E-MAIL:

Sending e-mail to Course Lists

Creating a list of e-mail addresses from site roster

Text-wrapping in e-mail

Changing my e-mail address

Filtering Blackboard e-mail

Return Receipt

Spellcheck

Sending e-mail to Blackboard Site Lists

Q: How can I send e-mail to my Blackboard site list?

A: There are three ways to send mail to the Blackboard site e-mail list for regular courses listed in the Online Course Offering; two for other course sites and for organization sites:

• Via the Course Tools in the Control Panel (Available to those who have Control Panel access for any Blackboard sites.)
  An option on the left side of the Control Panel in the Tools area is Send E-mail. E-mail options are as follows: All Users
  All Groups
  All TAs (Instructional Staff)
  All Instructors All Observers
  Single/Select Users
  Single/Select Groups Single/Select Observers The Control Panel e-mail feature cannot be disabled; only users in the role of Instructor / Leader or instructional staff/ Assistant can use this feature.
(NOTE MacIntosh users: Unfortunately Macintosh computers have old version of Internet Explorer. It seems that when Apple announced they were writing their own browser Microsoft decided not to continue updating IE for the Mac so all Macs have version 5.6 or lower. These old versions cause intermittent problems with Blackboard so it is suggested that you stick with Safari or Firefox <http://www.mozilla.com> on the Apple computers.)


• Via Communication in the Course View (Availability and location can be controlled by site managers.)
  Unless it has been disabled, an option in the Course View of the site (usually under Communication, but it may be placed elsewhere by someone with editing rights to the site) is an envelope icon with the words "Send E-mail." By default the e-mail options beneath this icon are as follows: All Users
  All Groups
  All TAs (Instructional Staff)
  All Instructors All Observers
  Select Users
  Select Groups Select Observers Unlike the e-mail feature in the Communication Center of the Control Panel, anyone enrolled in the site has access to this feature. It can be disabled by users with Instructor / Leader, ta / Assistant or Course Builder / Builder access to the site. To do this, go to the Site Management area in the bottom right corner of the Control Panel and select Communication, which corresponds with the Communication button in the Course View of the site. A list of the features beneath the Communication button will display; simply make any changes you'd like, then select Submit from the bottom of the screen. Any e-mail restrictions make here only affect the e-mail feature that students can access; the Control Panel e-mail feature will remain unchanged.
(NOTE MacIntosh users: Unfortunately Macintosh computers have old version of Internet Explorer. It seems that when Apple announced they were writing their own browser Microsoft decided not to continue updating IE for the Mac so all Macs have version 5.6 or lower. These old versions cause intermittent problems with Blackboard so it is suggested that you stick with Safari or Firefox <http://www.mozilla.com> on the Apple computers.)

• Via your regular e-mail program (Only available for Course sites listed in the Registrar´s Online Course Offering. NOT available for Organization sites.)
  To use this method, simply open your regular e-mail client (e.g., Netscape Mail, Outlook) and address the e-mail to: 

For courseid_semester, use the course identifier. For example, if you are teaching a course with courseid ENG361 during the Fall 2003 semester, you can send e-mail to everyone in your current semester course by addressing the e-mail to: 

For cross-listed courses, the courseid may be both or either one:

Ita302-MED412_S2004@princeton.edu or Ita301_S2004@princeton.edu or MED412_S2004@princeton.edu

RULES:

E-mail may be sent this way only from default Princeton e-mail accounts for current Princeton faculty, staff, and students (contact us at 258-0737 or blackboard@princeton.edu if you are faculty and would like to be able to send e-mail from multiple e-mail accounts). If you are not a current Princeton student, faculty, or staff member, but are enrolled in a Blackboard course site, you must send e-mail from the e-mail address with which you are enrolled in the site if you want to send e-mail from your regular e-mail client.

Only those enrolled in the course site are permitted to send e-mail to the course list. This includes instructors, TAs, builders, graders, and students. (The user designated "Library Blackboard Zzzzz " is the exception.)

If someone not enrolled in the course site sends e-mail to the list, the sender will receive an error message telling of the failure.

When someone enrolled in a course site sends e-mail to a course list, the sender is notified of a successful list mailing.

The sender of a message to a list does NOT receive a copy of the message even though that person is a subscriber to the list. If the sender would like a copy of the message in addition to the one that is placed in the "Send" folder, , using "Cc:" or Bcc:" is suggested. Alternatively, one can change one's list setting to receive copies by going to to https://lists.princeton.edu/, login, select List Owner Dashboard > under Subscribers (first column to the right of the list name) select [View], then locate yourself and click on your name > check Receive copy of own postings under Acknowledgements > Update.

Anyone enrolled in the course can send e-mail to the list. If it is preferred that students not be allowed to send to the list, a list owner (Instructors, Instructional Staff, and Builders) can go to
https://lists.princeton.edu/,
login, select List Owner Dashboard > under list name select [Configure] > Access Control tab. Change "Send= Private" to "Send= Owner" (this will allow all Instructors, Instructional Staff, and Builders to send) or the the text box labeled "Special," type in the e-mail address(es) of the specific subscribers who should be allowed to send. Then click Submit.

The default "Reply to" is the sender. A list's settings can be changed so that the reply goes to the entire list. To do so, a list owner (Instructors, Instructional Staff, and Builders) goes to
https://lists.princeton.edu/, logs in, selects List Owner Dashboard > under list name select [Configure] > Distribution tab. Change "Reply-To=Sender" to "Reply-to= List ". (Another option is "Reply-to= Specify", in which case, enter an e-mail address in the "Specify address" box). Click Submit. The listserv software we use carries this caveat:

WARNING: Setting this parameter guarantees only one thing - that LISTSERV will generate an appropriate RFC822 Reply-To: header in the mail it distributes to subscribers. There is unfortunately no guarantee that the mail transfer agent (Mta) or mail client on the receiving end will honor the Reply-To: header. This is because some mail clients, out-of-office robots, and Internet Mta either simply do not recognize the existence of Reply-To: or do not implement it properly. Specifically, RFC2076 "Common Internet Message Headers" reports that the use of Reply-To: is "controversial", which is defined as: "The meaning and usage of this header is controversial, i.e. different implementers have chosen to implement the header in different ways. Because of this, such headers should be handled with caution and understanding of the different possible interpretations." (RFC2076, page 4). While L-Soft recognizes that it is sometimes important to provide an explicit Reply-To: header to indicate a response path, L-Soft cannot be held responsible for problems arising from the inability of a remote server to properly process Reply-To: headers.

Creating a list of e-mail addresses from site rosters

Q: I would like to have a list of the e-mail addresses of the students in my course but can't seem to extract them from the Blackboard site. Is there a way to put the addresses into a text file?

A: Yes.

From your Blackboard site's control panel:

1. Go to User Management > List/Modify Users
2. Click the Search oval beside the text box
3. Place your cursor directly to the right of the first letter of the first name on the list, click and hold.
4. Drag down to highlight the rest of the page
5. Hit Ctrl & C or Apple & C on your keyboard to copy
6. Open a blank text file page (such as Notebook)
7. Click in the top left corner of the blank text file page, and hit Ctrl & V or Apple & V on your keyboard to paste
8. Save text file page to desktop and close
9. Open Excel and from the File menu, select Open
10. Find the text file page you just saved in the dialog box that opens, select it, and click the Open button (you may have to change "Files of type" to "All Files" or "Text Files" to find it)
11. In the next dialog box that opens, select Delimited and click Next
12. Select "Space" as your delimiter and click Next
13. Click Finish
14. Double click the top of the column in Excel that has the e-mail addresses
15. Hit Ctrl & C or Apple & C on your keyboard to copy
16. Now you can paste the list into a text file or into your e-mail. You can also paste them directly into a To line of an e-mail composition and hit enter. In most clients, this will put them each on a separate line. You could also paste them into the address book.

Changing my e-mail address

Q: Can I change my e-mail address listed in Blackboard to something else?

A: Because our system routinely checks users against the university's default e-mail listings and resets them accordingly, any alterations we make to e-mail addresses in Blackboard can be overridden without notice. To avoid this, we recommend that rather than changing your e-mail address in Blackboard, you forward your Princeton e-mail to whatever e-mail address you desire so that any mail sent to the e-mail account listed in the Princeton directory will be automatically routed to the location. To forward your Princeton e-mail account to another address, go to http://www.princeton.edu/imap and login; choose Set Your e-mail Delivery Location from the options listed on the left side of the screen, and proceed as instructed.

Should you require assistance with e-mail forwarding, contact the OIT Help Desk at 609-258-HELP.

Text-wrapping in e-mail

Q: Some of the e-mail sent through the course web site comes as a single line of text that doesn't wrap, making it difficult to read. How can I fix this?

A: Word-wrapping in e-mail is a function of both senders' and recipients' browser preferences; even if your preferences are correctly configured, your students' may not be. To set the "Message Wrapping" browser preferences in Netscape:

1. select Edit from the menu at the top of your browser;
2. select Preferences;
3. in the Category window on the left side of the Preferences box, expand the plus sign to the left of the Mail & Newsgroups category;
4. from the list beneath Mail & Newsgroups, click on Messages;
5. on the right side of the Preferences box, the third option for Messages is Message Wrapping; click to make a check-mark in the box to the left of "Wrap incoming, plain text messages to window width;" the next field should be set to "Wrap outgoing, plain text messages at 72 characters;"
6. press OK at the bottom of the Preferences box.

 

Spellcheck in e-mail

Q: How can I check my spelling when sending e-mail from a Blackboard site?

A:Simply click the spellcheck icon found in the bottom right corner of the message compostion field.

Return receipt in e-mail

Q: How can I verify that e-mail sent from within Blackboard went to the specified recipients?

A: For instructors and site builders, the e-mail interface found in the Blackboard site's control panel provides a check box, found under the message composition field, labeled "Return Receipt." Checking this will ensure the sender receives an e-mail with the message, " This message was sent to the following recipients: xxx".

Filtering Blackboard e-mail

Q: Once again the semester begins, and once again every member of our staff is being flooded with e-mails by faculty members sending to the Blackboard course lists (we're all enrolled in the courses as "builders"). How can I sort them to a separate folder in my mail client so they do not clog my inbox?

A: In most mail clients you can create a customized message filter that will sort mail according to the "Subject" header. Beginning fall 2006, mail received from inside Blackboard will show the course ID in the Subject line and the To line, so create a rule: for example, Subject -- contains -- POL123_F2006. Or, if you do not wish to have to create rules for every course, create a customized message filter that will sort mail according to the "Received" header. Mail received from inside Blackboard will show "blackboard" in the received header, so create a rule, Received -- contains -- blackboard. While this solution will not allow you to sort by specific course site, you will at least be able to send all e-mail generated from Blackboard sites to the same folder. (A search under "filters" in your e-mail help will yield instructions on creating customized filters --or for instructions regarding Outlook Exchange see Helpdesk Knowledgebase Solution 9392 -- or call the Helpdesk at 258-HELP.)

Mail sent via the listservs that exist for each course can easily be filtered using the "to" "contains" rule, with the list address (e.g., "to" "contains" "POL245_S2003" or simply use the semester/year designation --"F2004" if you are enrolled in multiple course sites).

If you don't find "To" line filtering reliable, you can change the actual listserv options to include include the course ID in the subject line, then filter by subject.

To do this, Send a plain-text message to listserv@lists.princeton.edu with the following line in the body:

set <listname> SUBJ

For example,
POL542_S2003 SUBJ (You can list as many of these as you wish in the same e-mail.)

Disclaimer: Some information in this archive may have changed due to feature upgrades to the Blackboard software and/or new discoveries about the capabilities of Blackboard.