Blackboard
Getting Started

If you are taking an online, blended or enhanced course from East Central University, it will be taught using Blackboard. In order to access the course, you will need your campus user-name and password. If you already know these two items, skip down to the How to Log-on to Blackboard section.

NOTE: The ECU web-pages are updated and changed occasionally, so you may need to look around on the page to find the links referred to below. The general process will remain the same.

How to obtain your campus user-name and password

  1. Go to the ECU Home Page (www.ecok.edu)
  2. Click on Current Students
  3. Click on the Password Reset link
  4. Enter your Social Security number and Birthdate and click the Reset Pass button
  5. A screen will be displayed showing your campus user-name and password

Click here to watch a flash movie on how to reset your password (opens in a new window, close the window to return to this page)

How to Log-in to Blackboard

  1. Go to the East Central University Home Page (www.ecok.edu)
  2. Click on Current Students
  3. Click on Blackboard in the drop down menu or on the Current Students page
  4. Click on Blackboard login --a new browser will open
    (Hint: Create a bookmark or favorite for this page and use it to get to this page the next time you log-in)
  5. Click on the Log In button
  6. Enter your User Name and Password then click OK 

Click here to watch a flash movie on how to log-in in to Blackboard, checking your browser and turning off pop-up blockers. (opens in a new window, close the window to return to this page)

Check Your Browser

Don't skip this step—your browser must be configured properly in order to work with Blackboard. Once your browser is configured properly, you should not have to repeat this process unless you are experiencing problems.

  1. Click on Check Browser  (upper right)
  2. An automatic browser check dialog box will open and test your browser settings
  3. If you have a green checkmark for each section, then your browser is configured properly—if not, use the link at the bottom of the browser check to complete a browser tune-up.

The two items which cause the most problems are pop-up blockers and java. Pop-up blockers must either be turned off or set to allow pop-ups from the Blackboard. Blackboard uses pop-ups to open new windows and will not work properly if pop-up windows are blocked. It is not uncommon to have more than one pop-up blocker such as the one in Microsoft Internet Explorer and one in a special tool bar like the Google or Yahoo toolbar.

Java has to be installed and working properly. You can have problems even if the automatic browser check says everything is OK--if you have more than one version of Java on your computer. When Java updates it does not remove the old version, so it is possible to have multiple versions of Java on your computer. If you suspect this is the problem, use the following steps to correct the problem.

  1. These steps are for Windows XP and will be similar for other versions of Windows--for specific directions for other versions, go to: http://www.webct.com/tuneup/viewpage?name=tuneup_browser_troubleshoot and follow the link for Sun Java Runtime Environment Errors
  2. Click on the Start button and go to the Control Panel (may be listed under Settings)
  3. Switch to the Classic View if you are not already in the classic view
  4. Double click the Java icon to open the Java Control Panel
  5. Click on the Java tab
  6. Click the bottom View button (under Java Application Runtime Settings)
  7. If more than one version of Java is listed, click to uncheck all but the most recent (version with the highest number) then click OK
  8. Click OK again to close the Java Control Panel
  9. Now, Close all your open browsers then open a browser and check to see if this fixed the problem
  10. Once Java is working correctly, use the above steps to return to the Java Control Panel
  11. Click on the Update tab and uncheck "Check for updates automatically" this will keep a future update from causing you problems, however you can return here and manually check for updates if you want to at a future date

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