All Courses Must Have a "Tools" Button

Bb 9.1 Tip for Faculty


For those of you familiar with our old version of Blackboard, you may recall the way students accessed their grades, etc. was through "Tools" which was located in a box under the course navigation buttons. This has changed with Blackboard 9.1. Students still access grades, send email, etc. through "Tools" but this is now a course navigation button.

Faculty, this means you must include the "Tools" button in your visible list of course navigation buttons.


For information about how to put the "Tools" button in your course, click on the following links:

How to Create a Tools Button
How to Make the Tools Button Available
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Bb 9.1 Tip for Students

If your course does not have a "Tools" button, contact your instructor. For information about how to check your grades in Blackboard, click on the following link:

How to Check Your Grades

Blackboard 9.1 Best Viewed With Mozilla Firefox

Bb 9.1 Tip for All Blackboard Users

eLearning Services has discovered that Blackboard 9.1 is best viewed using Mozilla Firefox.

However, if you MUST use Internet Explorer, and you are annoyed by the repeated securtity warnings, follow these steps to make them stop:


1. Go to Tools, Internet Options
2. Click on Security
3. Click on Internet
4. Click on Custom Level
5. Browse through the settings until you come to Miscellaneous (about half way down)
6. Under that heading look for “Display Mixed Content”
7. Click on Enable
8. Click on OK

To get rid of the first warning that comes up when you go to pgcconline.blackboard.com:

1. Go to Tools, Internet Options
2. Click on Security
3. Click on Trusted Sites
4. Click on the “Sites” button
5. Add the following 2 websites:
a. https://pgcconline.blackboard.com
b. http://pgcconline.blackboard.com
6. Click on Close
7. Click on OK

New Grade Center Procedure

Bb 9.1 Tip for Faculty

It is always a good idea to back up your grades in a spreadsheet and some faculty find it easier to view the Grade Center in a spreadsheet as well. The procedure for downloading the Grade Center has changed a bit with this new version of Blackboard and to do this, you must download the Grade Center and work on it offline. Click Here for information about how to do this.

Important Information About Grading Discussion Board Posts

Bb 9.1 Tip for Faculty

Discussion Board grading has changed a bit in Blackboard 9.1. Be sure to select "Save Grade" before pressing OK.

Problem With "Staff Info" Area

Bb 9.1 Tip for Faculty



Oh Blackboard 9.1, you are so quirky! When entering faculty information, please take note of the fact that if you do not type anything in "Office Location", but you enter something in "Office Hours" your "Office Hours" information will not show up in the student view.

However, if you enter something in "Office Location" but nothing in "Office Hours", the "Office Location" information will show up. Yes, Blackboard is designed for online teaching. Yes, many online teachers hold "virtual" office hours with no physical location. Yes, we have reported this quirk to Blackboard and hopefully, it will be fixed soon!