Course Content

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Overview
 

One of the many uses of Blackboard is to distribute documents to your students. You may upload and make available to your students any type of file (e.g. presentations, word documents, HTML web pages, spreadsheets, images).

CTI's recommendation is to use the PDF (Portable Document Format) when delivering complex documents online. PDF files tend to be easier and less confusing for an individual to view and download from your site. This file type should reduce the time required in supporting your end-users with download issues. A PDF Creation Tutorial is available for installing the free Microsoft Office 2007 PDF plug-in. This tutorial also references other free and pay-for PDF solutions. For more information on this, please review the Content Delivery Recommendations.

In order to offer an organized list of the activities to have your students work through, you may wish to provide direct links to specific assessments, assignments, discussions topics, and many other blackboard tools in addition to links to uploaded documents.
Paging Preferences
Default items per page is 10.
My Settings allows you to increase the items listed per page (e.g. 100).
 
This setting refers to the number of discussion posts, assignments, assessments, learning modules, etc. shown per page.

There are two primary ways to accomplish these tasks in Blackboard:

  • Use a Course Content Folder as a container to display hyperlinks to uploaded files and Blackboard tools. See the tutorial below.
  • Use a Learning Modules as the container for links to uploaded files and Blackboard tools. The Learning Module’s advantage is that student activity for these pages can be tracked.
TROUBLESHOOTING
  • Known Issue: Avoid using special characters ( @ # % & ; ) in filenames and titles. [more info...]
  • Known Issue: Generic Exception-Invalid permissions error [more info...]
 

Link to File

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You may upload many different kinds of files for delivery to your students. Please review the Content Delivery Recommendations.

Add New Link to File

  • Go to the Build tab
  • Click on Course Content
  • Navigate to the content page or folder you want to add files to
  • Click on Add File
  • Select Browse for Files

  • Select the file to add

    NOTE: For information on how to upload files to your course, see the File Upload Tutorial

    WARNING: Avoid using special characters ( @ # % & ; ) in filenames and titles.
  • Click OK

Replace Existing File

This tutorial walks you through the steps required to replace an existing file with its modified version within the Course Content Tool. Use these steps whenever you make edits to a file and wish to upload and replace the existing file in your Blackboard course with a new version. To replace the file, first remove the existing link from the Course Content and then rebuild the link to point to the modified version.

  • Go to the Build tab
  • Click on Course Content
  • Navigate to the file you wish to change
  • Click on the ActionLinks ActionLinks icon icon next to the file you wish to modify.
  • Click Remove Link.

  • Add a link to your modified file by clicking on Add File (TIP: See help on adding files)
  • Select Browse for Files
  • Select the file to add

    NOTE: For information on how to upload files to your course, see the File Upload Tutorial

    WARNING: Avoid using special characters ( @ # % & ; ) in filenames and titles.
  • Click OK

Create Folder

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If you need to organize a numerous files such as a semester of presentations, or lectures notes, etc. you can put them all together inside a folder.

  • Under the Build Tab, click on Course Content
  • Click on Create Folder
     

  • Enter a Title and Description for the folder

WARNING: Because Blackboard sessions timeout after 30 minutes of inactivity, create your content in a word processor and then copy & paste the content into Blackboard to prevent losing work. Also avoid using special characters ( @ # % & ; )

  • Click Save

Link to Tool Item

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You may also link to other areas of your site within Blackboard. For example, you may want to link directly to a quiz or discussion topic or an external web link from the Course Content area.

  • Under the Build Tab, click on Course Content (1)
  • Click on Add Content Link button (2)
  • Select the Tool you wish to link to (3)
  • Select the Item you wish to link to (4)
  • Click Add Selected (5)

Link to Tool Item

Student View

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  • From the folder or content page, click on the Student View Tab to look at your uploaded files.

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