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Adding Content to Blackboard

How to Add Content • Supported File Types • Adding a Course Link or URL • Tips for Uploading Content • Adding PowerPoint • Incorporating Multimedia • Using PDF's • Scanning for Display on Blackboard • Related FAQs

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How to Add Content

The first step to adding content into your Blackboard site is first browsing to one of the sites content areas.

Log in and click on the "Control Panel" button on the lower left hand corner of the screen. This will bring you into the main "Control Panel" view. The content areas of your site can be found in the upper left hand side of the "Control Panel" view.

Click on the name of the Content Area that you wish to begin uploading content into. In the subsequent screen you will see a toolbar across the top of the page. In order to begin adding content into this area click on the button labeled "Add Item".

You will be brought into another interface where you will have a few different options for adding your content. Blackboard gives you the ability to:

ADDING CONTENT INTO THE TEXT BOX
To add your content directly into the system type, or copy and paste, the text of the item you wish to add directly into the text box. You have the option to name the item yourself or to choose from any of the pre-specified names provided in the drop down box.

At the bottom of the text box there are a few options for how you'd like to have your text processed - Smart Text, Plain Text, and HTML. Smart Text is the default option and will support some minor formatting, as well as explicit links. Plain text is a raw text format with no formatting support. If you know HTML you can write (or paste) your markup directly into the box and have it processed as HTML by checking off this radio button. When you are satisfied with how your content appears scroll down to the bottom of the page, adjust the availability settings accordingly, and then click submit.

**Blackboard 6 now has an integrated WebEQ equation editor built in. To create mathematical formulas click on the "Plus" button at the bottom of the text box to bring up the WebEQ editor.

When you have completed building your formula click the button labeled "Add". This will add the WebEQ markup into your text box. After inputting your equation scroll to the bottom of the page, adjust the availability options accordingly, and then click submit.

ADDING CONTENT INTO THE TEXT BOX

To add your content as a file attachment first specify the item name (or choose any of the pre-specified titles) and then scroll down the page to the section labeled "2 - Content Attachments"

Click on the button labeled "Browse" and find a file to upload to the system. This will open a file explorer window that will allow you to browse your hard drive for the location of the file that you wish to upload (similar to adding an attachment to an e-mail message). Any file you wish to upload should have a three or four letter file extension (such as ".txt" or ".html") which designates its type and is a commonly used extension name recognized by web browsers. For example: If you wish to upload a Microsoft Word document, it must be named similarly to "myfile.doc", ".doc" being the file extension for Word. Also, be sure to use sensible filename - no spaces or special characters .

Once you find the file select it and then click "Open". If you wish to provide an alternate name for the file you can type one in now. Choose the special action "Create a link to this file"; this is the default option and will be used a majority of the time when adding files to the system. Scroll to the bottom of the screen and adjust the availability settings accordingly, then click submit. You will receive a content receipt that you have added the document to the system. You students can now browse to this content area and click on the link to the file you have uploaded to view it. Blackboard supports a number of different file types. For more information see the "Blackboard Supported File Types Guide".

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Supported File Types

Any file you wish to upload should have a three or four letter file extension (such as ".txt" or ".html") which designates its type and is a commonly used extension name recognized by web browsers. Be sure to give your files sensible names - no spaces or special characters. For example: If you wish to upload a Microsoft Word document, it must be named similarly to "myfile.doc", ".doc" being the file extension for Word. (see the table below for commonly used file extensions.)

This also helps because web browsers such as Netscape Navigator are pre-configured to recognize common file types. That way, a student can click on a file such as "sample.xls" and the browser will automatically launch the associated program, in this case, Excel. Accordingly, items that are uploaded may require that the users/students taking your course have the associated program residing on the computer they use.

Supported File Types (listed alphabetically by extension):

Extension	File Type	Associated Program
.aam	Multimedia	Authorware Plug-in www.macromedia.com
.aiff	Audio	Audio program
.asf	Multimedia	Windows Media Player www.microsoft.com
.au	Audio	RealPlayer www.realaudio.com
.avi	Video	Windows Media Player (not Mac-compatible!)
.doc	Document	Microsoft Word or other word processor
.ea	Audio	Java enabled Web Browser
.ev, .ev2	Video	Java enabled Web Browser
.exe	Program	--NA--
.gif	GIF Image	Graphics program or web browser
.html, .htm	Web Page	HTML editor or web browser
.jpg, .jpeg, .jif	JPEG Image	Graphics program or web browser
.mpg, .mpeg	Video	Windows Media Player or RealPlayer
.mov	Video	Quicktime Player
.pdf	Document	Adobe Acrobat www.adobe.com
.png	PNG Image	Graphics program or web browser
.ppt, .pps	Slide Show	PowerPoint & PowerPoint Player
.qt	Movie	Quicktime Player www.apple.com
.ra	RealAudio	RealPlayer www.realaudio.com
.rm	RealVideo	RealPlayer www.realaudio.com
.rtf	Rich Text	WordPad, BBedit or word processor
.swa	Audio	Shockwave Plug-in www.macromedia.com
.swv	Multimedia	Shockwave Plug-in www.macromedia.com
.swf	Multimedia	Shockwave Flash Plug-in www.macromedia.com
.tif, .tiff	TIFF Image	Graphics program
.txt	Plain Text	Text or HTML editor, word processor
.wav	Audio	Audio program
.wpd	Document	WordPerfect or other word processor
.xls	Spreadsheet	Microsoft Excel or other spreadsheet app.

File Sizes

When developing your course materials, remember that the students may be connecting to the Internet via a modem. Files should be kept small enough so users with slower connections will still be able to access the files in a reasonable time. If this is not possible, try to minimize file size by using a file compression tool such as WinZip. These are often available free online or for a small fee.

If you cannot keep the file size down, an alternative is to provide the student with information describing what the file is and why it is important. Often, simply letting a student know that the download may take longer than usual will diffuse any frustration associated with the long process.

Use this chart as a reference when determining the download times for files:

	K/sec	100K File	1MB File	5MB File	10MB File
14.4 Modem (older modem)	1.5	66 sec	11 min	57 min	114 min
28.8 Modem	3	33 sec	6 min	28 min	57 min
ISDN	7	14 sec	2 min	12 min	24 min
T1 (fast on-campus connection)	150	1 sec	7 sec	34 sec	68 sec

Keep in mind that times will vary based on internet traffic and connection speed.

Additional Tips:

• Use the smallest possible graphics and sound files. Technical example: 8-bit graphics display and animate more quickly and occupy less memory than 24-bit graphics, which are three times larger.
  
• Breakup the file into smaller files and have students download it piece by piece.
  
• Compress the files. A compressed file is a little larger than half the size of the original version. Compressed files must be decompressed before you can run them.

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Adding a Course Link or URL

Blackboard 6 now allows you to add External Links to websites - in addition, you can add links to content areas anywhere in your site.

TO ADD A COURSE LINK

To add a link to content that you have uploaded elsewhere in your Blackboard site click on the "Control Panel" button and browse to the content area of your site where you'd like to place the link.

Click on the button lableled "Add Course Link":

Specify a name and description for the link to the content that you are about to create and then scroll down to the section labeled "Course Link Attachments" and click the "Browse" button. This will open up a course map.

Browse to the specific area of your course site that you'd like to link to. Click the + button to open folders and drill down to the content level. After finding the content you wish to link to place a check in the radio button next to the item. Scroll to the bottom of the page and click submit.

TO ADD AN EXTERNAL LINK
To add a link to an external website click on the "Control Panel" button and browse to the content area of your site where you'd like to place the link.

Click on the button lableled "Add URL":

Provide a name and description for the URL and then type in the actual URL that you'd like your students to browse to. Adjust the availability settings accordingly and then click submit.

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Tips for Uploading Content

When adding content to your course site please remember the following:

EASE OF NAVIGATION: Ideally you want your Blackboard site to be easy to navigate for all students that login. One way to accomplish this is to make a "course site map" on paper before you begin uploading content. Create this map in a hierarchical fashion; doing so will make it easier for you to transfer your course materials to the web. For example, break up your content into major categories and subcategories. Next, browse to the content area that you want to upload the content into and now create folders for all the major categories. Once you have your folder hierarchy developed then begin adding content into the folders. This makes your site easier to navigate.

CONTENT TYPES: When uploading content to Blackboard the concept of "Accessibility" should always be your primary concern. If you are uploading Powerpoint or Word files into your site you are working under the assumption that all students enrolled in your class will have access to the Microsoft Office Suite. In order to ensure maximum accessibility it is always a good idea to use HTML and PDF formats whenever possible. Most Office Suites allow you to save your content as HTML nowadays. If you are interested in creating PDFs you will need to purchase the Adobe Acrobat program, or you can experiment with the file format by using the On-Line ACCC PDF Distiller. Another factor to be concerned about is file size. Often times Powerpoint files with images can be very large (3MB>). These files are very hard to view over a 56kbps internet connection. You should always attempt to optimize the content you plan to post. There are several ways of doing this. For more information please view the "Adding Powerpoint" and "Scanning for Display on Blackboard" overviews.

DIGITAL COPYRIGHT: When uploading content to your Blackboard site you should always be sure to obtain copyright clearance for any intellectual property that does not belong to you. The UIC library has a great selection of on-line reserves and journals that can be used; in addition they will be able to assist you in obtaining copyright clearance. Another great resouce is the Indiana Univeristy Copyright Management Center.

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Adding PowerPoint

HTML recommended, PDF as well, .ppt, .pps or .shw not really.

All presentation programs include the ability to save to web-format (HTML-pages with GIF or JPEG images of the slides). To make stand-alone PDF-based presentations that play just like a Powerpoint presentation, use the Acrobat PDFmaker macro from within MS Powerpoint (Acrobat 3, 4 or 5 full program needed).

Both HTML and PDF formats are accessible to users of screen readers, whereas proprietary formats are not. (The HTML format needs to include a text-only version of the slides to be accessible, which Powerpoint automatically creates.)

The majority of users may have the same presentation program you use, but you can normally not assume that everyone has it. Thus some students may not be able to see proprietary presentations at all. If you make a stand-alone presentation with embedded player, there is an additional download-time penalty, plus the viewer software will only work on Windows-based PCs.

Besides, the entire presentation has to be downloaded before the user can even see the first slide. With HTML or PDF format, each page is downloaded upon request, so the user sees something more quickly. And launching the presentation software requires additional memory and system resources.

Finally, the .ppt format is, like all MS Office formats, prone to infection from Visual Basic macro-viruses. Not a good format for sharing files!

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2. How do I convert my slides in Powerpoint 97?

You will need Powerpoint software and Winzip software (available for free at http://www.winzip.com).

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3. How do I convert my slides in Powerpoint 2000?

You will need Powerpoint software and Winzip software (available for free at http://www.winzip.com).

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4 . How do I convert my slides in Powerpoint for the Mac?

You will need Powerpoint software and StuffIt Deluxe™ software (available for at http://www.stuffit.com). Unfortunately Blackboard does not support the .SIT format currently so you need software capable of creating .ZIP files.

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5. So I converted - what now?

Name your document properly! You must use relatively short filenames (best under 20 characters total) without spaces or other special characters for all files you want to upload to any webserver. Make it a habit to use only letters, digits, dashes and underscores.

The Add Item dialogue in Blackboard CourseInfo not only allows you to upload a single document, creating a link to it. It also has a selector for a special action to use on it. One of those is Unpackage this file, which is intended to import an entire website at once, with relative links between pages intact. This option needs to be used to import a slide presentation that was converted to HTML format.

First, however, you need to make a package out of the folder created by the conversion. This folder contains various HTML pages and images, and the start page is usually called index.htm (depending on the presentations program). Use a tool such as WinZip, PKZip, or ZipMagic to make a package file (with the .zip extension) out of the folder. Mac users should use MACzip, ZipIt, Dropzip, or Stuffit 5.5 Deluxe in ZIP mode (and make sure to give the file a .zip extension). Unix users may create .tar or .gz files instead.

When you upload the file with the special action Unpackage this file, the archive will be unzipped, and you will be prompted to specify the starting page from the list of files within the archive. This is normally index.htm (but see below for PPT 2000).

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6. Screen size considerations

Today, the average user has 800x600 pixels resolution on a 15-inch screen. You should never assume that students can see your pages at 1024x768 pixels on a 17-inch monitor, although that is becoming a more common luxury. As Blackboard CourseInfo chips off another ~130 pixels in width and ~80 pixels in height, you really have only about 640x350 pixels for your presentation (due to the browser's toolbars).

That means that your target size for export should be no larger than 1/2 of an 800x600 screen with the navigation controls below the slide, or at most 3/4 of a 640x480 screen with navigation beside the slide.

Blackboard 5.5 now sports a nice solution for displaying large (especially wide) content: the Learning Unit. These self-contained collections of content can be made to display in a separate window, without navigation buttons. When scaling these to full-screen display, a good sized presentation can be achieved. So our recommendation for displaying slide presentations is to always make them part of a Learning Unit that displays in its own window.

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7. Powerpoint 2000 - a problem case

In Powerpoint 2000, there is no wizard to walk you through the process of exporting to HTML. Instead, your simply select File > Save as Web Page . As a one-time step, make sure to click the Publish button and select to create pages that support all browsers, not just MS Internet Explorer 4.0 and above! All other settings are made in the program preferences, under Tools > Options > General > Web Options . Make sure not to use VML, so you don't limit your audience to the newest MSIE browsers.

Whatever your preference, a complicated layout using frames is generated when exporting to HTML. The image size cannot be controlled or overridden, other than by specifying the target screen size for the overall layout. The left frame will always hold the titles of each slide as a presentation outline and quick navigation. Navigation buttons are placed in a hardly visible frame below the slides and the speaker notes. This layout does not fit into Blackboard CourseInfo at all, but see the previous section for handling this. Or modify the frameset in a web-editor such as DreamWeaver to remove the left frame entirely.

To bring such a presentation into Blackboard CourseInfo, you need to zip up the entire folder name-of-presentation_files . Don't worry about the extra file outside of it, called name-of-presentation.htm , which is just a JavaScript-based re-director script that will not work in Blackboard CourseInfo anyway. Instead, when Blackboard CourseInfo prompts you for the entry point to your uploaded archive, select the file v3_document.htm as start page. Note: this page is only generated if you chose to support older browsers via the Publish button when saving as web page in Powerpoint. You can also include the re-director file in your ZIP archive if you check the option to save full path info in WinZIP.

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8. Tips to give the students

For those with limited screen size, and in particular when viewing a presentation converted to HTML format by Powerpoint 2000, it is often necessary to break out of Blackboard CourseInfo's frames layout and display the presentation maximized. To achieve that, click the right mouse button (Mac users Ctrl-click, or click-and-hold) on the link to the actual presentation. From the context menu that pops up, choose Open (Link) in New Window.

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9. Narrating slide presentations

While presentation programs offer an option to record a narration for slide shows, the resulting files are way too large to share them via the web. Instead, a streaming technology should be used, as for most multimedia delivery via the web. There are mainly two options: RealPresenter (only works with Powerpoint), and RealSlideshow (works with any collection of images, as obtained by the conversion of a slideshow to HTML+images format).

The streaming media then needs to be uploaded to the ACCC streaming server, and will only be linked to from your Blackboard site.
Please see our RealMedia support pages for details about these programs and the delivery of the resulting files.

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Incorporating Multimedia

Incorporating Multimedia is a great way to spice up your Blackboard site. The correct way to incorporate multimedia into your site is really to use some form of a streaming format. The Instructional Technology Laboratory hosts a RealMedia streaming server that can stream Windows Media, RealMedia, RealAudio, MP3s, Streaming Narrated Powerpoint, and Quicktime files.

If you are interested in creating multimedia for inclusion into your Blackboard site please e-mail realmedia@uic.edu or take a look at the RealMedia support pages.

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Using PDF's

As mentioned elsewhere in the BB6 support pages, PDF is a recommended format when posting content to Blackboard. There are several applications of this file format including, but not limited to:

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Scanning for Display on Blackboard

When scanning images, diagrams, and illustrations for display on Blackboard you should always consider the display resolution of your target audience. A common error that first time Blackboard users often perpetrate is posting/scanning images that are far too large for display on the system. This often gives the end user the feeling that they are looking at an image through a microscope - they have to scroll around to see the image in sections. Moreover, images that are scanned at a high resolution and posted without any resizing are often very large files and can take inordinant amounts of time to download. In order to size images correctly for display on Blackboard you need to resize them to fit in the main content frame. This can be accomplished by using an image editing program like Adobe Photoshop, or PaintShop Pro.

Once you have acquired your image you will first want to think about the target audience. Today most computers come with 15 - 17 inch monitors. A good rule of thumb then is to think about what your image would look like on a monitor that is using 800 x 600 resolution which is the typical display setting that is comfortably viewable for the average user with a 15 - 17 inch monitor.

At a resolution of 800 x 600 the Blackboard system will appear to your end user like this:

As you can see, the viewable size of the main frame is 625 pixels by 325 pixels. In order to have any images that you upload display properly in this main frame you will want them to fall within this size limit. To resize an image open up the large file in your Image editing program and use the Image resize command. In Adobe Photoshop this can be found on the "Image...>Image Size...>" submenu. For convenience it is a good idea to check off the 'constrain proportions' option. This will keep your image proportionate when resizing it. For help with resizing images please contact the ITL by sending a message to itl@uic.edu. We will be able to assist you in resizing or scanning content for display on Blackboard.

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