Blackboard - Student FAQs

Blackboard Learning Management System Enterprise Vista (Blackboard Vista) is a new learning management system that provides students and faculty the ability to fulfill all course goals and objectives within an online environment. This system offers tools and features that will enhance the capabilities of student/faculty engagement and interaction.

The Blackboard Vista web address is https://vista.alamo.edu

Access to your Blackboard Vista course is only through ACES.

For questions on logging into Blackboard Vista, you may contact Support Central at 210-485-0555, select option 4.

Yes, to contact Support Central you can call 210-485-0555. For out of town students please call 866-493-3947.

Although faculty are comonly the first point of contact, their responsibility is not to troubleshoot student technical issues. Students should contact Support Central at 210-485-0555. For questions regarding specific aspects of your course, please contact your instructor for further assistance.

Your first point of contact for any questions pertaining to a course or course material will be the instructor assigned to the course.

Yes, the Blackboard Vista Learning System will be available 24 hours a day 7 days a week. If you believe Blackboard Vista to be unavailable or are having trouble accessing the server at specific time of the day, please contact Support Central immediately at 210-485-0555 to report a system outage.

Yes. All online courses will use Blackboard Vista as the delivery platform. Some courses may still require that you access external websites for additional content, however, Blackboard will serve as your primary location for online courses.

This means that the instructor has not added any course content into the Blackboard Vista course. You will need to contact the instructor to find out additional information concerning the course.

When taking an online course, going to the campus to submit assignments is no longer necessary. Just log in to Blackboard Vista to view, print, and submit assignments, as well as discuss them with your classmates. Blackboard Vista also allows students to submit assignments in a variety of ways. Please follow the directions supplied by your instructor for further information.

As a student you will not be able to see your course in Blackboard Vista until one week before the start of the semester. In addition, all registration changes require a minimum of 2 business days to process. If your courses do not show after verifying the above, please contact Support Central at 210-485-0555.

ny time, day or night, you can access your class and participate online, as long as you have an Internet connection. Students usually need to log in 2-5 times each week, but there is no set class schedule so you can attend class anytime. You can expect to spend 6-9 hours each week per course.

Note: Students should refer to their instructor's syllabus or contact the instructor for further clarification.

Yes, each Blackboard Vista Course has a designated start and end date. Most courses run on a semester basis, lasting about 16 weeks. Instructors commonly notify students when the course will no longer be available.

Email: Students and instructors both have an internal email system that allows the exchange of email within the course itself.

Discussion Threads: Using the online Discussion Threads tool, you can track topical discussions or respond to questions posed by your instructor or classmates.

Quizzes/tests may have to be completed before a specific time. Quizzes/tests that appear as a blue link are available to you. However, if the quiz/test appears in plain black test, then it is not available to you. In this case, you will need to contact your instructor and make arrangements for taking the quiz/test.

To find out if your computer is properly configured to use Blackboard, click the Check Browser button located on the Blackboard Vista login page. https://vista.alamo.edu

If the My Computer icon does not appear in Blackboard Vista when trying to upload files from your PC, please perform the following steps:

To clear the Java Cache:

1. Click the Start button and open the Control Panel.
2. Click on the Java icon and open it.
3. Under Temporary Internet Files click Settings.
4. Under Disk Space choose the option to Delete Files.
5. Close all your windows and reopen Internet Explorer.
6. Access your Blackboard Vista account and attempt to browse your computer for files.

If the above does not work, please try the following:

1. Open Internet Explorer
2. Click Tools menu
3. Click Internet Options
4. Click Programs tab
5. Click the Manage Add-ons… button
6. From the Show drop down list select Add-ons that have been used by Internet Explorer
7. Find Sun Java Console from the list that displays. If more than one Sun Java Console programs are listed, then select the first Sun Java Console program listed and click the Disable button located on the bottom area of the screen. Then click OK, OK.
8. Close Internet Explorer and re-open it and try to upload an attachment.

If the above does not work, please try the following:

1. Go to http://www.Java.com
2. Click the Download now button.
3. Follow the Installation Instructions onscreen to install the software on your computer.

If you are still not seeing the My Computer icon, you may need to remove old versions of the Java software:

1. From the Start menu on your computer, go to the Control Panel.
2. Open Add or Remove Programs in Control Panel.
3. Click Change or Remove Programs, and then click J2SE Runtime Environment.
4. To remove the program, click Remove.