Emails and announcements that instructors send through Blackboard are automatically directed to your Stony Brook University email address.  It is your responsibility to make sure that you read these emails as they contain important information regarding your courses.  For most students, your official University email account is Google Apps for Education but you may verify your official Electronic Post Office (EPO) address. 

If you choose to forward your official University email to a personal email account, the University will not be responsible for any messages marked as undeliverable.  You can set up email forwarding using these DoIT-provided instructions.

Technical Requirements 

Find out what the tech requirements are for your courses to run smoothly.

• Java is required to run Blackboard. Java.com allows you to test your computer to see if you are running java and if it is up to date. Java can also be installed or upgraded from this site. 
• Mac OS X Lion no longer comes with Java installed. Java can be downloaded and installed from Apple's support site.

Which browsers are compatible with Blackboard?

Blackboard has compiled a compatibility matrix to show which browsers work with your operating system.

• If you are on an older version of Mac OS X or Safari. Please make sure to check the compatilibty matrix above.

Clearing out your Cache will clear the browser's temporary memory and allow you to download a new set of cookies.

• NOTE to Safari users: make sure cookies are always enabled. To do this, open Preferences > Click the Privacy tab > Under Cookies and website data, select Always Allow.

As you teach or attend class for several semesters, the list of courses on the My Institution page will grow longer. You can hide old courses from this list to make it easier to find your current courses.

On the My Institution page (the home page), click on the gear icon in the upper right corner of My Courses.

Hiding Classes from a Previous Term

1. Under the Terms tab on the Personalize: My Courses page, select the checkbox that says "group by term"
2. A table should appear. Under the column "Select All/Unselect All," click the checkbox of the term you would like to hide until it is unchecked.
3. Click Submit in the bottom right corner

Hiding and Showing Specific Classes

1. Scroll down the Personalize: My Courses page until you come to a section titled "Courses in which you are enrolled"
2. Find the class whos status you would like to edit
3. On the right, select the checkboxes corresponding to the parts of a class you would like displayed
4. You can also rearrange the courses in your list by clicking and dragging the double-arrow icon (shown in blue) to the left of each course up or down. 
5. Click Submit.
6. When you go back to the My Institution page, the classes you unchecked will be hidden. If you rearranged them, they will appear in their new order. Don’t worry, the hidden courses have not been erased. If you need to access them in the future, simply click on the Courses tab at the top of the screen. All courses, hidden or not, will be listed there.

Some questions to ask yourself when you are not able to log into blackboard:
1. Have I set up my netID? 
If you are not sure,  you can check this by logging into solar. On the right hand side when you log in, under Security and Personal Data, there is an option that says "NetID Maintenance." You can proceed to set up your netID and netID password. 

2. Did you accidentally lock yourself out of your blackboard account? 
If you have 10 failed attempts into blackboard, the system will automatically lock your account for about 10-15 minutes. To avoid this issue in the future, if you are unsure of your password, you can log into solar. On the right hand side when you log in, under Security and Personal Data, there is an option that says "NetID Maintenance." There is an option that says "Test Your NetID Password." If you are still unable to get the password, you can reset your password by clicking "Click here to set or change your netID password on the netID maintanence page. You must answer a security question that you have previously set up. Then you will have the option to change your netID password. If you are not able to answer your security question, you need to submit a ticket on ITSM. 

3. You have forgotten your netID password completely? 
You can log into solar. On the right hand side when you log in, under Security and Personal Data, there is an option that says "NetID Maintenance." There is an option that says "Test Your NetID Password." If you are still unable to get the password, you can reset your password by clicking "Click here to set or change your netID password on the netID maintanence page. You must answer a security question that you have previously set up. Then you will have the option to change your netID password. If you are not able to answer your security question, you need to submit a ticket on ITSM. 

Please refer to this link for visual instructions.