Bb 9.1 April 2014
Moving ahead with the Bb Rx series of Bb Tips for faculty whose Blackboard courses may be in need of a tune-up, this week’s Tip focuses on a problem that will invariably crop up in Bb courses that have been running for a number of years. Simply put, the Course Information area of the course becomes outdated and, among other things, contains broken links to web-based College resources, and provides information about System Requirements, etc., that is no longer current.
Fortunately, there is a relatively quick fix for this ubiquitous problem, one which you can readily put in place by following a handful of short steps!
Step 1: Download the export file that the following link points to: ExportFile_Course_Information. This Bb export file contains only a Course Information content area, which is identical to the content area contained in the template course shells that new online faculty work with when they go through the online instructor training course. Hint: for easy retrieval, save the export file to your computer desktop.
Step 2: Navigate to the course that you plan on importing this export file into, and look at the name of the course-information area in your course. Is it also called Course Information? If so, you will have to rename it before you do the import, since Bb will not allow you to have more than one content area with the same name (Rename a Content Area).
Step 3: Import the export file into your course (Course Import). On the Import Course checklist, select only Content Areas. When the import is complete, a new content-area link called Course Information will appear at the bottom of your course menu.
Step 4: Navigate to the new Course Information area. You will see in the folders and sub-folders there a great deal of “place-holder” content (for example: Course Outline, Course Schedule, Grading and Attendance policy, etc.) that is designed to be replaced with content that is specific to your course. Go ahead and delete this “place-holder” content (Delete Content Item / Delete Content Folder).
Step 5: Navigate to your old “Course Information” area, and move all of your course-specific content (i.e., content folders and content items) into the new Course Information content area. Here’s how you do that:
- Select the arrow-button for the content folder or content item that you wish to move, and select Move from the drop-down menu that appears.
- In the Move window that opens, under DESTINATION, select the Browse button, select the specific location in your new Course Information area where you want to move your course-specific content to, and then select Submit.
Step 6: Confirm that you have moved all of the content folders and content items that you need to move into your new Course Information area, and–once you’ve done so–delete the old “Course Information” area. If you want to play it safe, do not delete the latter, but simply make it invisible to students (Show/Hide a Content Area).
Step 7: Breath a sigh of relief! The great news is that the links in your new Course Information area are actually links back to links contained in a permanent Blackboard course repository. Since these course-repository links will be updated as needed, you will never need to update or replace the links in your Course Information area, which will always remain completely up-to-date!
Are you hesitant about following the above steps on your own? If so, do not hesitate to drop by our Office (BTC 1033-1043 / M-F, 8:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m.), so that someone here can work with you on updating the “Course Information” area of your course and making it “Bullet-proof”!
Use the following link to download a printable version of this Bb tip of the week: Download the Tip
Use the following link to view previous Bb tips of the week: BBTOTW-Archive
As always, please feel free to contact the Distance Learning Office (629-7070/DLHelp@hvcc.edu) if you have any questions about this!
Published: Mon, 16 Mar 2015 12:10:58 +0000 by m.petersen