Instroduction
- Teachers often wonder how they can create a supportive learning environment on Blackboard.
- This article will introduce features in Blackboard which you can use to create a supportive e-learning environment and engage students starting from the very beginning of the term.
Course Entry Point
The welcome page introduces the course, the teacher, and TA. Students can grasp the basic information at a glance once logged in the course. 
For more:
- Blackboard Help: Create Content (Types of Course Content)
- Blackboard Help: Design your course entry point
Discussion Board
You could set up space for students to introduce themselves and know each other. You could then have a better understanding of your students (e.g. their background knowledge, the reason why they take the course, etc.) 
For more:
Announcements
You could welcome your students and let them know that it is time to take part in the online activities (e.g. the self-introduction forum, go through the video and documents before class) using Announcement. You can also send a copy of the announcement as an email to all course members.
Some teachers set the Announcement page as the Course Entry Point.
For more:
- Blackboard Help: Announcements
- Blackboard Help: Design your course entry point
Groups
You would like to set up groups for students to discuss and collaborate with their groupmates. 
For more: Blackboard Help: Create Groups
Web conferencing
You would also like to schedule real-time web conferencing sessions for Q&A or discussions with students.
The following tools are available at CUHK: