Scholar FAQs

Q1. What is Scholar?

Q2. Where do I start to use Scholar?

Q3. What is Bookmarking?

Q4. What is Tagging?

Q5. What is Bookmarklet?

Q6. Scholar Course Home vs. My Scholar Home?

Q7. Can I keep my scholar account after moving to an institution that does not have Blackboard?

Q8. How can I get an account in Scholar?

Q9. Internet Explorer doesn’t save the link bar setting where Scholar Bookmarklet is installed. What should I do?

Q10. What is Stream?

Q11. Can I migrate a Scholar Course Home from one course to another?

Q1. What is Scholar?

A1. Blackboard Scholar® is a social bookmarking service customized for education. Scholar makes it easier for users (instructors, students) to find relevant resources available on the web for courses and research. Comparing to other social bookmarking services like del.icio.us, Backflip, etc., Scholar is customized for educational use in Blackboard and offers the course-related services like Scholar Course Home.

Q2. Where do I start to use Scholar?

A2. You need to create a Scholar account first. See the instruction of how to use Scholar, Step 1: Create an account.

Q3. What is Bookmarking?

A3. See the definition of a bookmark at http://www.pcmag.com/encyclopedia_term/0,2542,t=bookmark&i=38828,00.asp

Q4. What is Tagging?

A4. Tags define a meaning of a resource (bookmark). With single words or short phrases (inside quotation marks), tags work as meta-data by which the resource can be classified certain ways and be searchable by others.

To read more about Tagging: A Cognitive Analysis of Tagging at http://www.rashmisinha.com/archives/05_09/tagging-cognitive.html

Q5. What is Bookmarklet?

A5. A bookmarklet is a small computer application used to store an URL of a web page. It makes bookmarking convenient on the browser. Blackboard Scholar also provides its bookmarklet tool available. To install Scholar Bookmarklet in your browser, click here to view the instruction of the installation.  

Q6. Scholar Course Home vs. My Scholar Home?

A6.

Scholar course home	my scholar home
Link to a course's homepage	Link to an individual user’s scholar homepage
Opened inside the Blackboard frame	Opened in a new window/tab
Register the course at the beginning	Create an account at the beginning
Instructor only administration	Individual user’s admin. only
Access through Blackboard only	Access through blackboard (single sign-on) or www.scholar.com (login required)
Can be viewed by registered course members only	Can be viewed by users in My Network (Friends, Favorites, Fans)

Q7. Can I keep my scholar account after moving to an institution that does not have Blackboard?

A7. Yes, once the users get their accounts through Blackboard, they keep the account. You would then access Scholar through www.scholar.com.

Q8. How can I get an account in Scholar?

A8. You must be a Blackboard user in order to obtain an account in Scholar. If you are a Blackboard user, click here to see the instruction of how to create a Scholar account.

Q9. Internet Explorer doesn't save the link bar setting where Scholar Bookmarklet is installed. What should I do?

A9. It happens only if you use lab computers. The lab setting doesn't keep the record in IE. Use Firefox instead.

Q10. What is Stream?

A10. A Stream is a quick view into the results from a set of saved search criteria in Scholar. It appears as a box with a list of bookmark titles. When you create your Scholar account, two default streams, All Bookmarks and My Bookmarks, are automatically added in you’re My Scholar Homepage. Check out the instruction of how to add/customize streams.

Q11. Can I migrate a Scholar Course Home from one course to another?

A11. A Scholar Course Home is a course specific and created when a course is registered with Scholar. A new Scholar Course Home needs to be set up with a designated course. However, the same collection of course specific bookmarks can be used in different Scholar Course Homes.

All search results are recorded in the Save Searches list. So, the bookmarks specified with a course tag will be searchable by a course tag. Click here to view the instruction of how to do custom search.