Journals in Blackboard

Journals on Blackboard 9.1 provide a private reflection space between the student and instructor. In a journal, the individual creates entries that can be seen by the student and instructor, or in the case of a journal within a small group, only the group and the instructor.

Creating a New Journal

•  To create a new journal, go to Control Panel > Course Tools > Journals.
• Click the Create Journal button in the top left of the page.

• Give the journal a name and a description or directions (for example: what to write in the journal, how often to write in it, etc.)

• For Journal Availability, choose Yes if you would like the journal accessible to students in the course upon creation. If not, choose No.
• If you would like to make the journal available or unavailable after a certain date and time, fill out the Display After and/or Display Until fields under Journal Date and Time Restrictions.

• Under Journal Settings, first choose how you would like the journal entries indexed (either Weekly or Monthly). Indexing is set at Monthly by default.
• Next choose how much access students will have to the journal. Please note that if the box next to Permit Course Users to View Journal is checked, all students in the course may see individual students' journals, making the features more similar to a student Blog.

• Finally, if you plan to grade journal entries, check the bubble next to Grade and enter Points Possible in the field.
• Click Submit to create the journal.

Creating Journal Entries and Viewing Student Journals

• Give your journal entry a Title and write the message in the Entry Message field.

• If you would like to attach a file to your journal entry, choose either Browse My Computer or Browse Course, then choose the location of your file.
• When you have finished, click Post Entry at the bottom of the page to publish your entry.

Information about your journal and access to other course members' journals can be found on the right side of your main journal page.

1. About this Journal provides information about your personal journal including your name, the number of entries in your journal and how many comments are posted on your entries.
2. More Journals show the other journals you have access to. Simply click on a student's name to view their journal. By default, journals with no entries are hidden. Click on Show Empty Journals or Hide Empty Journals to switch views.
3. Index will display an index of your posts by either week or month, depending on how you chose to index your posts when setting up the journal.