How to Setup a Custom Course Entry Home Page in Blackboard

August 20, 2015 By Jason Rhode 1 Comment

For several years, I have been customizing the entry point / home page in my online courses that I’ve designed and taught in Blackboard Learn. In some courses, I’ve setup a course communication dashboard home page where I’ve aggregated various course communications and information items into a singular location. Most recently, I’ve shifted to utilizing a course welcome – start here page that provides my students with general overview information about the course, instructor contact information, and helpful tips for getting off to a strong start in the course.

Sample customized course home page

For those interested in developing their own customized course entry home page in Blackboard, I’ve recorded this video tutorial overview of the course entry home page template that I use in my Blackboard Learn courses, with step-by-step instructions for how to setup in your own course. The template home page HTML code is available in HTML or TXT formats.

If you’d like to experience the custom course home page referenced in the tutorial within a course, the Blackboard course that I demonstrated is available for self-enrollment or to download as an OER package, more details here.

If you found this information helpful, or if you have developed your own custom course home page template, I’d love to hear from you! Leave a comment and let’s connect.

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#BbWorld15 Blackboard – Inspire the World to Learn

July 22, 2015 By Jason Rhode Leave a Comment

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Blackboard Launches Community Site Beta at #BbWorld15

July 21, 2015 By Jason Rhode Leave a Comment

Bb Community Site

Just in time for BbWorld 2015, Blackboard has launched a beta phase of a new community platform at blackboard.jiveon.com. The Beta is rolling out with some great features, allowing users to locate information, submit community questions, share best practices and easily engage and collaborate with peers. Some valuable enhancements are coming in the next few months, like single sign-on, improvements in visual integration and cross-site search and navigation.

Blackboard is seeking feedback and suggestions from client users to shape the development of the community site for a Q3 full launch. By joining the beta you will be invited to participate in future usability tests that will be used to ensure the content published and created is in line with community needs and expectations. These requests for feedback will come in various formats: focus groups, discussions, polls, surveys and direct outreach. Any and all feedback is welcome!

I’ve signed-up for the community site beta and look forward in the coming days to becoming more familiar with the platform, you’ll find me here. Let’s connect!

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BbWorld 2015 Live – catch all the #BbWorld15 keynotes and many sessions

July 20, 2015 By Jason Rhode 2 Comments

BbWorld 2015 Live

In case you missed it, Blackboard for the first time is offering an opportunity to catch all the BbWorld keynotes, product roadmaps, and many of the other sessions by registering at bbworldlive.com

The schedule of live streamed sessions is available here.

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Sample Blackboard Portfolio Layouts

July 19, 2015 By Jason Rhode Leave a Comment

Sample Portfolio Sarah JohnsonWith the recent upgrade to Blackboard Learn 9.1 April 2014 release at Northern Illinois University, we enabled the Blackboard Portfolio tool, designed to help students maintain documentation of their education, samples of their work, and evidence of their skills. ePortfolios, such as the Blackboard Portfolio, contain an organized collection of artifacts (for example, assignments, photos, video) as evidence of accomplishments.

To help students and faculty get a better feel for the layout options as well as media elements that can be included in a Blackboard Portfolio, I created the following sample Blackboard Portfolios to demonstrate the layout and organizational options available:

Sample Layout 1: Left Vertical Navigation

Sample Layout 1

View portfolio using layout 1

Sample Layout 2: Right Vertical Navigation

Sample Layout 2

View portfolio using layout 2

Sample Layout 3: Right Navigation Box

Sample Layout 3

View portfolio using layout 3

Sample Layout 4: Top Horizontal Navigation

Sample Layout 4

View portfolio using layout 4

The layouts shown above all use the same default color scheme, which can be customized in any layout to a wide variety of color palettes.

Here are a few additional screenshots shared by Blackboard showing a few additional sample portfolios.

More Blackboard Portfolio Resources

The NIU Faculty Development and Instructional Design Center is developing a comprehensive set of documentation, guides, and tutorials for faculty and students in their use of the Blackboard Portfolio tool. Visit niu.edu/blackboard/students/portfolios for more info.

Has your institutional implemented the Blackboard Portfolio tool? Leave a comment and let’s connect.

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