Online Course Checklist

Please use the following checklist as a guide as you prepare your Blackboard course site.  If you need any assistance with your course site, please contact us. My Technology: My computer is at least 3-years-old or newer and meets the recommended hardware specifications. I have the latest version of Microsoft Office and virus scanning software [...]

Should You Teach Online? – Inside Higher Ed

Should You Teach Online? – Inside Higher Ed  This article walks the reader through a series of questions to help evaluate whether or not teaching online is a good fit.

Making Your Course Available to Students

Watch a demonstration about how to make your course site available to students. By default, course sites are unavailable to students.  Once you have added content and are ready to have students view your course: Log into your course site. Under the Control Panel, choose Customization > Properties. Under Section 3 Set Availability, choose Yes. [...]

Understanding How Courses Are Named

The following naming convention is used to identify courses: quarter status, academic year & quarter, CRN, name of course Quarter status is identified by the following: C = Current quarter F = Future quarter P = Past quarter Z or no letter = The course is not tied to a specific course in Banner This [...]

Adding the Announcements Area to the Navigation Menu and Making It the Course Entry Point

Typically when one enters a course site, the Announcements or Home Page area is the course entry point, meaning the first screen to appear.  However, you may change the course entry point.  The most commonly added and set entry point is the Announcements page. To add the Announcements area to your navigation menu: Log into [...]

Adding, Hiding, or Renaming Areas in Your Course Navigation Menu

Instructors may modify how a course navigation menu appears.  For example, if an instructor did not plan to use the Groups area, the instructor could choose to hide that link so that it did not appear in the navigation menu for students. To add a menu item, log into your course site and click the [...]

Viewing Your Course Roster via the Control Panel (as an Instructor or TA)

Watch a demonstration about how to view your course roster. In the newest version of Blackboard, instructors may view their roster using the following simple process: Log into your course site. Under the Control Panel, click Users and Groups > Users.  Your roster should automatically appear. If your roster does not automatically appear, 1) set [...]

Adding a New Announcement

Watch a demonstration about how to add an announcement. The Announcements page is typically the first area your students will see when they log into an online course. As such, this is an ideal place to post time-sensitive material. If the Announcements page is not listed in your navigation menu, you can add that area [...]

Using Folders to Organize Your Content

Watch a demonstration about how to add a folder to organize content. Documents posted in an online course need to be organized so that students can quickly find what they are looking for.  Using folders within your course site to group your documents is beneficial, especially if you post many documents.  It is often appropriate [...]

Adding Documents

Watch a demonstration about how to add documents to your course site. You can post a variety of document types to your course site, including Microsoft Office documents (i.e. Word, PowerPoint, Excel) and Acrobat PDF files. Note: If your Word document has unusual fonts or special characters, you may want to post it as an [...]