Integrate your website with your mobile communications

When used together Blackboard's Web Community Manager (WCM), Mobile Communications App (MCA), Mass Notifications System, and Social Media Management (SMM) tools take your communications to the next level. This is the Community Engagement Solution.

More on the Community Engagement Solution


Universal navigation bar

Simplify the process of managing multiple systems. After you connect your WCM account with your Community Engagement account you can move between your Site Manager and your communication management center without needing to login in again. Write a blog post, monitor your social media networks, update your apps, and send out important information all in just minutes. Without needing to remember multiple urls and logins.

Select the checkerboard menu to move between Site Manager and the communications management center.


Enable the universal navigation bar and set permissions

Ask your Blackboard representative to help you integrate your website with your communication programs and enable your universal navigation bar.

In order for District Administrators, School Administrators, and/or Principals to use single sign-on capabilities, accounts must be given permission in both admin systems. For example, allowing principals to send messages to users at their schools and to edit the homepage of the website.

  1. Review the roles that exist in your Bb Communications interface. Your Blackboard representative can assist with providing the universal navigation bar permission to a specific role or roles that you indicate.

    More on managing Community Engagement user accounts

  2. Review your user Passports in Site Manager. Users need the extended privilege View Universal Navigation Bar to use the bar.

    More on Passports and extended privileges

  3. Review the site directors and homepage editors for each of your sites. Only users with permissions in both systems and editorial access to at least one site can post news messages from the universal navigation bar. Site Directors at the district level have the ability to create a news message and post it to any subsite homepage in addition to posting to the On-Screen Alerts pop-up window.

    More on editorial roles and privileges


Create and send messages

Depending on the features your district or school subscribes to, you can create the message once, and publish everywhere, including text, phone, email, social media, and your website.

  1. Access the Messages page.
    • In Site Manager select Create Message from the Universal Navigation bar.
    • From the Blackboard Communications HQ interface, select Messages and select Send.
  2. Add your message to the template.
  3. Select the delivery option.

    What your district and school subscribes to determines the delivery options available in your Send Message interface. If you subscribe to all the products available in the Community Engagement solution — Blackboard Mass Notifications, Blackboard Mobile Communications app, Blackboard Social Media Manager, and Blackboard Web Community Manager — you can access any of the features. To learn more see Create Once, Publish Everywhere (COPE).

  4. Select Send.

Website delivery option

If you select the website delivery option, select Headlines & Announcements. Select the district and/or school websites that will show the message. If posting to the Headlines app, select the camera icon to attach an image. This displays as the accent image on the website headline. Posting to the Announcements app appears as text only.

If you don't see any sites listed, contact your administrator.

On-screen alert delivery option

An alert appears on every screen of your website. The alert expires midnight the day you posted the alert. From Bb Communications select Reports and Message Tracking to cancel the alert sooner. From Site Manager select SITES & CHANNELS, Tools, and On-Screen Alerts to edit or extend the display time of the alert.

More on on-screen alerts


Unlink your accounts

Remove the link between your user accounts in the communications management center.

  1. From Bb Communications select Account.
  2. Select the linked account.
  3. Select Remove Link.

Integrated dashboard

Bb Communications

If you are integrated with the Community Engagement solution, your parent and student accounts can see their alerts and messages in the site dashboard Notifications. If your district licenses Student Data integration, parents or guardians also see their children’s student profiles, which include assignments, attendance, grades and cafeteria balance information.

  • All school messages — emails, text messages, phone messages, and app messages — are in the Inbox.
  • All alerts — low assignment score, cafeteria balance, class grade update, assignment graded, and missing assignment — are in Alerts.

If you want parents and students to take advantage of the integration with your Community Engagement solution, you need to activate them.

  1. From Site Manager select USERS & GROUPS.
  2. Select Settings.
  3. Select Bb Communications.
  4. Select Inactive to activate the parent and student user roles.