Creating Links Within Your Course Content in Blackboard

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Instructional Technology
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Creating links within your course content in Blackboard

Tutorial for Instructors

Overview

This document explains how to create hyperlinks among the components of yourBlackboard course. There are three ways to add course links: as an item in a Content Area, via a hyperlink created manually, or as part of an Announcement. Using hyperlinks exploits the “web” in your website, allowing students to navigate from place to place more easily.

Previous knowledge/skills required

Familiarity with adding content (items) in Blackboard
Familiarity with creating Announcements in Blackboard

Technical Support

Instructional Technology staff is available to assist you with any aspect of this tutorial. Please contact us at 1.877.717.6988 or .

NOTE: All of the screen shots in this document are from the Windows XP operating system. Users of other operating systems may find that their experience varies slightly from what is documented here.

Before you Begin
Before you can create a hyperlink from one part of your course to another, the material (location) that you want to link to must already be in place in your Blackboard Course.

Creating a course link

NOTE: This type of link use thename of the Content Item as a hyperlink to another part of the course. That is, the item itself serves as a link to another location in your course (e.g., to the Discussion Board).
1. Begin the same way you would to add content to a Content Area.
a) Enter (via the Control Panel) the Content Area in which you want to place
a course link.
b) Click. /
2. Section 1: Course Link Information
a) Enter an appropriate name for the Course Link.
b) Enter text that describes what your Course Link is for. /
3. Section 2: Course Link
a) Click.
b) Navigate to the destination that corresponds to the Course Link. /

4. Section 3: Options
a) Make sure ‘Yes’ is selected in the Make the Content Available field.
b) Choose date and time restrictions if you want the Course Link to only be available for a specific time. /
5. Section 4: Submit
Click. /
6. Click. /
Once the course link has been added, the student can go use it to go directly to that part of the course. This image shows the student view. /

Create ahyperlink “by hand”

NOTE: A hyperlink can be from any part of the course to any other. (This tutorial uses the Discussion board as an example).
1. Find the web address of the place in your course to which you would like to create a link from somewhere else in your course.
a) Access your Discussion Board from the student view (NOT the Control Panel).
b)Find the appropriate Discussion forum.
c) Right-Click on the name of the item (in this case it’s a discussions forum) to which you want to create a link.
d) Select Copy Shortcut. /
2. a) Access (via the Control Panel) the Content Area in which you want to create a hyperlink to the web address you copied in step 1. (In this tutorial we useMaterial, the section of the course containing Course Material).
b) Click to add a content item that will contain a hyperlink. /
3. Section 1: Content Information
a) Enter a name for the item.
b) Enter the text for your item.
c) Highlight (select by dragging your cursor across the text) the appropriate part of the text that will serve as a link to the part of your course as determined in step 1.
d) Click and a Hyperlink popup will appear.
e) Press Ctrl+V in the “URL” field and the web address that you copied in step 1 will automatically be entered, which creates a link.
f) Click “OK”. The text highlighted in step c will now be clickable as a web link. /

4: Section 2: Content
Complete as for any Content Item, if desired. /
5. Section 3: Options
a) Make sure ‘Yes’ is selected in the Make the Content Available field.
b) Choose date and time restrictions if you want the item to only be available for a specific time. /
5. Section 4: Submit
Click. /
6. Click. /
This is the instructor’s view of the hyperlink created. /
This is student’s view of the hyperlink. /

Adding a Course Link: Announcement

1. Access the Control Panel and select Announcements /
2. Click.
3. Section 1: Announcement Information
a) Enter an appropriate name for the subject of the Announcement (e.g., Case Study Now Available).
b) Enter a message for the Announcement. /
4. Section 2: Options
a) Choose whether or not you want to make the Announcement permanent.
b) Choose the date restrictions if you want the Announcement to only be available for a specific time. /
5. Section 3: Course Link
a) Click.
b) Navigate to the destination that corresponds to the Course Link. /

6. Section 4: Submit
Click. /
7. Click. /
When the student logs in to your course he/she will see this screen. /

Written by Jarod Sigmund, IT Student Assistant