Blackboard and Gmail
Blackboard is designed to interface with the student e-mail system adopted by the school. At Greenville Technical College, the student e-mail system is Google's Gmail. (In fact, students and instructors have access to the whole suite of Google applications). Students and instructors are able to access their Gmail accounts either from within or outside of Blackboard. Your user name and initial password have been provided through the e-mail that your received when you registered for this orientation. The first time you log in, you will be prompted to change your password.
Within Blackboard, users are able to send e-mails by way of an interface that allows them to select students and instructors from the course roster. This interface is accessed through the "Send Gmail" link on the course menu. E-mails sent in this way will also include the course ID in the subject line. By default, a copy of each e-mail that you send from this interface is also sent to your Gmail account.
One must log in to Gmail in order to read messages. For convenience, a "Gmail" link is included at the top of the page in Blackbard. To access Gmail from outside of your course, you can bookmark the log-in page for Greenville Tech's Gmail: https://www.google.com/a/my.gvltec.edu
It is beyond the scope of this tutorial to provide detailed instructions on using Gmail. Suffice it to say, that using Gmail is very intuitive and its reliability and ease of use have made it one of the most popular e-mail solutions for an increasing number of colleges and universities. Google also provides guidance on using Gmail and Google apps through its Web site at http://mail.google.com/support/?hl=en
Continue to the next page for a video tutorial and handout.