Harmonize is a discussion tool integrated with Blackboard that allows students to communicate, interact, and engage more easily with one another. Harmonize takes the Blackboard discussion board to the next level by allowing tagging, easy embedding of multimedia, image and video feedback, and milestones to help faculty and students keep track of their own engagement.

Engaging in Discussions

Create a Post

Select "Create post..." to start creating a post inline.
Enter the Subject of your post.
Using the rich text editor, enter a Description.
Using the icons at the bottom of the post, add additional content such as rich text, media files, embedded links from the web, code snippets and recorded audio or video directly from your device.
Click Preview to see how others will view your post.
When you are done, select Publish and your post will be visible to all users in your course.
1. Delete will remove your post.
2. Save & Collapse will save a draft of your post so you can return to it later to complete.

Tracking Your Progress

Milestones allow you to track multiple participation requirements within a single discussion. If your instructor has enabled milestones, you will see a progress bar at the top of Harmonize discussion indicating which type of engagement you need to complete for this activity. A post is an independent post or thread, and a comment is a reply to another student's post.

A solid green bar shows how much progress a student has made on a milestone.
A green checkmark appears next to milestones that have been completed.
Counts for Posts, Comments & Replies and Responses Received show the student's contribution to the discussion and reactions from others in the discussion respectively.

A solid red bar shows how much of milestone progress was completed after the milestone due date.
A red checkmark shows which milestones were completed after the milestone due date.
A red attention icon shows which milestones are incomplete and overdue.

Organizing and Sorting Posts

There are two different display options, Grid and List View

Grid View

Displays the posts as cards. The front of the card shows the cover image, if no cover image was used, then the user's avatar will be displayed.
Clicking on a card displays the details of the post.

List View

Displays the post as a list, where the user can scroll through the posts.

If you have read earlier comments they will appear in the X earlier comments. Clicking on it will display earlier comments.
Default, the list view shows the most recent two comments

Sorting Posts

You may sort posts using the "Sort By" menu. The display of posts will be ordered based on your selection.

My Posts & Comments: Displays your posts and comments at the top.
Oldest: Shows all posts in chronological order - oldest first. (default view)
Most Recent: Shows all posts in chronological order - newest first.
New / Unread: New and unread posts display first.
Flagged: Displays flagged topics first.
Instructor: Displays the instructor's posts at the top.
Name: Sorts alphabetically by last name.

Grades and Feedback

In Original Course View, grades and feedback can be viewed by going to the My Grades and selecting the feedback button next to your posted grade. The feedback will display as a pop-up.

In Ultra Course View, grades can be viewed by going to the Gradebook. To view feedback:

Option 1: Open the Assignment Link. Before clicking launch, you should see your grade and any instructor feedback.
Option 2: From the Base Navigation (outside of the course), visit the Activity Stream and any feedback will be displayed under the grade activity.

Information Technology Services Knowledge Base

Harmonize Student Guide