Gwasanaethau TG - IT Services
Technoleg Dysgu - Learning Technology
Blackboard - the basics
This hand-out accompanies the Blackboard introductory workshop and contains the following sections.
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Section 1: Information on the opening page
Section 2: The course environment
Section 3: Changing buttons and layout
Section 4: Adding content
Section 5: Making announcements
Section 6: Making your course available
Section 1: Information on the opening page
When you log in to Blackboard the first screen you see will be similar to the one shown below. There are
important details you need to be aware of on this screen.
1. Courses you are teaching – these are all the courses you have instructor status on – you will either
have been added to them via Banner or manually on request to the Blackboard team.
2. Click on this cog icon to edit the list of courses you are teaching – you use this to hide modules
from view if your list is overlong and difficult to navigate.
3. This list lets you know if your course is unavailable, this means that students cannot access the
course until you have made it available.
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Gwasanaethau TG - IT Services
Technoleg Dysgu - Learning Technology
Section 2: The Course Environment
This is the course environment that you will see as an instructor
1. Help - This links to a page of contacts for help if you are having problems using Blackboard.
2. Edit Mode – Only course instructors see this – it must be set to ON for you to be able to edit the
course, it is also useful to set it to off in order to see the student view of the course.
3. Breadcrumb – This will help you to navigate back to the home page of your course.
4. Course Menu – This includes links to the content of the course, you can customise this menu.
5. Control Panel – Only the course instructor sees the control panel and you can use it to manage the
content, features and appearance of a course.
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Gwasanaethau TG - IT Services
Technoleg Dysgu - Learning Technology
Section 3: Changing Buttons and Layout
You can change, re-order, add and remove buttons from the Blackboard course menu to suit your teaching
requirements.
Step
Screenshot
Rename a button 1
Hover the mouse over the double chevron
next to the menu button to see a drop
down menu.
Rename a button 2
Select Rename Link, type in type in your
preferred name and click on the tick.
Removing menu buttons
If you decide not you use some menu
items, you can either delete them or
choose to hide them using the ‘hide link’
option.
Creating new menu buttons
You can create additional menu buttons by
clicking on the cross above the menu
buttons and selecting the appropriate item
from the dropdown menu. An area to hold
course resources is called a content area.
Moving buttons
You can drag and drop buttons on the
course menu by click on the double arrow
next to them.
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Gwasanaethau TG - IT Services
Technoleg Dysgu - Learning Technology
Section 4: Adding Content
Content such as Word documents PowerPoint files and Assessments and Interactive tools can be added to
and organised in content areas such as lectures. You can also upload images, audio files or link to YouTube
videos.
The instructions below detail how to create an Item. An item can be a body of formatted text and an
attached file. If you only want to add a PowerPoint file or word document without a section of text use the
create File option.
Step
Screenshot
Click on the area menu button you want
to add content to e.g. Lectures
Hover over the Build Content button and
choose Item
Fill in a Name for the resource
In the Text section type in your
instruction/ information. You can format
the text using the text editor.
Attach documents to the item – e.g. a
PowerPoint file or a word document,
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Browse computer refers to the
drives available on your
computer
Browse course allows you to
attach an item that has been
uploaded to the course files of
this Blackboard course.
Fill in the options in section 3 if required
Click Submit
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Gwasanaethau TG - IT Services
Technoleg Dysgu - Learning Technology
Section 5: Creating an Announcement
Step
Screenshot
Announcements appear on the first
screen of your site. It helps students if
when you add content or set an
assignment etc then you also post an
announcement to alert them:
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Click on the Announcements
menu button
Click on Create Announcement
In the Announcement Information
section of the Announcement page type
in a subject and message.
Like many fields in Blackboard the text
editor in the message field can be
expanded to add further formatting your
announcement.
You then need to set the duration for the
announcement to appear. This can be
permanent (not date restricted) or date
restricted.
You can opt to have the announcement
sent to your student’s email inboxes.
The course link allows you put a link into
the announcement to a resource on your
course – this could be used to draw
attention to new content.
Once your announcement is complete
click on submit.
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Gwasanaethau TG - IT Services
Technoleg Dysgu - Learning Technology
Section 6: Making your course available
Step
Screenshot
New courses are automatically created as
"unavailable". Make your course Available so
students can see it:
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Click Customization on the Control
Panel, followed by Properties.
In the Set Availability section select
Yes to make the course available, then
click Submit
Manylion Cyswllt / Contact details
Cysylltwch â techd@bangor.ac.uk am unrhyw gymorth neu gyngor ynglŷn â Thechnoleg Dysgu
For Learning Technology help and advice, please contact the team at ltech@bangor.ac.uk.
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