Quick Start Guide for Students
If you are a new student or want to know the basics, this page will give you an overview of the following steps:
1. Accessing Blackboard
Blackboard can be accessed via mymodule.tcd.ie using your Trinity email and password.
2. Activity Stream
The stream is a prioritised list of what's relevant to you. You don't need to dig through the system, search for deadlines, or miss assignments and tests.
- Receive reminders. View pending deadlines or overdue assignments, tests, and graded discussions.
- Check your grades. Whenever your instructor grades an assignment, test, or graded discussion, you can access the grade on your Activity page. If your instructor updates a grade, it will also be reflected on your Activity page.
- Filter your view. Use the Filter menu and select 'Show All', 'Assignments and Tests', or 'Grades and Feedback'.
Activity Categories
Activity items in your stream are grouped into four categories to make the list easier to scan.
- Important: See overdue assignments, tests, and graded discussions.
- Upcoming: View your top five events that will happen in the next seven days.
- Today: View all upcoming events and tasks due within the next 24 hours, including institution-wide announcements regarding emergency notifications and updates.
- Recent: If you haven't checked in for a bit, view stream items that were previously in the Today section over the last seven days.
You can choose which notifications you receive about activity in all your Ultra modules:
- Stream notifications: Choose which activities appear on your Activity page.
- Email: To receive email notifications, add an email address to your profile page. Then, choose how often and which activities you want to receive notifications for.
- Push notifications: Messages pop up on your mobile device if you have the Blackboard app for students installed.
3. Viewing your Module List
After logging in to Learn Ultra, you should see Modules on the left-hand side of the blue menu.
Select Modules to view a list of your modules. You can view your modules in either a list or a grid format. To swap between the two views, select the list/grid icon at the top left. In the image below, the grid view is selected.
You also have the option to search, filter or display selected courses.
Quick Tip: Select the star icon on a module that you access regularly. The module will be placed at the top of the list with a purple star on the bottom right. You can unfavourite a course by selecting the star icon again.
Note: To access modules in Blackboard, students must have the modules listed on their student record in my.tcd.ie. Please contact your School Office and ask the School Administrator to check that all modules are assigned to your timetable. When the School Office timetables a student to a module, you should gain access to that module in Blackboard within 24 hours, as long as it is listed on your student record in my.tcd.ie.
If you are an Erasmus student and are missing a module in Blackboard, please contact Academic Registry.
4. The Sections Inside Your Ultra Module
When you log into your Ultra module, you will see three main areas within the module interface:
A. Details and Actions - menu on the far right
B. Navigation bar - at the top
C. Module Content - middle area
A. Details and Actions
Class Register: View your class register if your Instructor has enabled this feature.
Class Collaborate: If you're using Class Collaborate sessions, you can access them from here.
Attendance: If your module co-ordinator is marking attendance.
Third Party Tools: Access third-party tools like Panopto and Talis MyReading List.
B. Navigation bar
Links to frequently used areas in Ultra.
- Content – View Module content.
- Calendar – Module Calendar only: Lecture timetables are located on the left navigation in the Base Navigation.
- Announcement – Area for all your announcements (including email copies).
- Discussions – A quick and easy way to access/view/respond to all discussions in your module.
- Gradebook – Assess all module assessments, marks & feedback.
- Messages – View, send and respond to module messages.
- Groups – If you have been assigned or need to self-enrol in groups set up by the Instructor for assignment work, tutorials, and other purposes.
C. Module Content
This is where you can access your module content.
5. Learning Topics
Instructors use Learning topics as containers for organised collections of content, allowing you, the student, to navigate from one content item to the next without distractions or extra clicks.
A Learning topic can include:
- Documents
- Files
- Tests and assignments
- Folders
- Multimedia
- Links to websites, discussions, and journals
- Third-party tools like Panopto and Turnitin assignments
Navigating Learning Topics
Select an item in the Learning Topic. Use the Next and Previous arrows (located at the top right) to navigate and view the course content. This allows you to easily move from one item to another in the sequence.
When the item opens, you will notice a Contents List on the left-hand side. This indicates the status of items in the learning topic: complete (green tick), in progress (half-filled), not started (empty circle), or not yet available (padlock). You can ‘jump’ to one of the items on the list by clicking on it, as long as it does not have a padlock icon.
Select the close (X) icon on the left-hand side of the page to return to the main Module Content area.
Tracking Your Progress
You can track your progress in two ways:
- Automatic tracking: Items are marked as complete when you open them.
- Manual tracking: You can manually mark items as complete from the table of contents.
Progress icons appear next to each item:
- Green circle with a check mark: You have completed this content.
- A partially filled black circle: You have opened this content, and it is in progress.
- An empty circle: You haven't started this content.
- A lock icon: You haven't met the conditions to access this content.
6. Ultra Document
In Blackboard, Ultra Documents (shown in the example below) are used to present a combination of content, including text, links, images/files, & embed third-party tools like MyReadingList and video/lecture recordings (Panopto). Knowledge Check - use this to add a quick check question to test your knowledge of the content. This can be either a multiple-choice or a multiple-answer question and is not a grableable item.
7. Module Content Search
On the Module content page, you can search for items by name. To expand the search field, select the Search Module content button, which appears as a magnifying glass.
8. Downloading Documents
You can also download the original document, if permitted by the module instructor, by selecting the ellipses (three dots).
9. Viewing your Marks & Feedback
Activity Stream
When marks are posted (released), you may receive a notification in your Activity Stream. Remember to check your notification settings to ensure you don't miss your marks.
- Select Activity from the left-hand menu.
- Select Marks and Feedback to view the mark.
- Select the Assessment Name to view your submission, mark, and feedback in your module.
Marks
- Select Marks from the left-hand navigation menu.
- Select the assessment name to view your submission, mark, and feedback.
- A maximum of five items will be displayed per module.
- Select View all work to view other assessed work within your course.
Gradebook
Each Blackboard Ultra module has a page called Gradebook. You can view your marks and feedback from this page. An icon shows the number of new assessed items you have to review.
Third Party Tools
10. Finding your Panopto Lecture Recordings & MyReadingList
In most cases, your Panopto recordings will be embedded within your Module content or Ultra document.
You can also find your Panopto Recordings.
Go to Third Party Tools on the right-hand menu in your Blackboard Ultra Module.
To add MyReadList or Panopto, click to add anywhere in your main Module content area.
Need Further Help?
Contact the IT Service Desk by one of the following methods.
You can email the service desk at itservicedesk@tcd.ie. Please ensure you fill in the 'Subject' field with Ultra: when emailing.
Service desk opening hours are:
Monday - Friday: 09:00 - 17:00