Bb 9.1 April 2015
In another installment of the Bb Rx series of Bb Tips for faculty whose Blackboard courses may be in need of a tune-up, we’ll take a look at a design “glitch” that is surprisingly common in older Bb courses (but also in newer ones).
This “glitch” involves a simple misunderstanding of the respective functions of Content Folders and Content Items. The icons for the two alert you to their intended functions: a Content Folder (below left) is intended to contain content, while a Content Item (below right) is intended to display content, and is normally contained inside of a Content Folder. Despite this, it is frequently the case that a Bb course contains a Content Folder that is functioning like a Content Item: that is, it is being used to display content rather than contain it.
Looking through your Bb course(s), do you see folders, like the example in the following screenshot, that are being used to display, rather than contain, content?
If so, you can quickly fix the “glitch” by following these steps:
- Select the arrow button for the folder, and then select Edit from the pop-up menu that appears.
- In the Edit Content Folder window, click inside of the textbox containing your content.
- Select the Ctrl/A keyboard combination to highlight all of your content.
- Select the Ctrl/C keyboard combination to copy the highlighted content.
- Select Submit to exit the Edit Content Folder window.
- Select Item from your Build Content drop-down menu to create a new content item.
- In the Edit Item window, give the new content item the same name as the folder.
- Click inside of the empty textbox, and select the Ctrl/V keyboard combination to paste in the content that you had copied from your folder.
- Select Submit to save this content.
Your new Content Item should look like the example in the below screenshot:
Having replaced your Content Folder with a Content Item, you can go ahead and delete the Content Folder by selecting its arrow button and selecting Delete from the pop-up menu that appears.
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, 23 Mar 2015 12:26:24 +0000 by m.petersen