The Syllabus Tool in Blackboard allows instructors to upload a file as a syllabus or to build a syllabus directly into a content area of a course site.
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, click on the content area you want to add the syllabus too. In this example, we will use the Course Information content area.
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In any of your content areas, Course Information in our example, locate the Select drop-down menu on the right-hand side of your screen and choose the Syllabus option from this list and click Go.
Here you can decide to:
- provide a name for your syllabus,
- "Create New Syllabus" directly in the Syllabus Builder, or
- "Use existing file" to attach a document you have saved on your computer.
Part 1: Create New Syllabus (The Syllabus Builder)
In the Syllabus builder screen, you can add class information under three headings. The default name for these headings is "Description", "Learning Materials" and "Required Materials", however these names can be amended to suit your class.
The syllabus can be built with one of 6 design templates such as Document Image, Notepad or Contemporary. For each design, the color of headers, borders, text and background and frame (depending on the chosen design type).
You are also given the option to create lesson shells, which could based on how many times your class will meet, how many weeks in a semester, or based on another specific number. In this example we will build our syllabus with six lesson shells.
As with other content added to a Blackboard course, you are also given the option to set availability of your syllabus, as well as tracking the number of views of this content area, and date restrictions. We will leave the defaults set for this example.
Click the submit button on the bottom, right, to make your syllabus.
Preview and Modify a Syllabus
Once you have created your syllabus, you will have a chance to view the chosen design template and colors. If you wish to amend any of the settings in section 2 (with the exception of adding lesson shells), click on Modify Syllabus in the top right-hand corner of your screen.
Below the syllabus, you will see the lesson shells outline. Here you can:
- Add Lesson
- Remove Lesson
- Modify
- Use the numbers on left to re-order the lessons as needed
When you click on Modify to the right of any lesson, you can amend the title, a lesson date, time, start and end times and add a lesson description. When you have added all the desired information, click Submit to save your changes.
Final Syllabus
To view the 'final' version of the syllabus, go back to the edit view of your content area.
If there are any changes you would like to make to the syllabus, click Modify to the left of syllabus.
Other options include:
- Manage - apply 'Review Status', 'Adaptive Release' or 'Statistics Tracking' to this item.
- Copy - copy the item to another content area in this course, or in a different course which you have instructor access to.
- Remove - remove the item.
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Part 2: Use Existing File
If instead you had chosen to use an existing file when adding a syllabus, you are prompted to browse your computer to attach a local file instead.
Hit the Submit button to move to the next screen.
Before your syllabus is complete, you are brought to the Modify Item screen to add additional information. At this time, you can change the name of your syllabus if you wish, and add additional descriptive information for your students.
Additional files can be attached as well in the content area. You can specify special actions for this file as well.
1. "Create a link to this file" is the default.
2. "Display media file within the page." If you are attaching a media file, such as an audio of video file, you can choose to play the media file from within Blackboard.
3. "Unpack this file." If you are uploading a zip fie, you can have Blackboard unpack the zip file after upload.
Unlike the Syllabus Builder, your uploaded file will have to be downloaded to be viewed.
Video Tutorial and PDF Download
How do I make a course available to students?
(If you do not have QuickTime or cannot view the movie above,
please view our 
Flash movie (Flash Movie Player Required)
This Blackboard tutorial is also available as a downloadable PDF 
(Adobe Reader required)
For a complete list of ITS Blackboard tutorials, please visit www.nyu.edu/its/blackboard/tutorials.
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