Content – Blackboard Help

Creating a Learning Module

A Learning Module is a series of pages or folders with a table of contents. Within it you can place any type of content, assessment or activity that you would place in a Blackboard content area.

What a Learning Module looks like

When your students click on the link to a Learning Module, they will see a series of table of contents and a series of pages. They click on the Next Page button (or use the table of contents to click through the pages. The pages can contain items, assessments etc – almost any of the types of content or activities built into Blackboard.

This is NOT what your Learning Module will look like while you are building it – follow the instructions below to see how to build it.

Build a Learning Module

Go to any Content Area and from the Build Content menu choose Learning Module. Give your module a Name and Description. The description will be what the students read before they click on the link to the Learning Module. You can set options for the Learning Module such as availability, etc.

Click Submit when you are done.

Click to enter the Learning Module

After you click on Submit – click on the name of the Learning Module to enter it and begin building it.

Add Content of Activities

Add "pages" to your Lesson Module by adding Content, Assessments, Interactive Tools, from the same menu that you use to add them to a Content Area. With Editing turned on you will not immediately see that these are new pages, but they will start to be listed in your Table of Contents.

In the first example, we will add an image and some text – to do that we will create a "Blank Page".

Edit the Blank Page

Give the page a name and type text into the text box for content. If you want to add a picture – click on the button that looks like a picture. Do not worry about the fact that if you hover over it, it says "Attach Image" rather than "Insert Image."

Browse to find the picture

Browse on Computer to find the picture file. Make sure it is re-sized to fit onto the Blackboard page. If you have several pictures you want to add – you can also load them to your "files" area first, then Browse Course to find them in the files area.

Add "Alt Text" to describe the picture then click Submit and then Submit again.

Continue to add content or activities

Add more content or activities – each will appear in the table of contents. While Editing is ON you will not see separate pages – just a list of content which you can re-order.

Turn editing OFF to preview

When you turn editing OFF then you will see it as the students do – a series of pages to view one at a time. Each type of content or activity will be on its own page. Some will open automatically in a new window. For example, a Test will open in a new window since it doesn’t work in the lesson plan frame.

For more about Lesson Plans – see http://ondemand.blackboard.com/r91/movies/bb91_lesson_plans_create_lesson_plan.htm

Add a picture to an anouncement or item

This lesson describes how to add a picture to an announcment or item and have the text wordwrap around the image.

Wordwrapping text around an image

When you want to include an image in the text of an announcement or item, it is desireable to have the text wordwrap around the image as shown. The following steps show how to make that happen. It will require editing some HTML, but it is fairly simple.

Create the announcement or item

Create the announcement or item and type in the text that you want.
Click before the first line in the text to position your cursor there. This is where we will insert the image.

(It is possible to insert images elsewhere, but this will be the simplest example.

Insert Image

(1) Click on the Attach Image button (which looks like a picture).
(2) Click Browse My Computer to find the image file on your computer.

(Note – if you have an image you have previously uploaded to use elsewhere in your course you can click Browse Course)

Browse and find your picture

Select your picture, then click Open

Enter “Alt Text” for your picture

Enter a Text Description for your picture where it says “Alt Text” then click submit (don’t worry about anything else on this screen – it doesn’t apply or is not needed here).

At the next screen – click submit again.

Your picture is now in line with the paragraph of text

Your picture is now in lign with the paragraph of text – this is NOT what we want.

Click on the < > button to edit the HTML code (don’t be scared – this won’t be too hard!)

Edit the img tag in the HTML

If you inserted you image before the very first line of text – the top of the code should read something like this:

<img title=”Abraham Lincoln” style=”border: 0px solid rgb(0, 0, 0); width: 135px; height: 172px;” alt=”Abraham Lincoln” src=”../../../sessions/1/4/4/6/7/6/4/0/session/86fe4a9fe99341cda819f03047db2170/AbrahamLincoln_th.JPG” />Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and

that is, it will begin with <img then have some information, then end with /> before the actual text you entered begins.

After the <img – leave a space and then type in the following text exactly

align = “right”

(including quotation marks). The code will now read something like this:

<img align=”right” title=”Abraham Lincoln” style=”border: 0px solid rgb(0, 0, 0); width: 135px; height: 172px;” alt=”Abraham Lincoln” src=”../../../sessions/1/4/4/6/7/6/4/0/session/86fe4a9fe99341cda819f03047db2170/AbrahamLincoln_th.JPG” />Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and

Note the quotation makes around the “right”. Do not add any punctuation such as commas. Do not accidentally delete any of the other code.

Click on the < > button again to get out of code view.

Your text now wordwraps around your image!

Your text now wordwraps around your image!!!! Click Submit to finish

If you want your image to be on the left you can also use align=”left”. You can actually position your image anywhere you want, but putting it at the top makes it easier to spot the HTML code you must edit.

Remember: Files for images to be used on the web must be one of these format: jpg, gif, png. If you have clipart or images of another format – try pasting them into Word or Powerpoint then using a screen capture tool such as Jing to make a png file.

Remember to re-size your images before uploading. Although you can resize them in the text editing box – this will NOT resize the files and if your image starts out very large, then although it displays as a small image, the file size is still large and will take longer to display for your students.

Bonus step

If you are comfortable editing the HTML you can also add this to the “style” field inside your img tag: style=”padding:10px;” as shown below. There is a colon : after padding and a semi-colon after 10px. This will add ten pixels of padding around your image – you can change the number 10 to increase or decrease the padding.

<img align=”right” title=”Abraham Lincoln” style=”padding:10px;border: 0px solid rgb(0, 0, 0); width: 135px; height: 172px;” alt=”Abraham Lincoln” src=”../../../sessions/1/4/4/6/7/6/4/0/session/86fe4a9fe99341cda819f03047db2170/AbrahamLincoln_th.JPG” />Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and

Upload a zipped package file

Compressed or zipped packages can hold many files. You will use these to upload many files at once or to upload the published HTML pages created by programs such as Softchalk.

Uploading and linking to a zipped (package) file is a two step process in Blackboard 9. You will need to first upload the zipped file to the Files section, then go to the content area where you want the link to appear and link to the index.html file (or other starter file) inside the package

Go to the files area in your course

First make sure Editing is "On" (in the upper right of your class site).

In the Control Panel (on the lower left side of your course in Blackboard Learn (version 9) Click on Files, then click on your course name.

Create a folder for your zipped package

Click on Create Folder to create a folder to hold the contents of your zipped package. You can do this either directly in the files area or inside any other folder in your files area. You will want this separate folder to contain the unzipped contents of your package.

After the folder is created, click on the underlined name of the folder to enter it.

Upload the package

Move your mouse cursor over the Upload button and choose Upload Package

Upload and extract

(1) Click the Browse button and browse and find your zipped file
(2) Check the box "If selected, the system overwrites the existing file with the same name" if you are replacing an existing package with an updated version.
(3) Click Submit
You will see all the contents of your zipped file extracted and listed
(If the zipped file does not expand into individual files then you may have chosen "Upload Files" instead of "Upload Package".

Make a link to the "starter file" within you zipped package

If the zipped package is a set of files for webpages (such as those created by Softchalk, for example) then there will be a "starter page" called index.html or index.htm. You will make a link to that starter page, which will in turn be linked to the other files in your package.

Go the Content Area where you want to place the link. Move your mouse cursor over the Build Content Button. You can choose either "Item" of "File". We will discuss using an Item first.

Click on "Item.

Give your item a name and description

Give your item a Name and write an (optional) introduction in the textbox.

Add the index page as an attachment

Click the "Browse Course" button. This choice lets you browse through the files already uploaded to this course (including the package you just uploaded and unzipped).

Browse and find the index file

A new window will open. Find the folder in which you unzipped your package and click on its name to open in.
(1) Browse until you find the index.html (or index.htm or other starter page).
(2) You can click on "Name" to sort files by name and make them easier to find.
(3) If there are a lot of files you may need to click though more than one "page" of file names
(4) Check the box next to the index.html file
(5) Click Submit

Continue setting up your "Item"

The files window will close and you’ll be back to the page in which you set up your item. You’ll now see "index.html" (or other starter file name) listed as the Link Title. Change that name to a user friendly name that your students will recognize. (A title such as "Click Here for Module 2" for example) You want to create a link to this file and Give users Read access to all files and folders in the folder.

Set up any availability options etc. and then scroll down and click "Submit"

Linked package files are now added to the item

The link to the index file will appear as a underlined link under the Item. When students click on that link they will get to the first page in the package (the "starter file").

Adding the link to the package as a file rather than an item

If , when you use the "Build Content" button, you choose to add the link to the package as a "File" rather than an item, the steps you go through will be very similar. The difference is the header text itself will be the underlined link and you will NOT be able to add any additonal description. In that case you may want to add descriptive text as an item above the link to the file. You will be able to open the packaged file in a new window, something you cannot do if you add it as an item.

ISSUES WHEN COPYING A COURSE CONTAINING A ZIPPED "PACKAGE"

UPDATE 24 July 2013: this bug seems to be fixed when using course copy (in UAS Blackboard 9.1.9) but not when using Export/Import

When a zipped "package" file is copied from one course to another, students may not have "permission" to view the folder. You will have to test this using a test-student account since the Instructor will have no problems viewing the contents.

This can be corrected by
1) Deleting the link to the index file and re-creating it
2) Adding permissions to the folder containing the package

Go to the Control Panel
Go to Files – click on the course folder
Find the folder containing the unzipped package contents
Use the drop-down menu next the folder name, click on Permissions
Click on Add Course User List
Select Students (or All Course Users) and give then "Read" permission, Submit

It is only necessary to add Read permission to the folder – not to each individual file in the folder.

Category: Content