Blackboard Learn Quick Start Guide
The purpose of this guide is to help faculty members set up a basic Blackboard course to get started at
the beginning of an academic term, but is not meant to be a substitute for the recommended
Blackboard Learn Essentials training. We urge you to find the time to attend a scheduled training
session. Please see http://sites.macewan.ca/bbsupport/blackboard-learn-training/bb-learn-essentials to
view the training schedule.
Table of Contents
Access Your Blackboard Learn Course .................................................................................................................2 Log in to Blackboard Learn .............................................................................................................................2 If you can’t see your Blackboard course… ...................................................................................................2 Building a Basic Blackboard Course ......................................................................................................................2 1. Managing Items in Your Course Menu ..........................................................................................................2 Option 1 - Add a “Ready-made” Set of Course Menu Items .....................................................................3 Option 2 - Manually Add, Delete, Rename and Move Course Menu Items .............................................4 Adding Menu items ......................................................................................................................................4 Removing Menu Items ..................................................................................................................................4 Renaming Menu Items .................................................................................................................................4 Moving Menu Items ......................................................................................................................................4 2. Add content to the course .............................................................................................................................5 Make sure you have a Content Area ........................................................................................................5 Add Files to Your Content Area ..................................................................................................................5 3. Add your contact information .......................................................................................................................5 How to add a Contact tool ............................................................................................................................5 Add Your Contact Information .......................................................................................................................5 4. Make the course available to the students ..................................................................................................6 5. Add a Test Student to your course .................................................................................................................6 Got questions? .........................................................................................................................................................7 December, 2014
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Access Your Blackboard Learn Course Courses are automatically created in Blackboard Learn 90 days before the course start date.
Log in to Blackboard Learn 1. Using an internet browser, navigate to https://www.macewan.ca and click on myPortal login.
2. Log in with your MacEwan Network ID and Password.
3. Click on Blackboard in the left hand LaunchPad or Distance and Online Learning on the top menu.
4. The Distance and Online Learning page will appear.
5. Click on Access Blackboard Learn button.
6. Select the course from My Courses module.
If you can’t see your Blackboard course… If you can’t see your course in Blackboard, you may not yet be enrolled as an instructor for this course in
PeopleSoft. Please see this page to find out who to contact in your School/Faculty:
http://sites.macewan.ca/bbsupport/cant-see-your-course .
Building a Basic Blackboard Course If your goal is to get a basic Blackboard course up and running quickly, you’ll need to learn how to
1. Manage items( i.e. add, delete, rename and move) in the Course Menu, the menu you see at
the left of your Blackboard course.
2. Add content (e.g. MS Word, PowerPoint, or PDF documents) to your course for students to read
or download. You’ll use the Course Content tool to do this.
3. Add instructor contact information.
4. Make your course available to students
5. (Optionally) Add a Test Student account so that you can experience your Blackboard Course
exactly as a student does.
1. Managing Items in Your Course Menu
When you first open your new, empty Blackboard course you’ll see only two
menu items, “Course Content” and “Faculty – START HERE”. Let’s build more
menu items. You have the choice of adding items
•
starting with a “ready made” template of menu items and modifying
it, or
•
manually, one by one, according to your specific needs. This option makes sense when you only
want to add a few items to the menu.
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Option 1 -­‐ Add a “Ready-­‐made” Set of Course Menu Items To get a number of course menu items quickly, you can add what
Blackboard calls a “Course Structure”. The “Traditional” course structure
(shown at the right) best suits the needs of a basic course.
To add the Traditional Course Structure to your course
1. From the Course Management menu click on Customization
2. Click Teaching Style
3. In the Select Course Structure section of the page, scroll down at the
left to the “Focus on Content” section and click Traditional.
4. Click on Use This Structure button.
5. IMPORTANT: Do NOT select the “Include Content Examples for Traditional” checkbox.
6. Click Submit at the top right hand side of the page and click OK at the pop-up prompt to
continue.
The menu items will be added on top of the existing two menu items.
You will no doubt want to modify these menu items. While these decisions are completely at the
discretion of the course instructor, we suggest you delete course menu items you don’t plan to use (e.g.
Chat and Tools). Please see the next section to learn how to do that.
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Option 2 -­‐ Manually Add, Delete, Rename and Move Course Menu Items Whether you’ve decided to add the “ready made” menu items as described above, or you’ve
decided to add menu items, one at a time, you’ll need to know how to add, delete, rename and move
menu items.
Adding Menu items As an example, let’s add a Calendar, which is a Blackboard course tool.
1. Make sure the Edit Mode in the top right hand corner is on
2. Click the plus sign at the top left of course menu.
The Add Menu Item drop-down list will appear.
3. Select Tool Link.
4. Type a Name for the tool (e.g. Calendar)
5. In the Type drop-down list, select the tool to
add it.
6. Select the “Available to Users” check box.
7. Click “Submit”
Removing Menu Items 1. Click on the Action Link (
), at the right of the item you wish to remove.
2. Click Delete
3. In the warning pop up click “Delete content”.
4. Click Delete again to finally remove the menu item. (You can’t say Blackboard doesn’t warn you. ☺)
Renaming Menu Items 1. Click on the Action Link (
), at the right of the item you wish to rename.
2. Click Rename Link.
3. Type a new name for the item.
4. Click the green check box to accept the change.
Moving Menu Items 1. Hover your mouse pointer over the left side of any course menu item
.
2. When your mouse pointer changes to four arrows, click, hold and drag the item to where you want
it on the menu and the let go.
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2. Add content to the course
A “Content Area” is a special tool that allows you to add many different types of content to your
course, including documents, images, video, audio and so on.
Make sure you have a Content Area If you added the “Traditional” set of menu items, you’ll see a “Content” menu item. If you are adding
menu items manually,
1. Click the plus sign at the top left of course menu.
2. Click Content Area in the
3. Type a Name (e.g. “Course Content”)
4. Select the “Available to Users” check box.
5. Click “Submit”
Add Files to Your Content Area 1. On the Course Menu, click Course Content.
2. Click on Build Content and select File. (This file could be a Word document, PowerPoint presentation,
PDF file, etc.)
3. Provide a title for the file and browse your computer to locate and attach the file.
4. Click “Submit” at the top or bottom of the page.
3. Add your contact information
To add your contact information, you’ll first need to add a “Contact” tool. The “ready made”
“Traditional” menu contains a contact tool named “My Instructor”. If you are adding items manually,
please follow these directions first to add a Contact tool.
How to add a Contact tool 1. Make sure the Edit Mode in the top right hand corner is on
2. Click the plus sign at the top left of course menu. The Add Menu Item drop-down list will appear.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
Select the Tool Link.
Type a Name for the tool (e.g My Instructor or Instructor Contact Info)
In the Type drop-down list, select the Contacts tool to add it.
Select the “Available to Users” check box.
Click “Submit”
Add Your Contact Information 1. On the Course Menu, click on “My Instructor” (or whatever you decided to name the Contact tool).
2. On the Content Frame, click on Create Contact.
3. Enter your contact information that you wish to share with your students.
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4. Under Options and Make the Profile Available, select Yes.
5. Click Submit.
4. Make the course available to the students
When your course is ready to be made available to students, you need to manually make it available.
Once you’ve manually made the course available AND the availability date criteria is met (by default,
it’s the first day of the term), then the course will be available to students.
To make the course available:
1. On the Control Panel, expand the Customization section and select Properties.
2. In the Set Availability section, click Yes to make the course available to users.
3. (Optional) In the Set Course Duration section, choose one of the following options:
a. Continuous to leave the course available without a specified start or end date
b. Select Dates should be set according to information within PeopleSoft. You can change the
dates to meet your specific needs.
c. Days from the Date of Enrolment to specify a specific length of time users have to access the
course after enrolling. This is the best option for self-paced courses.
4. Click Submit.
5. Add a Test Student to your course
The “Add Test Student” feature allows instructors to create a Blackboard Learn student account with
which they can log in and test all aspects of the Blackboard Learn course as if they were a student in
the course.
Under the Course Management Menu, select Course Tools and find Add Test Student.
If you don’t see the Add Test Student tool, do the following:
a) Under the Course Management Menu, click Customization, then select Tool
Availability.
b) Click the check box beside “Add Test Student.”
c) Click Submit. The “Add Test Student” tool will now appear under the Course
Tools menu.
1. Click Add Test Student and the Create Test Student Account page will appear; the test student
account name is filled in automatically.
2. Provide a password and confirm the password.
3. Select Enroll and click Submit.
Please note: After you create a test student account and want to access your course as a student, you
may need to make the course temporarily available (see previous topic) to allow your test student to
access the course.
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Got questions? This quick start guide is intended for instructors who only wish to make a few items available to students.
We highly recommend you schedule time to learn more about using Blackboard Learn.
1. Sign up for the recommended three-hour, hands-on Blackboard Learn Essentials Workshop at
http://sites.macewan.ca/bbsupport/blackboard-learn-training/bb-learn-essentials
2. Attend a Blackboard Open Lab to ask questions and get face-to-face assistance. Please note:
Open Labs are targeted to faculty have already taken the Blackboard Learn Essentials Workshop.
For more information, see:
http://sites.macewan.ca/bbsupport/blackboard-learn-training/blackboard-learn-open-labs
3. Visit the extensive self-help resources located at
http://sites.macewan.ca/bbsupport/bb-self-help-resources
Contact Blackboard Support
Email: Blackboard@MacEwan.ca
Phone: 780-633-3340
In person by appointment: 6-209K CCC
(across from the Technology Support desk in the Library)
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