Adding an Item – Text, Files, Images, and More January 2016

Whether building or maintaining a course site, one of the most common activities is adding files and blocks of text. Depending on the content you’re adding, there are two methods of adding content to a course. If you only want to add a single file — any kind of file, Powerpoint file, PDF file, Word file, video file, audio file — with no accompanying text, the easiest method is to use the Add File tool.

If you want to add one or more files under a single heading, text, and / or images that appear onscreen immediately (without clicking a link), you’ll want to use the Add Item tool.

To get started, go to to the Content Area in your course where you’d like to add the content, then point to BUILD and choose ITEM under the CREATE heading.

Name and Color

Enter a name for the item you’re adding.

If you’d like to change the color of the file link, click the (default black) color tile, and select a new color. If you need help using the color picker, you’ll find more detailed instructions here.

Resize Text Area

If you’d like to include on-screen text in your item, type it into the text box. Need more space for typine, click and drag the bottom-right corner of the text area.

The bar at the top of the text area contains a wide array of tools for formatting your text. If you only see a single line of tools, click the SHOW MORE button on the right side of the toolbar. Conversely, if you would like to hide most of the tools to provide more typing space, click the SHOW LESS button, which appears in the same place on a fully expanded toolbar.

Add an Image

If you’d like to add an image to the page, click the INSERT / EDIT IMAGE button on the bottom row of the toolbar. Browse your computer for the image file you’d like to add to the page. We recommend adding a brief description of the image in the IMAGE DESCRIPTION box. If the image is very large, you can edit the size in the add image box by clicking APPEARANCE, then changing the image’s width or height on the DIMENSIONS line (make sure the CONSTRAIN PROPORTIONS box is checked so your image doesn’t become warped). 500 is a decent width for a moderate sized image. 1000 works for a larger image (for reference, the animated image below is 1000 pixels wide). You can also resize the image after adding it to your item by holding the SHIFT key on your keyboard, then clicking and dragging the box on the side of your image (holding SHIFT constrains the proportions as you resize, again ensuring the image doesn’t become skewed).

Add One or More Files

To link a file to your item, click the BROWSE MY COMPUTER button under the ATTACHMENTS heading.

Locate the file you wish to attach in the file browser and click OPEN. Note that any type of file can be attached — PDF files, Word files, PowerPoint files, video files, image files. The only limitation is whether your students have the software necessary to open the file you’ve attached.

If you need to add another file, just click the BROWSE MY COMPUTER button again and repeat the process. To remove a file, click the DO NOT ATTACH text that appears beside the currently attached file.

While Blackboard does give you the opportunity to change the LINK TITLE, we do not recommend doing this. Changing the link title can make it difficult for students to locate the file after they’ve downloaded it to their own computer.

Standard Options (Item Availability)

The Standard Options on the Create / Edit Item page work as they do elsewhere on Blackboard. If you’d like to make the content available to students, whether immediately or at a later date, click select YES on the “Permit Users to View this Content” line.

If you’d like users to view the content at a set time in the future, but not immediately, you should select YES on the “Permit Users to View” line, then check the DISPLAY AFTER box and enter the date and time you want students to have access. You can limit access to a window of time by also checking the DISPLAY UNTIL box and entering a date and time (note, you can make content available from a set time in the future until a set time in the future by setting both AFTER and UNTIL restrictions; you can make content available from the moment you add it until a set date by setting only an UNTIL restriction.

If you’d like to be able to see view statistics for this content (as well as other content items on the page you’re adding it to), select YES on the “Track Number of Views” line.

Once you’ve set the options as you’d like them, click SUBMIT to add the content or save your changes.

Build / Add Content Russell Davidson Updated: February 5, 2016

Adding Color in Blackboard January 2016

Most Blackboard items allow you to change their label color using a simple color picker. To change the label color, click the default (black) color box to open the color picker.

This launches the color picker. To choose one of the available colors, simply click its box on the picker.

Use Color Carefully

When adding color, consider the background on which your colored text will appear. Using light, bright colors, such as Yellow or Pale Weak Cyan, can can result in unreadable text when placed on a white background.

Use Color Meaningfully

While adding color can help brighten a course site, adding color simply to make the site appear brighter can result in a visual confusion that can sometimes create anxiety for students.

Not an ideal use of color.

Instead of applying color for color’s sake, consider applying color in a meaningful way. When used appropriately, color-coding can be a helpful tool in signalling to students what type of content they’re looking at. For example, you may label all assignments red, all discussion items green, all lecture content blue. To ensure you’re using the exact same color across all items in a folder, take note of 6-character the color value that appears when you select a color in the color picker.

You can copy this value and paste it into a text file, then, when you add another item of the same type, copy the value from your text file and paste it into the color value space to get exactly the same color.

Content Area Russell Davidson Updated: January 25, 2016

Adding a File Only January 2016

If you want to add multiple files in a group, text, images that may be viewed onscreen, or a single file accompanied by text, you’ll want to use the Add Item tool.

If you only want to add a single file — any kind of file, Powerpoint file, PDF file, Word file, video file, audio file — with no accompanying text, the easiest method is to use the Add File tool. Go into the content space where you’d like to add the file. Then, point to BUILD CONTENT and choose FILE under the CREATE heading.

In the select file space, enter the text you’d like your students to see and click on to access the file. If you’d like to change the color of the file link, click the (default black) color tile, and select a new color. To actually attach the file, click the BROWSE MY COMPUTER button.

Locate the file on your computer, then click OPEN to add the file to the page.

Under the File Options heading, we recommend setting “Open in a New Window” to YES. You needn’t worry about the “Add alignment” option.

The Standard Options on the Create / Edit a File page work as they do elsewhere on Blackboard. If you’d like to make the content available to students, whether immediately or at a later date, click select YES on the “Permit Users to View this Content” line.

If you’d like to be able to see view statistics for this content (as well as other content items on the page you’re adding it to), select YES on the “Track Number of Views” line.

Once you’ve set the options as you’d like them, click SUBMIT to add the content or save your changes.

Build / Add Content Russell Davidson Updated: January 25, 2016

Editing and Creating Piazza Folders January 2016

Once you’ve created a Piazza space for your course, you will probably want to edit the folder structure so it more accurately reflects how you plan to use Piazza in conjunction with your course. Piazza folders function much like folders or discussion forums on Blackboard: they serve to organize the discussions or questions in your Piazza site. However, where on Blackboard a user first enters a Discussion Forum, then creates a post, in Piazza, one starts creating a post and selects where it belongs from a list.

To make changes to the default folders, click MANAGE CLASS at the top of the Piazza page.

The Configure Folders setting space is a little buried in the current version of Piazza. To get to this section quickly, click CUSTOMIZE Q&A.

customize-Q&A By default, Piazza offers a number of folders. To make changes to these defaults, select the EDIT DEFAULT FOLDERS radio-button.

You’ll notice there two types of folders: Numbered folders and custom folders.

Numbered folders appear a some text followed by a number. For example, you may have 10 weekly homework assignments. To create folders for each of these, you need only enter the text Homework (or Assignment) in the text space, then select the appropriate number (10) from the How Many pulldown.

To edit the existing numbered folders, click the EDIT button.

You’ll notice Piazza provides a fair number of suggestions for labelling numbered folder. If none of these suit your needs, choose “Create your own,” then enter your custom label in the space provided.

Note that in these labels, spaces will be converted into underscores and capital letters will be converted to lowercase. To save your changes, click ADD.

To create a custom folder, simply enter the folder label in the title space, then click ADD. To remove a folder, click the REMOVE link.

To save these changes to the class, click SAVE CHANGES.

Communicate, Piazza Russell Davidson Updated: January 21, 2016

Responding to a Piazza Post January 2016

To respond to a question or discussion prompt, simply click in the Students’ Answer space and type your response.

Where Piazza becomes interesting, and different from Blackboard’s discussion board, is when an initial response has been posted, and another member of the class has an addition or clarification.

While a traditional discussion board is geared toward students individually responding to a discussion prompt, Piazza is unique in that it encourages students to respond to a discussion prompt collaboratively, editing a single posts in a wiki-like fashion. Changes are preserved in a timeline, making it easy for both instructors and students to see who made what changes to a post.

Note that, while instructors and students can edit student posts, only instructors can edit instructor posts.

Editing a post is simple, just click the EDIT button in the lower-left corner of the post.

This re-opens the message in the text editor. Make whatever changes you feel are necessary, then click SUBMIT to save those changes.

You can see who has edited a post by checking the post’s lower-right corner.

To view the post history, drag the slider-bar at the top of the post left to view previous versions, right to view newer versions. Tics on the slider line indicate changes to the post. The yellow box that appears below the slider indicates who is responsible for changes in the visible version.

Communicate, Piazza, Piazza Russell Davidson Updated: January 21, 2016

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