Course Options

Manage Course | Manage Tools | Settings | Course Copy | FAQs

Step-by-Step Guides

The guides listed below provide Step-by-Step instructions on each specific function. Also included in the guides is a short explanation of the feature and a series of Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ's).

The Course Options section is where you adjust the administrative features of your course, including the navigation style, the course name and what tools and features you make available for students.

Manage Course Menu

The Manage Course Menu feature is new to Blackboard Version 6. It offers instructors more flexibility in how they structure their class sites. In this area, you can add or remove navigation buttons, and change the names and order of the buttons.

Manage Tools

The Manage Tools area is where you decide which of the Student Tools provided with Blackboard you use in your course. Tool availability may be set differently in each of your courses. For example, you may enable the Digital Dropbox in one course, but not another.

Settings

The Settings area is where you make your course available, update the title, decide if you want buttons or text for course navigation, and upload a banner. Once you make the changes to this section, you will not need to change them.

Course Availability

This is where you make your course available, or visible to students. Courses are created with the setting of available. If you are not ready for students to access your course site, go to the Control Panel, Course Settings, and make the course unavailable.

Personalizing Your Course

The name of your course will be listed in the Course Name field. The course name is created with information from the Registrar's office. It is the official course name of your Blackboard course as listed in the college catalog.

Many students have two, three or even four of their courses in Blackboard. Adding a banner and changing the look and text of the buttons is a way that you can make your course visually different from other courses. Course banners are graphics that you create and upload to your Announcements page. A course banner is a graphic that you place at the top of your Announcements page and usually contains the course name and/or number and may also contain an image or design.

To create a course banner, you could use a graphics program like PhotoShop or you could scan in an image that you created somewhere else. You can also use free online banner generators that will create the .gif for you. Here are some to try:

You can always remove the banner using the Remove Course Banner section. The suggested size for a course banner is 450 x 90 pixels and it should be saved as a .gif or a .jpg file depending on the type of images in the banner.

Course Entry Point

Blackboard traditionally opens each course site at the Announcements page. This forces students to view the announcements. Instructors have the option of having their course site open to another section of Blackboard (any button area). This is a nice feature if you are using Blackboard specifically for the Discussion Board or Group pages. However, if you intend to use the Announcements feature, we recommend that you DO NOT change the Entry Point. Students will notice the announcements if they are first thing they see. However they will probably not seek them out if it requires that they click somewhere to find them.

Course Copy

This feature is used to copy content from the course you are working in, to any other course where you are listed as an instructor. You can copy the entire course content or specific areas based on your course organization. Content can only be copied to one course at a time.

More Information:

How private is my course site?
Blackboard is set up to only allow students on your official roster access to your course. If instructors request, the System Administrator can add additional users to the course. For example, colleagues, visiting professors or students who are completing incompletes or audting a course. All users in the Blackboard system must be a part of the EITC community.

I used be able to set the Enrollment Options. Why has this changed?
Students are automatically enrolled in the Blackboard system. Instructors do not have to worry about students finding and enrolling in their courses.

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