Blackboard Learn: Building and Editing the Course Menu
Office of Distance Education & Educational Technology
College of Human Sciences, Iowa State University
May, 2012
[ See more tips at http://www.hs.iastate.edu/tips ]
The Course Menu appears in the upper left side of a Blackboard class. The Course Menu gives structure to the course
and allows students to easily access class content and activities. The Instructor builds the Course Menu.
The Course Menu should be individualized to reflect the course content, course delivery method, and instructor
teaching style. When a new “blank” course is requested in Blackboard, it will come with default, which can all be
deleted or edited to suit the Instructor’s needs.
Creating a new Course Menu link
The Instructor (or Course Builder) adds a link in the Course Menu by
clicking the “+” sign in the top left corner of the Course Menu. Note that
Edit Mode must be “ON”. A list of 8 link types displays. Each has a
different purpose. The most commonly used have been underlined.

Content Area = Creates a folder type page on which one or more links
can be built that go to text block, files, activities, etc. Commonly used
to group course elements by week or topic, e.g., “Week 1”, “Week 2” ,
etc.

Module Page = Create a link to a module. A module is a linear
collection of content items and activities. It has a table of contents for
ease of navigation and is typically used to structure the course into learning “chunks”, e.g. Week 1, Week 2, etc.

Blank Page = Create a single web page using Blackboard’s built in web word processor. Can only be edited within
Blackboard. Coded in HTML using builtin editor. Not often used.

Tool Link = Create a link to one of the built-in course tools such as Discussions, Email, Calendar.

Web Link = Create a link to a web page outside of Blackboard, e.g. library web site.

Course Link = Creates a shortcut to an element accessible from the Course Menu. Normally course links are only
added to Content Area pages, not in the Course Menu itself.

Subheader = Creates a text label on the Course Menu. One way to visually subdivide the Course Menu.

Dividers = Creates a horizontal black line. Good way to visually separate items in the menu. For example, use to
separate general class information and tools from weekly content links.
Select the desired element to add, name it, then indicate whether
students should have immediate access to it.
In the Instructor’s view, course menu links that are unavailable to
students display with a gray box icon that has a slash through it.
Until a content area contains material, the menu link displays to the
Instructor with a gray hollow box icon.
If an element is set to be unavailable to Users OR has no content, the
student may or may not see the menu link depending upon which web
browser is used. However, students will not be able to access the link
even if it is visible.
Repositioning a Link
All new links appear at the bottom of the course menu. Hover over a link to make a
repositioning arrow icon appear in front of it (to the left of it). Reposition the link by
dragging the arrow icon up/down to the desired menu position.
Editing a Course Menu Link
Hover over a link to make a grey circle with a white V appear in after it.
Click this icon to change the link settings. You can rename the link, hide or
show it to students, permit or deny guest access, or delete it.
Customizing Course Menu Appearance
By default, the user can change how the course menu appears in the course.
It can be a text list, a folder list, or can be made to float separately on the
monitor. The menu display preference is selected by clicking the buttons to
the right of the plus sign.