Course Content and Design
Le Design
Copying course content from a previous course site into a current course site
Importing course content from an exported course package
Adding content to a course site
Moving items from one content area to another within a course site
A word on WYSIWG
Course and file size
Exporting a course / saving a back-up copy
Le Design
Blackboard allows for an instructor to be able to express a little of their artistic flair and exercise some personalization over a course site. Course sites are created on a basic template. By all means, leave the design to those who think they have an eye for color and use the simple yet perfectly coordinated templated design. If you are feeling adventurous, however, you can change the look and color of your course menu and add a course banner. To do this:
-
From the Control Panel click on Style under the Customization section
-
-
In Section 1, Select either Buttons or Text using the radio button
-
Also select the style and color properties for your course menu.
-
To add a banner that will display along the top of the Announcements page, scroll down to Section 5
-
-
Using the ‘Browse' feature select a picture or banner from your computer that you wish to display. N.B. Bb does not create banners for you, you're going to have to have some knowledge of creating them and some image editing software to manipulate the image. Also, if the image is too wide it won't fit into the browser window and if it is too "tall" the students will have to continuously scroll down to see content. No wider than 800 pixels and a height no greater than 150-200 pixels is a good place to start.
-
Click ‘Submit' to save
When selecting colors for your course menu please do consider those students who may have visual impairments - if you have trouble viewing the course text chances are your students will also. Select text color that shows up succinctly on the background color.
Copying course content from a previous course site into a current course site
If you "own" both the previous course site and the current course site then you can copy content from the old into the new. Please remember that Blackboard course sites are proprietary and therefore if you are copying someone else's content without permission you are in violation of copyright. If you wish to copy someone's old course site please create a Track-It! request as well as requesting the owner of the original course site to send an email to esherman@sf.edu (preferably with the work order # in the email) containing their
permission, confirming their approval to have the requestor of the Track-It! added as an
instructor to their old course sites, as well as the FULL COURSE ID. Any request or permission not containing the full course ID will not be fulfilled.
To copy content from an old course site into a new course site:
-
From the Control Panel of the previous (old) course site, click on Course Copy under Packages and Utilities.
-
In Section 1, select 'Copy Course Materials into an Existing Course'.
-
Enter the current course you wish to copy content into in the Destination Course ID field. It must be entered in the correct format for the process to work (e.g., COUR.101..01.2011.20).
-
In Section 2, check ONLY the items you wish to copy from the original course.
-
Make certain that you DO NOT SELECT ENROLLMENTS as this will copy old users into the new course site.
-
Click ‘Submit' and have patience.
The key with course copy is to remember to be in your OLD course site, the one that contains the content you wish to copy into the new course. The copy process can take a while, particularly if you are copying a course site with a lot of content or large multimedia files, so don't worry if you don't see everything in your new course straight away. When Bb has completed the process, you will be notified by Bb that the copy has been successful. If, after 24 hours however, you still don't see all of the content you indicated to copy please send an email to helpdesk@sf.edu so that the delay may be investigated. N.B. If you incorrectly chose to 'Copy Course Material into a New Course, in Section 1, you will still receive an email that indicates the copy has successfully taken place, but you won't see your content because you don't have the authority to create a "new" course. and even if Bb creates this "new" course for you, you haven't been assigned to it as the instructor. This is why you must ALWAYS copy into an existing course. It may be "new" to you, but the course shell must already exist, having been created by the Registrar's Office through Jenzabar.
Importing course content from an exported course package
You also have the option of importing course content from an old course, which has been saved or exported, into a new course.
-
From the Control Panel of your current course, click on 'Import Package/View Logs' under Packages and Utilities.
- Chose the blue button entitled 'Import Package'.
-
In Section 2, use the Browse feature to locate your exported zip file on your computer and chose that file.
-
-
In Section 4, select those course materials items you wish to upload into your course site.
-
Click 'Submit' and 'OK'.
See above regarding the length of time course content copy/import can take. Bb will send you an email once the process has been completed.
Adding content to a course site.
A good place to start is to think about what content area you wish to have in your course site. The content areas are now accessible soley through links in the course menu located on the far left-hand side of the course pages. To add or remove a content area, making sure you're in Edit Mode:ON, go to the blue-boxed addition symbol located in the upper-left-hand corner of the navigation menu.
Mousing over this symbol will give you a drop-down menu which has ''Create Content Area' as the first option. Click on this. Name the content area and make sure you check the box to make 'Available to Users' if you want students to immediately have access to it. N.B. If you remove a Content Area that contains content (files, folders, items, etc) it will also remove all of the content contained within that content area.
Once your course menu is set up with all of the content areas you desire, you can add content by going into your specified content area (Syllabus, Lectures, Assignments, etc), located in the Navigation menu. N.B. Even if you've checked the box to make the content area visible to users, Bb only makes visible those folders that actually contain conent. The moment you add content, even if it is only an item that says, "This is where I intend to place my future lectures," the folder will become visible to all users.
To add content use the icon menu and click on the following:
-
Create Item: Use this to add text or other files (e.g., Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Pdf) to your page.
-
Build: Use this button to build folders to organize your items, or create links to course material, external links, or create learning modules.
-
Evaluate: Use this to create tests and surverys, deploy created tests and surveys, or add Assignment or SafeAssignment links.
- Collaboration: Use this to add links to the multiple collaboration tools Bb employes, such as a link to a discussion board, group links, or the blog and journal features.
Please be aware that you can post most types of files extensions into Blackboard however your audience must have the ability to read the file extension. If your students are having problems opening or viewing files that you have added to your course site make sure that they have the relevant program installed on their computer to view/open the document. There are a number of free applications/plug-ins that students can download in order to view/open documents. Students may also be reminded that they can purchase Microsoft Office products at hugely discounted prices from the University Campus Shop.
-
RealPlayer (Windows & Mac)
-
Microsoft Excel Viewer (Windows)
-
Microsoft PowerPoint Viewer (Windows)
-
Microsoft Word Viewer (Windows)
If you're finding that your students are still having problems viewing files, even though they have the appropriate program installed on their computer, you can also .zip the files and upload them to your Bb course site. This has been a successful work around for instructors that have been having problems with Quark files not tranlating well through Bb.
Moving items from one content area to another within a course site
Imagine you just added all your course items, Word documents, PowerPoints, podcasts and now you realise that you've put them all in the wrong content area. Fret not! Blackboard easily allows you to copy and/or move content to another content area.
-
In Edit Mode:ON, go to the content area that contains the items you wish to move.
-
Click on the Action Menu (the chevron button to the left of the item's name) and chose ‘Copy' from the drop-down list.
-
In Section 2, click ‘Browse' to select the folder where the item should be moved to.
-
Select the ‘Yes' radio button after ‘Remove item after copy' if you want the item deleted from its original location.
-
Click ‘Submit'
A word on WYSIWYG
The WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) editor appears with a menu that looks like that of a Microsoft Word document. You can type your text into it and format it. You can also copy a Word document and paste it right into the text box and it will stay formatted. This interface works with all of the most popular browsers but they must be an updated version. Bb9 will not work with IE6. If you using IE you must have at least IE 7 and if you use Firefox it is recommended to be updated to at least version 3.
If you create a test that uses an essay question, some text at the end of the instructions has been known to be covered up by the "Visual Editor:ON" tab. The way students can get around this problem is to adjust their browser window size, as all content text is wraparound, or to collapse the Navigation Menu by using the 'less than' button located between the Navigation Menu and the Content window. This will hide the Navigation menu and create more 'real estate' for the text. A student needs only remember to expand the Navigation Menu after she is done taking the test.
Course and File size
There is currently no limitation on the size or space used for a USF Blackboard course site, nor for files being added. However, it is recommended that if you are adding large files, over 40 MB, you either compress them or add them in a zipped format. If you don't want to purchase WinZip there are a few free options available for download:
Exporting a course / saving a back-up copy.
Saving a copy of your Blackboard course site is not only helpful for use in future course sites but is critical for data maintenance and integrity. A Blackboard course site is proprietary; it only makes sense that you should ‘own’ a back-up of it too. Be responsible for all the hard work you put into a course site. Be safe and save it!
The best time to export a course site, (and you can actually export a course site as many times as you wish, at any time) is at the end of semester when it is fully loaded with all the content, and you have the settings just so and the course site is ‘complete’.
To export a course site:
- From the Control Panel click on ‘Export/Archive Course’ under the 'Package and Utilities' section.
- Click on the ‘Export’ icon.
- In Section 3, check every item listed under Select Course Materials.
- Click ‘Submit’ and ‘OK’.
- You may need to come out of the Export/Archive area and go back in. The export process can take a few seconds. You'll receive an email when the process has been completed by Bb.
- Once the export package is complete you’ll see something that looks like this ExportFile_BBAdvancedCourse_20070607105233.zip
- Right click on the file and select ‘Save Target As’.
- Select where you wish to save the compressed file. If you save it to your hard or network drive I also recommend saving a copy on a CD or flash drive. Rename it if you want but remember you’ll want to identify easily so include at least the course prefix, i.e. Engl10101 and the semester you taught it, 2010Fall. Click ‘Save’.
- That’s it! You have a complete saved copy of your Blackboard course site.
- Once you've saved it to your computer you can, but don't have to, delete that .zip file from the Export/Archive area.
The nice thing about having an exported copy of your Blackboard course site is that you can then easily import it, or parts of it, into a new course.
