Blackboard 8: Uploading a Syllabus (or Other Document)

The process of adding a file to your Blackboard course site, is very similar to that of adding an attachment to an email. Numerous file types can be added to your course site such as Word documents, PDFs, images, etc.

Log into Blackboard, and go into the desired course. Once in the student view, click on the Control Panel icon at the bottom of your course menu. In the control panel for your course, choose the Content Area you wish to add the file to. In this example we will use Course Documents.

Tip: You can rename any of the default content areas. To learn how to do this, see the article on Customizing the Course Menu. Remove any buttons that don't suit your course design and aren't going to be used during the semester. Keeping the course menu clean and simple for students will avoid any confusion of "empty" areas.

In the content area, click on the +Item icon in the top toolbar.

Section 1: Content Information Type in the name of the item and any related text you want to provide to students. The text box editor resembles a mini word editor and contains similar functionality such as creating text, bolding text, inserting images in line with text, etc.

Section 2: Content To add your file to your site, click on the Browse button in section 2. Browse for the file on your computer you want to attach and then select Open.

You can choose whether you want to make this content available to students or not by amending the Make the content available option. This option can be changed at any time.

To track how many times a user in your Blackboard course site views a particular piece of content, you can amend the Track number of views option from No to Yes.

Lastly, Blackboard will automatically "release" a piece of content to students based on specific dates. To set this up, amend the Display After or Display Until options at the end of section 3.

When you have choosen your settings, click Submit at the bottom of your page to save your changes.

Section 3: Options

Tip: To update a file once it has been added to your Blackboard course site, click Modify to the right of the file in the relevant content area. Scroll down to Section 2 and click on the Remove option. Once you have removed the file, repeat the steps above to Browse for the updated file to add it to your course site.

Advanced Tip: You can upload multiple files in a zip file by using the Document Package tool in your Control Panel.  Also, you can copy content from one semester to another by using the Copy Course tool in your Control Panel.

This Blackboard tutorial is also available as a video(Flash Player required) or as a downloadable PDF (Adobe Reader required).

Uploading a File Video Tutorial

Uploading a File PDF Tutorial

Click here to download a PDF version of this tutorial.

For a complete list of ITS Blackboard tutorials, please visit www.nyu.edu/its/blackboard/tutorials.

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