Content Areas

FAQs

Adding Content to Your Course

There are two steps to creating a course in Blackboard. Step one is organizing your course materials. Step two is uploading those materials to your Blackboard site. The more time you spend on step one, the easier step two will be. In addition, the more organized your materials are, the easier it will be for your students to find them on your course site.

1. Organize Your Materials
• Gather your course materials and content in a central location. Include items such as the syllabus, handouts, slide shows, lecture notes, projects, assignments, quizzes and discussion topics
• If you do not already have these saved as electronic files, do so now
• Determine which files you want the students to be able to read on screen, and which need to be downloaded
• Save the files that are to be viewed on screen as HTML (from within their originating program)
• Decide where everything is going to go within the course site. Remember that creating folders will help you organize your materials so your students can easily find them. We recommend that all non-content related materials (like your syllabus) be placed in the Course Information section and that course content be placed in the Course Documents section
2. Set up the Course Options
• The Course Options section is where you can modify the buttons, security, and overall look of your course site
3. Add Faculty Information
   • Enter the Faculty Information page editor (from the Control Panel) and create an entry for yourself. If you have a picture of yourself, include that too!
   • Remember to size your photo before you upload it. The recommended size is 150 x 150 pixels
   • Create additional entries for teaching assistants, graduate assistants, guest speakers or other course staff members
4. Add Your Course Materials
• Create folders and upload documents
• Start with the Course Information section. Enter your syllabus, and any other course information that is not content related. Remember to break long documents into separate files. This will make it easier for your students to find information and also for you or change or update documents
• Enter all the content materials (lecture notes, readings, slide presentations, etc.) into the of the content areas You may create additional content areas for more organization if desired. This is a good place to use folders. Create a folder for the different types of materials (lecture notes, slides, graphs, etc.) then add new documents within those folders. Remember: to add information to a folder click on the underlined name of the folder from within the Page Editors
• Remember you can continue to add materials and documents throughout the semester
5. Create an Introductory Announcement
• Post an introductory message in the announcements area. Welcome the students to your course, direct them to the Course Information area to obtain the syllabus, and indicate the location of the first class assignment or reading
• Announcements are listed on the front page of your course site for one week, then they are stored in folders available on the main page. When you create the announcement, you can also choose to have it display throughout the entire semester
• The Announcements page is always the first thing your students will see. Use this area to post timely or critical information or changes to your course schedule or assignments
6. Set up Discussion Boards
• The Discussion Board can be used in a variety of ways. It can be used as a place for students to connect with each other, share ideas, concerns and questions about assignments and readings, or it can be used as a place for focused discussions about course materials and projects. Blackboard allows the instructor to set up a number of discussion forums within each course, so you can use it for as many purposes as you would like. At first your students may be slow to use the discussion forum, but if you include it as a course requirement, or just make the topics interesting and thought provoking, it can become a focal point of your course
• Here is an example to get started: post an introductory assignment. Ask each student to write one to three paragraphs explaining who they are and why they took your course. Require students to read entries from other students. This is the first step in creating an "online community" for your course
• Plan on adding one new topic to the discussion board each week. Make sure this topic requires students to formulate an answer and back it up with facts to demonstrate their understanding
• Monitor and respond to student threads and encourage students to do the same
7. Add External Links
• The Internet and World Wide Web are huge repositories of information, but unfortunately the majority of the information is unmonitored. Use the External Links section to post Internet resources that you have reviewed and approve of
• You could also locate a number of external websites that relate to information you are teaching. Place these in the External Links area and recommend students explore these sites on "virtual fieldtrips"
• Another way to use the section is to structure an assignment that incorporates researching and reporting information from these fieldtrips
8. Preview your Course
• Preview course materials by checking each link, proofreading descriptions, and viewing the course from a student perspective
• Ask a colleague or teaching assistant to preview the course as well. They may notice something that you missed. The goal is to create a course where students can easily find the information they need
9. Introduce Blackboard to Your Students
• Although many students used Blackboard last semester at EITC, you should introduce it to your students at the start of each semester.

Frequently Asked Questions

What kind of files can I upload to Blackboard?

For example, if you upload a PowerPoint document (as a .ppt or .pps), your students will have to download the file and then open it in Powerpoint or the PowerPoint viewer. This is also the same for media files. If you upload an Excel spreadsheet, your students must have Excel to view the file.

However, if you save your files as HTML and then upload them to Blackboard, the students can view the documents directly on screen from within Blackboard. This is preferable for course information and materials, but there may also be times where you would want to upload files for download. These include when giving students a template or form that they will need to print out or modify. In those cases, leaving the document in its original form would be preferable.

Note: Because Blackboard is cross platform (works on Macs and PC's) and also cross browser (Netscape and Internet Explorer) any file you wish to upload, whether it is for download or on screen viewing, must have a three or four letter file extension (such as ".doc" or ".html") which designates its type. The PC will automatically add the extension for you, but the Mac will not, so Mac users must manually add the extension to all documents.

Are files uploaded to Blackboard automatically checked for viruses?

How should I save my graphics?

It is important to remember that Blackboard will upload all graphics in their original size. Make sure that you have sized and saved your graphics in an appropriate size for your course site. There are recommended sizes shown in the Page Editors when uploading course banners and staff photos.

How fast (or slow) will my files be downloaded?

If you cannot keep the file size down, an alternative is to provide the student with information describing what the file is and why it is important. Often, simply letting a student know that the download may take longer than usual will diffuse any frustration associated with the long process.

Use this chart as a reference when determining the download times for files:

Keep in mind that times will vary based on Internet traffic and connection speed.

Additional Tips:

• Use the smallest possible graphics and sound files.
  Technical example: 8-bit graphics display and animate more quickly and occupy less memory than 24-bit graphics, which are three times larger.
• Breakup the file into smaller files and have students download it piece by piece.
• Compress the files. A compressed file is a little larger than half the size of the original version. Compressed files must be decompressed before you can run them.