You should first confirm that your professor sent you an email via Blackboard. There is an option to use an internal messaging service called Blackboard Messages, which allows you to send email copies as well. Blackboard provides instructions for how to access Messages.
If you know that the professor did indeed send an email, see below for troubleshooting inside Outlook or Office 365 email.
Focused Inbox in Office 365 Email separates your inbox into two tabs—Focused and Other. Your most important email messages are on the Focused tab while the rest remain easily accessible—but out of the way—on the Other tab. However, some faculty and students have reported that important messages have gone into the Other tab, which they do not typically look at.
BSU has an inbox rule to ensure Blackboard emails to go to the main Focused Inbox, but over time Microsoft can override that if the emails messages from Blackboard are unread. Microsoft analyzes your mailbox to see what is read and unread and moves messages to "other" based on reading habits and user preferences. It is important to note that even with the Blackboard rule, if you do not click and read email messages coming from Blackboard, Outlook will override this rule after some length of time and move these messages to "Other". If this happens, you need to do these steps:
To change your preference so Blackboard emails continue to show in your Focused Inbox:
- In the full desktop version of Outlook, right-click on the message and select Always Move to Focused
(If you are using an older version, right-click on the message and select Move > Always Move to Focused)
- In the web version of Outlook (office 365), right-click on the message and select Move > Always Move to Focused inbox
- You can then test the above steps by sending yourself an email from Blackboard to ensure the changes are correct.
If you would prefer to view all incoming messages in one Inbox location, consider turning off Focused Inbox using these steps:
Desktop version of Outlook:
- Log into your Office 365 email
- Select the View tab.
- Select Show Focused Inbox.
- The Focused and Other tabs will disappear from the top of your mailbox.
Web-based version of Outlook:
- Log into your Office 365 email
- At the top of the page, click the Settings icon.
- In the Settings window, under the Focused Inbox heading, click “Don’t sort my messages”.
- Click the Save button.
Blackboard Ultra notification settings: In Blackboard Ultra, students can control how they receive notifications for course messages. They can choose to receive email notifications or view them directly in Blackboard. Instructors may want to remind students to check their notification settings to ensure they are receiving emails as intended.