Students

Frequently Asked Questions

What is Blackboard?
Blackboard Academic Suite - in short Blackboard within the UvT - was originally the digital environment where practically every course from the Study Guide of Tilburg University has a course as digital counterpart. Such a Blackboard course may exist of specific subject information, documents, tests and questionnaires, links and various communication possibilities such as e-mail, discussion lists and chat. Depending on the course a lecturer can bring into action various Blackboard possibilities.
The digital learning environment is now an integrated, personalized working environment. It provides students, through single sign-on, with as many important study applications and information resources as possible at one’s fingertips. This environment is called the Student Portal.

What is the Student Portal?
To a certain extent the Student Portal combats the lack of overview and time-consuming access. The student portal intends to offer an integrated, personalized working environment. It provides students, through single sign-on, with as many important study applications and information resources as possible at one’s fingertips. These include:

  • lecture and exam schedule
  • schedule changes
  • Blackboard courses
  • access to systems for registering for working groups and exams and viewing exam grades
  • search facilities in the library
  • e-mail messages from the university
  • news from the university and faculties
  • news from student associations
  • university activity agenda et cetera

How do I get access to the Student Portal?
Students have direct access to the Student Portal through the Dutch- and English target pages for students on the UvT site. These pages include a login-button with the text [Log in Student Portal]. The general student information on the UvT site and the personalized information provided by the student portal have content-wise been linked this way.

Why do I get the message 'Invalid Credentials' when I try to login?
When you receive the message 'Invalid Credentials' at the login page, your username and password aren't recognized as a valid account. Maybe you have mistyped your username and/or password. Please check if your CAPS-LOCK is off en try it again. Please contact the LIS Service Desk if you can't login after several attempts. They can check the status of your UvT-account.

How do I change my Tilburg University-password?
Your Tilburg Universtity password (UvT-password) is handed out to you at the beginning of your stay at Tilburg University and it is strictly personal. You can change your password on line. Just go to the ICT Servicepoint and choose the first menu item "My UvT password".

What should I do now I forgot my Tilburg University-password?
If you can not remember your UvT-password, you can have it reset at the central information desk of the Library. You have to show some means of identification!

How do I enroll to a Blackboard course?
For most courses in Blackboard, you have to enroll yourself first, before you get entrance to the course pages.
In the Course Catalog you will find behind each course a small [Enroll] button.
To enroll yourself, click on the [Enroll] button and confirm your subscribtion. After enrollment, the course will be listed under My Courses on the tab My Study and can be reached directly from that point.
If you directly can click on the course id in the Course Catalog then that specific course is open for Guest Access: everyone has limited entrance to that course, even without enrollment.

How do I unenroll myself from a Blackboard course?
In every Blackboard course you will find an Unenroll Tool in the Tools section. When this tool has been activated by the instructor of the course, students may unenroll themselves from that course. If this tool is still inactive, students should contact the instructor of the course.
Instructors can activate the Unenroll Tool by using the Unenroll Instructor Tool in the Control Panel of their course.

How do I change the language of the Student Portal?
At this moment the Student Portal is only available in English. Due to many suggestion from students, we are now working on a new feature that makes it possible to view the Dutch language in My Week Schedule, My Schedule Changes and My Exam Schedule.

Where can I find the module 'My Organizations'?
Beside courses, Blackboard also has so called 'organizations'. Organizations for which you are enrolled are displayed in the module 'My Organizations'. Organizations are used at a very small scale at Tilburg University. That is why the module 'My Organizations' does not appear by default on a tab, but has to be placed on a tab by the student himself.

How do I adjust the display of 'My Course Announcements'?
Users can view important messages from Instructors on the Announcements page. Announcements are organized and displayed by:

  • current date
  • last seven days
  • last thirty days
  • view all course or organization announcements
When accessed through a tab, all Announcements of interest to the user appear. These include Announcements from all courses and organizations the user is enrolled in and system-wide announcements. Users can sort the Announcements by category or post date.
Use the drop-down menu to select a view or click on the tabs to view Announcements for a specific period of time. The default is View Last 7 Days.

Why is the information in 'My Week Schedule' not correct?
The information in 'My Week Schedule' comes from the roster that you have made yourself in the Personal Study Guide. If the information in 'My Week Schedule' isn't correct than you have to change your roster in the Personal Study Guide. You can access the Study Guide directly from the Student Portal at My Study Facilities, Acces Personal Study Guide. Be aware that you have to select a programme, (optional) subjects and groups. If you don't select a group then a course will not be displayed in 'My Week Schedule'. An English manual about the Personal Study Guide is available at the website.

How do I receive course announcements by e-mail?
The current version of Blackboard does not feature this option. This feature will be available in the most recent version. Although currently students can not decide whether they want to receive announcements by email or not, instructors can. Every instructor is allowed to select an option called 'Email Announcement' when posting a new (important) announcement. You can ask the instructor to send (import) announcements to your e-mail address.

How do I update the content of a module?
Much information that is shown in modules in the Student Portal comes from other systems. Examples of such modules are the Webmail Notifier and My Week Schedule. Any changes made in these modules after you log in will not be displayed automatically. Unless you force the browser to refresh, the latest information will be displayed in the modules.

Why is the information on my tabs different from that of other students?
The Student Portal is a personalized environment. This means that it depends on the faculty where you study whether you get certain information by default or not. You can customize the content and the layout on your tabs according to your own preferences.

How do I customize Tab Content?
Users can customize the color and placement of the modules.
Follow the steps below to open the Tab Layout page

  • Open the tab you want to customize.
  • Click [Modify Layout] on the upper right hand corner.
The list below describes the functions available on the [Modify Layout] page.
  • To change where the modules appear on the tab click the arrows to move them up and down on the page or move them from one panel to another.
  • To remove a module from the page click the remove icon.
  • To change the appearance of the modules click a theme to choose a color and style for the modules.

How do I customize the Tab Layout?
Users can customize the modules that will appear on all tabs.
Follow the steps below to open the Tab Content page.

  • Open the tab of which you want to customize the content.
  • Click [Modify Content] on the upper right hand corner.
  • To select modules, check the boxes next to those modules to appear on the tab. Click Submit and OK.

How do I change a module?
Users can edit, minimize, and remove modules from a tab.

  • To edit the content of a module click the Pencil icon located at the top of that specific module.
  • To minimize the content of a module click the minus (-) button located at the top of each module.
  • To remove a module from the tab click the remove icon (x) located at the top of each module. Click Remove and a confirmation receipt will appear when the process is completed. The module will be removed from the tab only. When you click on [Modify Content] in the upper right corner you will see that the module is still available on the Tab Content page.

How do I contact the administrator of the Student Portal?
If you have questions or comments regarding the Student Portal, you can go to the LIS Service Desk. If you have any ideas for new features you can fill in the Student Portal suggestion form. Employees of faculties can go their local automation unit.

Where can I go for additional help?
On Tilburg University you can go to the LIS Service Desk for support on ICT and other education services.

Student Portal Login

 

Another question?

LIS Service Desk
Library Level 1
Telephone: (013) 466 3111
E-mail: lis-servicedesk@uvt.nl

 

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