Posting Information In Blackboard
** If you would like a printable version of this page, you can download the pdf file.
When you log into Blackboard, you will see the Welcome Screen (My Institution Page):
Look to the right side of the screen under My Courses for the course that you would like to add information to. You should see the course listed under Courses you are teaching
Click on the course that you would like to work on.
Posting information to your site
Once you click on your site, your screen will change and you will see a menu on the left side of the screen similar to this:
Every time you want to post information to your site you must open up the Control Panel. Do not worry, students do not have this button! The only people who have access to this area are those who are enrolled in the course as: Instructors, TA’s, Course Builder or Grader.
Click on Control Panel
Once you click on the Control Panel option, your screen should
look like this:
If you would like to post an announcement for your class, click on the Announcements link under Course Tools
Once you click on the Announcements link, Click the Add Announcement button and your screen should now look like:
What are all of these options?
Subject of your announcement – try to make it something that attracts their attention as this is the first thing students will see about your course on the My Institution page
WYSIWIG Editor – if you are using a Windows machine, you should see the WYSIWIG editor which works similar to Microsoft Word. Unfortunately, this feature is currently not available for MAC users. If you would like to use html tags, you need to click the html button and type in the box that appears.
Message – Try to keep it short, the longer the message is the less likely they are to read it. If you want to tell them about an event, your better off typing in the website address or posting the flyer under documents
If you choose to Always show the announcement on the courses main page, here are the advantages/disadvantage:
Advantage
- Always there, it will not retire after 7 days to the “View Last 30 days and View All” folders
Disadvantages
- Always there, students will ignore it after a while
- There is no way to sort announcements
- The date of the announcement is not posted, therefore, students have no idea when it was posted. If you choose this option, we recommend that you put the date on the subject line
Dates to display – by choosing dates you will be able to control when students can see information and when it will disappear.
Browse allows you to link to a different part of your course. This is a new feature and quite useful as it creates a direct link to a specific item so that your students do not get lost in your site!
How does the Course Link feature work in Announcements?
To use this feature, click the browse button, and the course map will appear.
Click on the circle next to the option that you would like to link to.
If you have documents posted within those areas, you can click the + sign next to the area and link directly to the document. – See the section of this document titled “Posting Content”
Once you are done choosing what you would like to link to, click Submit
Press Submit when you are done with the Announcement
To view the announcement the way the students will, click your
Course Title on the Navigation bar at the top of your Control Panel, it will
look similar to this: 
So if I wanted to see the class the way my students do, I would click “CEI 511.31 Modern Communications: Tech” on the Navigation bar.
Click on in your Control Panel and look in the Content Areas section, located in the Top Left corner.
The first question is, what would you like to create?
To add a file that is saved on your Computer, choose: Item
Your screen will change and look like this:
Step 1 – Name: You can either Choose a Name from the drop down menu, or type in your own title underneath it. If you type something in the box, the system ignores the selection in the drop down menu.
Step 2 – Text: If you have information you’d like the students see, type it here
Step 3 – File to Attach: If you have files that you would like to attach, click Browse to attach the file
Step 4 – Name of Link to File: it’s up to you what you type here. Some suggestions are:
Step 5 – Special Actions:
Step 6 – Options:
Step 7 – Submit:
Once you are done, press the submit button. Once you press submit,
you should receive a Content Receipt. Press OK to return to the Control Panel
How Do I add a Link to an External Website?
To Add a Link to a Journal article that is on the Internet or to a web page, choose: “External Link”
Your screen will look like this:
Section 1:
Type in the title of the Journal or the Article if you are linking directly to it
In the URL Field, you need to enter in the full URL (Internet Address), including the http://
You have two options:
Description: If you want to put in a description explaining to the students what the resource is, you may do so here.
Section 3:
Launch item in external window?
Press Submit!
Add A Link to another part of your Course
Blackboard allows you to create links within your course. This is a great way to help students find information on your site.
For example, let's say you posted a document and an assignment for your students. The document is located in Course documents and the assignment is posted in the Assignment section. It would be easier for your students to navigate your course if you created a Course Link underneath the Document that linked to the assignment.
Before using this feature, we recommend that you first add the items to the various areas of your course.
Then, click in the appropriate Content Area and choose Add Course Link. You will need to use the Browse feature to link to the appropriate section or item.
To use this feature, click the browse button, and the course map will appear.
Click on the circle next to the option that you would like to link to.
If you have documents posted within those areas, you can click the + sign next to the area and link directly to the document. – See the section of this document titled “Posting Content”
Once you are done choosing what you would like to link to, click Submit
Copying Content from one course to another
You may copy content from one Blackboard course to another. There are 2 different ways to do so . .
You can either copy:
1. To copy a specific item to a different course. **
Go into the course where the item is that you want to copy. Next to the item, you'll see three options: Modify, Copy, Remove
Click copy and choose which course you want to copy the item to.
Please Note - Assignments created via the Assignment manager do not copy over correctly. We recommend that you recreate assignments!
2. To copy an entire area **
Control Panel -> Copy Course -> select the area(s) then select the course that you would like to copy the areas to.
Please Note - Assignments created via the Assignment manager do not copy over correctly. We recommend that you recreate assignments!
Only content areas are transferred, such as the area where your syllabus is posted or assignments.
We do not recommend that you copy over the Discussion Forums, as this copies not only the content, but also all student posts. It is more efficient to create the forums each term.