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.