Welcome!

This Web site is designed to deliver instruction to MU Direct graduate students that have recently enrolled in an online Blackboard course.The purposes of the demonstrations are to familiarize with and guide users through the Blackboard platform to build their confidence and demonstrate how utilizing specific Blackboard tools and features will contribute to a student’s success in their Blackboard courses.The Web site provides demonstrations for specific tasks that Blackboard users need to know when getting started, navigating, communicating, and managing files.

About the Course Developers

This course was developed by MU Direct graduate students just like you!

This is a photo of Yanfei. Yanfei Ma is originally from China and has lived in the United States for the past four years. Yanfei received her Bachelor's in Economics from Yunnun Agriculture University in China and studied at both Dalian Foreign Language University and Shanghai International University. Currently, Yanfei is a full-time graduate student working toward her Master's in Educational Technology, Learning Systems Development and Design. Yanfei works at MU's Information Experience Lab, and when she's not studying, enjoys spending time with her husband and 2-year-old daughter.

This is a photo of William. William McCrary is a Mathematics Library specialist at the University of Missouri-Columbia and is finishing his Master's of Educational Technology, Learning Systems Development and Design. After graduating from Mizzou with a Bachelor of Arts in English, he traveled to Japan to teach conversational English. Soon enough, however, he found his way back to Columbia. After working at the Daniel Boone Regional Library for a while, he finally settled into his current position at MU. William enjoys science fiction and fantasy fiction, as well as biking, geocaching, and tinkering with his computer.

This is a photo of Lisa. Lisa Royse received her Bachelor of Arts in English from the University of Missouri-Columbia. After graduating, she worked as a production editor for a textbook publishing company and then as an instructional editor for MU's Center for Distance and Independent Study. Currently, Lisa is a senior information specialist for the Center for Education and Development at University of Missouri Health Care and is finishing a Master's of Educational Technology, Learning Systems Development and Design. When she's not working, she enjoys hanging out with her identical twin sister and other close friends and family.

This is a photo of Dinara. Dinara Saparova is originally from the city of Almaty, Kazakhstan--the eighth biggest country in the world, neighboring China and Russia. For the past eight years, Dinara worked as a Professor of Linguistics in her home country at the University of International Relations and World Languages. Dinara is a PhD student with the School of Information Science and Learning Technologies and works at MU's Information Experience Lab.

Technical Specifications

To complete this course, you will need access to a computer with an active Internet connection. The recommended Web browsers are as follows:

Windows: Internet Explorer (versions 6 or 7) or Firefox (version 2 or higher)
Mac: Safari (version 2 or higher) or Firefox (version 2 or higher)

There are pop-up demonstrations throughout the course, so be sure to turn off your pop-up blocker. Demonstrations are streamed via YouTube using Adobe Flash player. If you have trouble playing the demonstrations, install the latest version of Adobe Flash player.

Begin Coursework

To begin coursework, go to the "Lessons" page using the navigation bar in the top right corner. Note that the navigation bar also includes access to the "Demos" page; this page links to specific demonstrations throughout all the course lessons.

To contact the development team, e-mail roysel@mizzou.edu.
last updated May 2, 2010