Course Materials

In Blackboard, there are various ways to upload and organize your course materials. Which method to use will depend on your course's requirements.

Course Content Quick Guide

These instructions provide the quickest method of uploading your content into a Blackboard course shell. This assumes that you already have a Content Area in which you would like to upload your file(s).

For more detailed instructions, including some advanced features and the Content Collection, please see the menu on the left.

Key Steps:

• Consider your Content
• Choose a 'Content Area'
• Add a Document Link to the Course - 'Add Item'

Consider Your Content

Before you start posting files, you need to consider whether the files are appropriate for posting in an online course.

Some important factors to consider:

• File type & size
• Accessibility
• Viruses
• Copyright

More on this topic: Tips for Sharing Files Online

Choose a 'Content Area', and maybe create a Folder

If you look in the left-hand sidebar of your course, you may see some sample Content Areas such as 'Documents' and 'Information'. Content areas are a way to divide your content into broad categories. You can rename an existing Content Area, or create a new one, if you need to.

More on this topic: Content Areas

Once inside a Content Area, you may choose to create a subfolder in which to upload your files. This can be useful if you have lots of content, and want to organize them a little bit further. We recommend only creating ONE level of folders inside a Content Area, to avoid having to click too many times to get to a piece of content.

More on this topic: Folders (optional)

'Create Item' to Upload a New File to the Content Area

1. From inside the chosen content area (and possibly within a subfolder, if you choose to use them), click the Build Contentbutton in the toolbar (at the top). A submenu will open, with additional options - click Item.

Click the Build Content button and select Item, to upload a file

2. Name: Give the item a name. This name will be displayed in the listing, so make sure it is clear & concise.

3. Text: If you need to convey particular information about your attached document, you can enter that information in the text box. This area is not intended for the course notes, however, if you wish for the notes to appear directly in the listing, you may add them here.

4. Attachments: Here is where you choose to either attach a file to the content item OR link to a document housed in the Content Collection.

   • Browse My Computer: click this to locate a file on your computer to attach to the content item. You may ignore this option if you are not uploading a file from your computer.

   • Browse Content Collection: click this to locate and select a file (or folder) in the Content Collection to link to the content item. You may ignore this option if you are not linking a Content Collection document to this item. [ More details.]

   • Link Title: We recommend leaving this text as-is, displaying the filename.

   • File Action: Create a Link to this File – use this for a simple attached file. No changes are needed here.

5. Options: Read through the list of options & choose 'Yes' or 'No'. Here are the main ones to pay attention to:

   • Permit Users to View the Content – This allows you to release the content to the students at any given time. Choosing 'No' only allows the course designers to see the content item.

   • Select date and time restrictions – This allows you to determine when the students are able to access the item. If you are using date restrictions, remember to check the box for the option you are using, Display After and/or Display Until. If you do not select the checkbox to use this option & only select dates, Blackboard will ignore them.

6. Click Submit to complete the process.

Link to a Document Stored in the Content Collection - Details

A window will popup & load a view of the Content Collection. Please be patient, as it may take some time to load. Once it has, you can locate your file & click the checkbox to the left of the file name. This will select the file to be linked.

Select the file that you want to link to.

Scroll to the bottom of the page & click the Submit button in the lower right-hand corner. Depending on where the content is housed, you may be asked for permission to give your course users 'Read' access to the linked content. You must click YES, in order to allow your students / users to view the file you have just linked.