Cleaning up Your Blackboard Learn Course Menu

We tend to add things to our Course Menus without much thought to how they are organized.  Periodically, you should clean up your Course Menu. Delete unneeded items and move other items around to group them according to function or frequency of use.

To delete items:

1. Click the Actions Link to right of the item on the Course Menu.
2. Select Delete.
3. On the confirmation window that appears, click Delete content or Delete this menu item.
• If you are deleting a content folder link, any content at the link will also be deleted. Make sure the folder is empty before you delete the link.
• If you are deleting a Tool link, like a link to Discussions, the discussions will remain, but you will delete the link to them.  If you already have a Discussions link on your Course Menu, you can delete the duplicate link without deleting discussions
4. If a second confirmation window appears, click the Delete button.

To move items, simply put your cursor to the left of the item you want to move.  The arrow cursor with turn into the crosshairs arrow, and you can drag that item to its new position.

If you have more than five or six menu items, consider using dividers, lines that divide your menu items into visual group.  Just click the + at the top left of your Course Menu and select Divider. Then drag your divider into position.

Here is a video showing some of these techniquies:

Copying Courses in Blackboard Learn

Copying from one Blackboard Learn course to another is a fairly simple process.

1. Go to the course you want to copy FROM.  For example, if you are copying from your fall semester course to your spring semester course, start in your fall course.
2. On the Control Panel, select Packages and Utilities -> Course Copy.
3. On the Copy Course page, from the Select Copy Type drop-down menu, select Copy Course Materials into an Existing Course.
4. Click the Browse button next to the Destination Course ID.
5. From Courses pop-up window, select the course you are copying TO.
6. Click the Submit button.
7. Under Select Course Materials, click Select All, or select only the materials you want to copy.  I suggest you select all, and then modify what you want to copy, for example, copying only the discussion foums and not the posts.
8. Keep the Default Settings.
9. Under File Attachments, select the third option, Copy links and copies of the contents (include entire course home folder)
10. Click the Submit button.

You will receive an email when the course copy process is complete.  Here is a video showing the steps described above.

Using the Date Management Tool to Update Your Course to a New Semester

If you have a number of dated items in your course like I do, updating your course from semester to semester can be quite time consuming.  Blackboard Learn has a great tool to help with that, the Date Management Tool. Date Management allows you to change the Availability Start and End dates, as well as the due date, for all items in a course based on the new semester start date, for selected items a specified number of days forward or backward, and for individual items.

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The first thing you want to do is update all dates to the new semester:

1. On the Control Panel of your new course, under Course Tools, select Date Management.
2. For Select Date Adjustment Option, select Term Information.
3. From the Term drop-down menu, select the new term.
4. Click the Submit button.
5. It can take up to a minute to complete the update process, depending on how many dated items you have in your course.

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Unfortunately, not all semesters start on the same day of the week. For example, Fall 2016 started on a Monday, but Spring 2017 started on a Tuesday.  If, like me, you have all of you work due on the same day of the week, that means once I do a semester date update, all of my dates will be off by one day. However, I can easily adjust dates by a specific number of days using Date Management. There are two ways you can do this.

My preference is to work with one item type at a time.  That let's me work with just 13 or 14 items at a time instead of  70 or 80.

To work with specific item types:

1. If you aren't still on the Date Management review page, which appears after you changed you semester dates, select Date Management from the Course Tools on the Control Panel.
2. From the Item Types drop-down menu, select the type of item you want to work with.  For example, you can select all Assignments.
3. Click the Select All box at the top of the list of items.
4. Click the Adjust Dates button.
5. At the bottom of the screen, an area will appear where you can enter the number of days you want to adjust.  Positive numbers move the dates forward, while negative numbers move the dates backward.
6. After you enter the number of days, click the Go button.

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You may prefer to change all of the dates at one time.

To change all of the dates:

1. If you aren't still on the Date Management review page, which appears after you changed you semester dates, select Date Management from the Course Tools on the Control Panel.
2. Click the Run Date Management Again button.
3. This takes you back to the Date Management page. This time select the Adjust by Number of Days option.
4. Enter the number of days you want to adjust.  Positive numbers move the dates forward, while negative numbers move the dates backward.
5. Click the Start button.

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Another problem in changing from semester to semester is the breaks don't always fall at the same time in the semester.  You may need to adjust the dates on just a few items to account for these discrepancies.

To change the dates on selected items:

1. If you aren't still on the Date Management review page, select Date Management from the Course Tools on the Control Panel.
2. If you want to focus on just one item type, select it fom the Item Types drop-down menu.
3. Click the Select box next to each item whose dates you want to change.
4. Click the Adjust Dates button.
5. At the bottom of the screen, an area will appear where you can enter the number of days you want to adjust.  Positive numbers move the dates forward, while negative numbers move the dates backward.
6. After you enter the number of days, click the Go button.

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Everything we've done so far changes all of the dates for the selected item, the Availability Start and End dates, as well as the due date. If you want to change just one of those dates, you need to do it on each item individually.

To change dates on individual items:

1. If you aren't still on the Date Management review page, select Date Management from the Course Tools on the Control Panel.
2. If you want to focus on just one item type, select it fom the Item Types drop-down menu.
3. Click the pencil icon to the right of the item whose date you want to change.
4. Click on the date you want to change.
5. Select the new date from the calendar that pops up.
6. Click Done on the calendar.
7. Repeat steps 4-6 if you want to change another date for the same item.
8. When you are done changing dates, click the green check mark to the right of the item to finish the update process.

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The last thing you want to do is verify your updated dates. There are lots of ways to do this, but this video will show you how I verify mine.

Fixing the Blackboard Learn Course Menu

There is a bug in the Blackboard Learn copy process that occasionally results in a course menu that appears as black text on a black background. This seems to happen most often when you have applied a theme to your course to change its appearance.

To fix the course menu, you just need to apply another theme to you course, and then change it back. You can watch this short video of the process or follow the steps listed below.

1. On the Control Panel, under Customization, select Teaching Style.
2. Under the Select Theme area, pick any theme other than the one currently applied.
3. Click Submit.
4. Your theme will be applied, and you will return to the Customization page.
5. To go back to your original theme, select Teaching Style again.
6. Under the Select Theme area, pick the original theme you wanted to use.
7. Click Submit

Your original theme is now applied, and your course menu appears correctly.

Using PDFs

I keep getting calls from students who can't access their online course documents, like the syllabus or the course outline, because their professors upload them in Word format instead of saving them as PDFs, as I have asked them to do for years.  The Library still deals with students printing out full page slides for PowerPoint files rather than handouts, because faculty upload the PowerPoint file rather than saving the handout in PDF format, and students print the default slides rather than change to handouts.

The only time you need to upload a Word document to Learn is when it is a document the student needs to edit and resubmit back to you.  All other times, you should use PDFs - and even then, you should consider a PDF with a fillable form. For example, in my critical thinking assignment where students do experiments, I save the directions as PDF files and the data sheet they complete and submit for their assignment as a Word document.  I don't want them to be able to edit the directions, only the data sheet.

I keep taking the position that it is so easy to save documents in PDF format that there is no reason not to do, but clearly that hasn't worked.  So now I'm going to show you how much harder it is to print out something upload in Word or PowerPoint format compared to PDF.

Opening Files in Word Format vs. PDF
Opening PowerPoint File vs. a PowerPoint Handout in PDF

T to open and print a PDF in Learn takes two clicks, but to open and print a Word document or PowerPoint requires several more clicks and even changes to settings.  Remember, each click a student has to make is a click they may not make, or a click where something could go wrong.  But you can remove that technological hurdle so easily.

Saving Word Files as PDFs

Saving Word Files as PDFs Video

Save the Word Document as a PDF on Your Computer Using Office 2010/2016

1. Open the Word document on your computer.
2. Click the File Tab, and then select Save As.
3. From the Save As Type drop-down menu, select PDF.
4. Enter a File Name for the document, and select a place on your computer in which to save the file. 
5. Click the Save button.

Saving a PowerPoint Handout as a PDF

Saving a PowerPoint Handout as a PDF Video

Save the PowerPoint Presentation Handout as a PDF on Your Computer Using Office 2010/2016

1. Open the PowerPoint Presentation on your computer.
2. Click the File Tab, and then select Save As.
3. From the Save As Type drop-down menu, select PDF.
4. Click the Options Button.
5. Change the following settings:
• From the Publish What drop-down menu, select Handouts
• From the Slides per page drop-down menu, select the appropriate format.
• Check the Frame Slides box (Optional: recommended for light background slides).
6. Click the OK Button.
7. Enter a File Name for the document, and select a place on your computer in which to save the file. 
8. Click the Save button.

Uploading a PDF to Learn

Uploading a PDF file to Blackboard Learn

1. Access your Blackboard Learn course.
2. Navigate to the content folder or learning module to which you want to upload the file. This could be your Course Content folder on the Course menu, or another folder or learning module you create within the Course Content folder or on the Course Menu.
3. At the top of the content folder or learning module select Build Content, and then File.
4. In the Name field, enter the name for the file to be displayed to the student (e.g Course Syllabus or Chapter 3 PowerPoint Handout).
5. Click the Browse Computer button, and in the Open dialog box, navigate to the PDF file on your computer that you want to upload.
6. Click on the PDF's filename and click Open.
7. You can choose to open the file in a new browser window; I prefer to have it open in the same window.
8. You can set availability dates for the file to delay or limit the time period in which the students will be able to access the file.
9. When you are done, click Submit.

Using the Blackboard Learn Calendar Effectively

One tool I find is underused in Blackboard Learn is the course calendar.  One of the challenges students identified in Ann Saxton's Distance Education survey is time management, including knowing when everything is due and what is due on a given date. If you use the Calendar tool in your course, you can help them keep track.

Some things you should know about the Calendar:

1. Tests and Assignments that have Due Dates in Learn automatically appear in the Calendar. That includes some assignments that automaticaully syncfrom publisher sites, like McGraw-Hill Connect (if they create a column in your Grade Center).
2. Any Grade Center column you add that has a due date also appears in the Calendar.  If you add a column for a grade from an external site that you enter manually, for example, that item will appear in the Calendar, based on the due date you set up.
3. If you have an Display After date set, the item won't appear in the Calendar until after the availability starts.
4. If you don't have a Display After date set, but the item is in a Learning Module or Content Area with a Display after date, the item will appear on the Calendar, but the students will not be able to access it until the module or area becomes available.
5. Graded Tools (like blogs, journals, or discussions) that have availability dates for individual items (a weekly blog, a specific journal, or a discussion forum) will not appear in the Calendar until that Display After date occurs.
6. You can add items or a series of items to the Calendar manually.

How do I use all of this information to organize my calendar?

1. I like to have course material become available on a weekly basis, so I organize everything into Learning Modules.  The Display After date on the module controls the availability of items in the module.  Students can see them on the Calendar, but they cannot access them until the module becomes available.
2. I have a weekly blog that student do, but the individual blog entries do not appear on the Calendar until the week they become available.  So students can plan ahead, I add a manual Calendar entry for those blogs, just as a reminder that they have to do that each week.
3. One of the external web sites I use does not sync individual grades with Learn, so for each external assignement, I add a manual entry column in the Learn Grade Center with a due date associated with it.  

Let's take a look at how this works - here are some short videos demonstrating these points. First, this is what the calendar looks like as a student.

This video shows you how to control the availability of items by using the Display After date on a Learning Module (or Content Area) instead of on the item itself.

Finally, if you use tools like Blogs, Journals, or Discussions, and you have due dates for individual entries, you need to use a manual calendar entry to enter those due dates into the Calendar.  Otherwise, they won't appear until the individual item becomes available to the student.

Here is Blackboard's video giving an overview of how the Calendar works: