Adding Content to Blackboard Objectives... 2 Task Sheet for: Adding Content to Blackboard... 3 What is Content?...4 Presentation Type and File Formats... 5 The Syllabus Example... 6 PowerPoint Example... 7 Preparing your Documents for use in Blackboard... 8 Here is the goal for this lab time... 8 Working with Documents - Overview... 8 Review: Customize Content Area Labels... 8 Creating Folders and Organizing Files... 9 Typing new information within a content area... 11 What is the difference between Smart Text, Plain Text, and HTML?... 12 Copy and Pasting from Existing Text... 12 Cutting and Pasting HTML-formatted Text... 15 Attaching a Document... 16 More about Content Files... 19 Add a Learning Unit... 20 Add an Item to a Learning Unit... 21 Add a File to a Learning Unit... 22 Working With Outside Links... 23 Enable Web sites Area... 23 Adding Folders... 24 Entering Links...26 1
Objectives The overall objective of day 3 is to introduce participants to the various options Blackboard offers for organizing and delivering content. You will first compare and contrast the different options and file formats. After learning how to use the different options, you will decide which ones work best for your content and for your students. At the end of day 3 you will: 1. understand options for organizing and delivering text-based content in Blackboard 2. have identified which Blackboard tools can be used to meet your individual content needs 3. understand the ramifications of using different file formats for your Blackboard content 4. know how to create documents in and/or convert documents to html 5. know how to create folders in content areas 6. know how to copy/paste text and HTML 7. know how to attach documents 8. have added your syllabus to your Blackboard course 9. have created at least one learning unit that will be used in your actual course 2
Task Sheet for: Adding Content to Blackboard Teaching Tip: In online environments, students might feel disoriented. This is often the case because they are not sure what will be asked of them during the class. Sequencing of instruction, and pointing students in the right direction towards completing all assignments can be facilitated by using a Task Sheet. We have provided a task sheet in this workshop to help you "keep on track" and to introduce you to this online teaching strategy. Part 1 Log onto Blackboard Workshop site E-mail the facilitator that you are ready to start If you don t have a Blackboard Course shell, please e-mail instructor Download task sheet Complete the entrance survey (Checkpoint 1) Read about prerequisite skills Complete Skills Checkpoints (Checkpoint 2) Part 2 a) Read: What is content? Reflective Activity 1: What is your content? Reflective Activity 2: How do you have to modify that content for online delivery? Participate in Discussion (Checkpoint 3) b) Experience difference between file formats and presentation Options Print Tools and File Formats Table Look at Syllabus examples Look at PowerPoint examples Complete Tools and File Formats Quiz (Checkpoint 4) Part 3 Create a Useful Links Page Add an FAQ page Create several content pages Create a simple learning unit Ask facilitator to review your content (Checkpoint 6) Part 4 Learn more about course statistics and tracking Part 5 Please take a moment to complete our exit survey (Checkpoint 7) 3
What is Content? Please take a look at the following short article by Amy Gahran. Even though she writes from an e-business perspective, her point is well taken. Exactly, what is content Anyway? http://www.contentious.com/articles/010312-3.htm The short answer is that the content of your course are any materials you create or compile for your students. Content is not, however, equal to text. Especially on the Web, it is easy to include multimedia such as images, audio and video to communicate information. Reflective Activity 1 : Try to write a list of all the items that you consider content for your course: Syllabus Lectures PowerPoints Worksheets Case Studies Articles on electronic reserve Photographs... Now let's take it a step further and think about how this content might have to be transformed in order to be amenable for online delivery. Take a look a this discussion by the Illinois Online Network Instructional Strategies for Online Courses: http://www.ion.illinois.edu/ionresources/instructionaldesign/instructionalstrategies.html For your convenience we have included a print out of this site in the appendix. While reading, think about these two questions: Reflective Activity 2: Which of these strategies are important to your course? Do they mention strategies you had not previously considered? 4
Presentation Type and File Formats Two things determine how your content looks to your students and what your students can do with that content: 1. The Presentation Type (whether you copy/paste html, link to a file, or create a learning unit) 2. The File Format (html documents or non-html documents such as Word or PowerPoint files) In order to assure that your target audience can successfully access the content you provide, field testing your pages is very important. Things to consider: Different Students use different browsers that means you need to test at least in Internet Explorer and Netscape Communicator Some students might not have Word or PowerPoint installed on their computers Some students might not have the Acrobat reading installed on their computers Do your students know how to download and install free readers for Word, PowerPoint, and Acrobat? Do you want to make it easy for students to print? How much scrolling do you want your student to do? It is permissible for students to save your documents and PowerPoint presentations to their own computers? Do you want students to modify a template you provide? First let s look at text-based content, such as a syllabus. In the Community Area of myusf, click on the Adding Content to Blackboard link. Click on Course Material Click on Examples of Content Presentation and File Format Options Click on the Syllabus Example and Access each item one by one For this activity you will need to look at each of the files provide in both Netscape and Internet Explorer. It might be a good idea to pair up with your neighbor so that one of you can use Netscape and the other one can use Internet Explorer. Understanding the behavior of both browsers is very important, as some of the documents behave quite differently depending on the browser you are using. 5
The Syllabus Example Button Netscape (what happens?) Internet Explorer (what happens?) Printing (easy?) Student editing (possible?) HTML link Word link PDF link Learning Unit pasted html 6
PowerPoint Example Many of you might also want to include your PowerPoint presentations in your WebCT course. For that reason, we have included the same activity for PowerPoints as well. Within the Workshop Site, Click on Examples of WebCT Content Tools Click on the PowerPoint Example and Access each item one by one HTML link Netscape (what happens?) Internet Explorer (what happens?) Printing (easy?) Student editing (possible?) PPT link PDF link PPS 7
Preparing your Documents for use in Blackboard Now that you have had a chance to think about file formats, it is time to work on your own documents for a while. For most documents the best option is to use the HTML format, but there are instances where it makes sense to use a PDF, a Word document, or a plain PowerPoint presentation. Here is the goal for this lab time. Each of you should have: a Syllabus as a Word document a Syllabus as an HTML document a PowerPoint presentation (NOT saved as HTML) a series of short HTML pages to include in a learning unit Working with Documents - Overview There are several areas in the course where you will likely build the bulk of your content. The names of these areas are Course Information, Course Documents, and Assignments. The default names may be modified by the Instructor - is achieved within the Area Availability section of the Control Panel. This Module will take you step-by-step through the various content presentation options you explored at the very beginning of the workshop. What to do next: Before starting this section of the workshop, please assemble some of your essential class documents, such as: Course Goals Syllabus Assignments Teaching Philosophy Review: Customize Content Area Labels Click on Control Panel Under Course Options select Course Settings Click on Area Availability 8
Make sure at least one Content Area in enabled. You can choose one of the labels in the drop down menu - throughout this module we will refer to is as Course Material. Creating Folders and Organizing Files In most cases, you will have many files online. Since moving items from one folder to another is not possible in Blackboard, it is important to think about your organization before you start adding content. In this activity, you will create several folders and then place documents inside them. Conceptualize: To get an understanding of where we are going with this module, please take a moment to go back to the Examples of Blackboard Content Tools. Notice that the section itself is a folder containing two subfolders: Syllabus Examples and PowerPoint Examples We will work through all the examples given there. Now would be a good time to assemble all those files you know you want to place in your Blackboard course. Also group them into chunks, such as Sections, Weeks, Chapter, etc. You will use these groupings as an organization pattern for your students to access course content. 9
Click the Control Panel button. From the Content Areas section, choose Course Material. Click Add Folder. In the Name field, select "Other -- Add Text Below" from the drop-down list. In the specify your own name field, type: Session 1, or Chapter 1, or Week 1, etc. You may specify a color of the folder name by clicking the color picker next to Choose Color of Name. Add a short description to the folder to give students an indication of the material it contains. Leave the text formatting option set to Smart Text. For example: Click Submit. A receipt will indicate the successful submission. Return to the Student View of the course by clicking the CourseID in the navigation path in the upper left corner of your course. View the folder you just created by clicking on the Course Material button. 10
What to do next: We will add your Syllabus in many different ways so that you can see all the different options. Consequently, please add a folder called: Syllabus Typing new information within a content area You may choose to build some of your course material directly in Blackboard. Blackboard is designed to allow you to build simple, web-based documents without having to know any HTML and without web-authoring tools. We will create a document describing the course goals in the Course Information area. Click the Control Panel button to enter the Control Panel. Select Course Material (note you might have renamed this content area in an earlier module) from the Content Areas section. You should see the folders you have created in the previous activity Click on the Syllabus folder Click on the Add Item button. In the Name field choose "Course Goals" from the drop-down list. Alternately, you could choose "Other -- Add Text Below" and enter your own title instead of using one of the predefined titles. 11
By default, document titles in Blackboard are black, however you can color-code your titles. Click on the Pick button, and select a color from the color-picker window that opens. In the Text area, enter: This course will introduce you to... (add text specific to your course) Leave the text formatting option set to Smart Text, and leave the options in Sections 2 (Item Attachments) and Section 3 (Options) set to their defaults. FYI: What is the difference between Smart Text, Plain Text, and HTML? Smart Text: This option maintains carriage returns and automatically interprets HTML tags. Plain Text: This option does not maintain carriage returns and does not interpret HTML tags. HTML: Carriage returns are not recognized - all formatting has to be done in HTML. Click Submit. A receipt will indicate the successful submission. Return to the Student View of the course by clicking the CourseID in the navigation path in the upper left corner of your course. Click on the Course Information button in the navigation menu to see your document. Copy and Pasting from Existing Text We assume that you have already written a syllabus for your course in a word processor, such as Word or Word Perfect. You will use this syllabus in this activity, so please locate the electronic version of your syllabus now. In this example, you will open the file containing your syllabus (here called syllabus.doc), and copy the content into the syllabus for the Blackboard course 12
Web site. You will need access to Microsoft Word or another word processor that can open a Microsoft Word file to complete this particular exercise. Keep the browser application open, but locate and open your word processing program. Choose File > Open from the word processor's menu, and locate the syllabus.doc file from the sample content. Switch back to your browser window. Click the Control Panel button, then select Course Material (or the name you assigned to your content area) from the Content Areas section. Click Add Item. For the Name field, select Syllabus. Switch over to the word processing application. Click and drag over the text of the syllabus.doc file to highlight it (or choose Edit from the menu bar, and Select All). Select Copy from the Edit menu in your word processor (or click the Copy icon in the word processor's toolbar). Switch back to the browser window. Click in the Text field so the cursor is in that area. From the browser's menu, choose Edit and then Paste to place the text in the field. TIP: Here are the keyboard shortcuts for copying and pasting Windows: Mac: Copy = Ctrl + c (hold down the Control key and at the same time press the key for c) Paste = Ctrl + v (hold down the Control key and at the same time press the key for v) Substitute the Apple key for the control key 13
Leave the text formatting option set to Smart Text. Click Submit to complete the process. Return to the Student View of the course by clicking the CourseID in the navigation path in the upper left corner of your course. View the syllabus document by clicking on the Course Information button in the navigation menu of the Student View. TIP: If you syllabus contains, tables, or images, this process will not lead to a well-formatted syllabus. In that case, it might be preferable to save your document as html (option in Word as well as Word Perfect) and to paste the html text into this window (explained on next page), OR adding your Word document as a link (explained in a later section) 14
Cutting and Pasting HTML-formatted Text Content that has been formatted with HTML can also be added into a course. However, there are a few steps to take to assure the text appears correctly. First of all you need to have an html version of your syllabus. You have two choices: 1. You can create an html version of your syllabus in a WYSISYG html editor. OR 2. You can convert a Word document into html in your word processor. Now we need to get to the html code underlying this document. We do that by opening it in a text editor such as Notepad or SimpleText. Open your syllabus.html document within Notepad or Simple text: Click on File > Open Locate your syllabus.html file (note: in order to see the html document you will have to select "all Files" for viewing) 15
When you copy and paste HTML code from an HTML document, select ONLY the text that appears between (but not including) the <BODY> and </BODY> tags. The rest of the HTML document is dynamically generated by Blackboard. Now return to your Blackboard Course Click on Control Panel Click on your Content area Select the Syllabus folder Click on Add Item Paste the html you copied from the text editor into the Text entry box When you copy and paste code from an HTML document, set the text formatting option to HTML. TIP: Copying and pasting code from an HTML document is most appropriate if the document contains only text information. If your document contains embedded images Blackboard will actually prompt you to point to those images. Attaching a Document In the previous examples, you added content into the course by directly entering the text into the page editors. It is also possible to attach existing files to Blackboard documents. Reasons you would choose this approach include: 16
The file contains a kind of content that would be impossible or wouldn't make sense to copy and paste -- for example, a spreadsheet. The file is long, and copying and pasting would mean the students would be required scroll through screen after screen to view the document. You need the students to be able to modify the content in the file -- for example, if you were distributing a template for a PowerPoint presentation. You simply don't want to re-enter text that you've already entered and formatted in another application. Note: When you attach files, students must have appropriate software to open and use the files. For example, if you attach a Microsoft PowerPoint presentation, students must have PowerPoint (or some application that can view PowerPoint files) on their computer. This is not a problem, if you attaching HTML documents. In the following examples, you will attach a Microsoft Word file to a Blackboard document. Let's use your syllabus again, so that you can see all the different options you have to add your syllabus to your course. Click the Control Panel button. From the Content Areas section, choose Course Material. Click on your Syllabus folder Click Add Item. In the Name field, select "Other -- Add Text Below." In the or specify your own name field, type the document title: Syllabus as Word Document. The content will be in the attached file, but you may still want to use the Text field to enter a brief description of the file you are attaching. Type the following in the Text field: This is the syllabus for this course. It is a Word document, so you need to have Word installed on your machine in order to read it. In the Item Attachments area, click the Browse button and locate the file named syllabus (syllabus.doc). In the Name of Link to File area, type Syllabus (Microsoft Word document). The Name of Link to File becomes the linked text that the user clicks on to open the file. Leave the Special Action set to the default "Create a link to this file." Leave the options in the Options area set to their defaults. 17
Click Submit. A receipt will indicate the successful submission. Return to the Student View of the course by clicking the CourseID in the navigation path in the upper left corner of your course. Click on the Course Material button in the navigation menu of the Student View. Within the Syllabus folder you will see your "syllabus as Word Document" item, with a link to the document titled "syllabus". Click on the link (Microsoft Word document) link to view the document. The word processing program will launch and open the file on your computer. Note: Depending on the combination of browser and word processor you are using, the file may launch differently. Netscape browsers will typically ask whether you want to Open or Save a Microsoft Word document (select Open), and open the document in a separate Microsoft Word window, leaving a greyed-out panel in Blackboard. Microsoft Internet Explorer will open a Microsoft Word document within the browser itself instead of launching Word separately. Various combinations of browsers and applications can affect how a document will be launched. Close the document if it opened in a separate window. independent Activity: Create a new item in your syllabus folder that links to your HTML Syllabus. Follow the same steps listed above. Compare the behavior of the two links you have created in the Student View. The next page contains some information about different types of content. 18
More about Content Files Images in pasted html: Images in attached html document: PowerPoint as ppt: PowerPoint as HTML: PowerPoint for printing: Images: Sound files: If you are pasting html into Blackboard that contains links to image, Blackboard will prompt you to locate those images on your computer. Simply click on the Browse button and locate the image name listed on the left. If you are linking to an html document that contains links to image, Blackboard will prompt you to locate those images on your computer. Simply click on the Browse button and locate the imagename listed on the left. PowerPoint presentations can be added as plain PowerPoint presentations (student can download the view PowerPoint Viewer to access the presentation, if they do not have PowerPoint on their computers.for more information see the appendix. PowerPoint presentations can also be saved as HTML, which assures that they look the same to all students, without the need to download the PowerPoint Viewer. However, this involves several steps on the instructor's side. Save PowerPoint as HTML Add item Select "Unpackage this File" in the Special Action drop down menu Select the beginning file For more information, see the appendix. If you want students to be able to print PowerPoint presentations you need to link to the original file AND student have to have PowerPoint (not just the Viewer) on their computers. Alternatively, you can save the presentation as a PDF file, for printing purposes. To display images in a content area, select "Display Media File within the page " under 2 Content Attachment. You will have to make a few more decisions about alignment etc. To play sound file in a content area, select "Display Media File within the page " under 2 Content Attachment. You will have to make a few more decisions about auto play, etc. 19
Add a Learning Unit Learning Units may be added to any content area with the exception of Announcements, Staff Information, and External Links. Students access Learning Units by clicking on a link within the content area. Once added, a Learning Unit can be modified like any other item within a content area. Click Add Learning Unit or Modify from a content area page to access the page shown below. Select or type a Name Choose color for the name (optional) In a few sentences summarize the content and purpose of this learning unit in the Text area (this is optional but recommended) Learning Units have some unique Options, please refer to the table. 20
Options Do you want to enforce sequential viewing of the Learning Unit? Click Yes and students will view the Learning Unit in the order listed. Students will not be able to advance to a page without having viewed the previous page. Do you want the Learning Unit to open in a new window? Click No and students will be able to view the pages in the Learning Unit in any order simply by navigating through the contents. Select Yes to have the Learning Unit open as a new, separate window. Select No to have the Learning Unit open on the same window. Add an Item to a Learning Unit Items added to a Learning Unit appear much the same as content appears within a course content area. Text can be entered or supplemented with attached files. Attached files will, by default, open via a link displayed with the item. Image, audio, and video files can be set to display within the item and packaged files can be unpacked and displayed when the link is clicked. Access the Learning Unit you have just created via the Control Panel Click on the Learning Unit Click on Add Item 21
Select or type a Name Choose color for the name (optional) You now have several options o type "smart text" o copy/paste "smart text" o copy/paste HTML o use text and attach a file An attached file will open in a new window. Note: You will learn to add a file in the next step. The advantage of attaching a file to an item in a learning unit is that you can add a short description in the text box that will be displayed before students click on the link to the attached file. That gives you a chance to tell them what kind of a file they are about to open. Add a File to a Learning Unit In the previous step you learned how to attach a file to a learning unit item. You have probably noticed that you also have the option to add a file, rather than adding an item. Files added to a Learning Unit open as a page within the Learning Unit. Adding files allows students to view content as a slideshow, without having to click a link to open content. Access your Learning Unit through the Control Panel. Click on Add File 22
Select a name that best describes the file that is being added. This name will appear in the Learning Units contents. Click on Browse to locate the file on your computer Double click on that file. Enter a name for the link. This text will appear within the Learning Unit folder to the instructor but will not appear to students. Click Submit Working With Outside Links During this very short module you will start building a Useful Links page within Blackboard. Blackboard has a built-in feature for you to list links. Using this feature, students will be able to quickly access important links via one of the course buttons. This module only has two parts: 1. Enable WebSites Area 2. Add Links Enable Web sites Area Go to your course to determine whether or not you still have a button for Links; this button will be named External Links, Resources or Web Sites. If you do NOT have this button, you need to enable it under Course Settings. 23
If you remember how to do so, please proceed. If you are not sure, here are the steps again. Click on Control Panel Click on Course Settings under Course Options Click on Area Availability Locate listing number 11: External Links, Resources or Web Sites Make sure the Enable radio button is selected Click on Submit Click on OK Adding Folders Click on Control Panel Click on Web Sites under Content Areas Notice that you can add either Items or folders. If you add items, the links will be displayed directly on this page. If you make folders, links will be organized into different folders. For this activity, we will create 2 folders to organize our links: General Resources and HTML Resources. If you have different categories that you know will be useful for your own course, please use them instead. However, we would like each of you to learn how to make folders and links within folders, so if you don't have folders, please follow this example and remove the folders and links later. Click on Add Folder 24
On the next screen, type a name for the folder (for example: General Resources) choose a color (here: pink) type a short description in the text entry box You can edit the text by using HTML. Click on Submit at the bottom of the page. On the receipt screen, click on OK You should now have a folder called General Resources listed on your page. If you don't like the color you have selected, if you would like to rename the folder, or if you need to change your descriptive text, click on Modigy to the right of the folder. Now try : Go ahead and add another folder called HTML resources (or choose a folder you can use in your course) Now that you have two folders, you are ready to add links within those folders. 25
Entering Links Now you will add links to the folders you have just created. Click on the General Resources folder Once inside this folder, click on Add Item At the Add Link screen: Type a name for the new link type the URL exactly type an options description for this link. The description might include the instructions for the assignment, or simply give information. Click on Submit At the receipt screen, click OK TIP: To view these links from a Student's point of view, click on the link to your course in the breadcrumbs menu Click on the Web Sites button You should see the folders you have created and also the links Always check your links, you'd be surprised how easy it is to get the URL wrong. 26
Take a moment to assemble some useful links for your students and add them to your course. A different way to add useful links: Please keep in mind that there is also a more efficient way to add a Useful Links page to your course. You can create a Word Document with URLs and descriptions and then add that document to your Blackboard course. 27