzes


2. Surveys


3. Self tests

And supports the creation of the following question types: calculated questions, combination , fill-in-the-blank questions, jumbled sentence questions, matching , multiple choice , paragraph questions, short answer questions and true false questions.

Calendar allows you to view and create dated reminders about events and link to content.
Chat allows you to provide a virtual real time space where students can gather online and chat (socializing, completing groupwork, discussing a topic, etc)
The Discussions tool allows you to create topics relevant to the course where users can post and reply to messages. You can ask questions, generate discussion, and encourage students to share feedback and ideas. Instructors can assign grades for participation, just as they would in a classroom courses

There are three types of discussion topics:

1. Threaded: Messages are grouped visually in a hierarchy by topic.


2. Class blog: Create a collaborative blog space by allowing participants to post a chronological series of entries on a particular topic. Participants can then add comments to any blog entry.


3. Journal: Create a journal topic to give Students a place for their own writing. The journals can be kept private or shared with the class.

Mail: You can send email to all students enrolled on your Blackboard course
Media Library is a tool that organizes auxiliary course content, such as media files, images, videos or glossary definitions.
Web Links tool: used to compile a list of Internet addresses. These Internet addresses can then be added to folders and learning modules to reference web pages outside of your course.
The Profile tool allows course members to create and view the profiles of other course members helping to develop an online community
Syllabus tool, make course information available to students (i.e. your contact information and office hours, course objectives, course outlines, lessons overview, etc)

Group Manager. You can use Group Manager to place students into groups if you want them to work collaboratively. You can:

• create discussion topics for groups


• create chat or whiteboard rooms for groups


• create assignments that can be assigned to groups, allowing Students to work collaboratively.


• create assignments that Students all work on individually


• set selective release criteria based on membership within a group.

Selective Release , control the release of content and specific items in a course. For example, you can release an assignment to certain Students only.
Tracking: view reports on certain items or certain aspects of your course (student activity, file usage, tools used, summary of activity, etc)