Language packs present Blackboard Learn with language and cultural norms matched to different audiences. Language pack preferences are defined at the system, course or organization, and user levels.

Three levels of language packs

System level

Your institution defines one language pack as the system default. This language pack appears when no other language pack is specified at the course or user level.

Course level

In the Original experience, you can set a language pack that is different from the default to make all users in a course view the same language pack. For example, if you teach a Spanish language class, you may want to select Spanish for the course-level language. At this time, instructors can't set course-specific languages in the Ultra experience.

User level

Individuals may choose their preferred language packs, unless a language pack choice has been set to be enforced.

Customized names for content areas and tools aren't changed with the language pack. These values stay the same for all language packs. The default names in the system are translated and appear differently in each language pack.

Set a language pack

  1. On the Control Panel, expand the Customization section and select Properties.
  2. On the Properties page, make a selection from the Language Pack menu.
  3. Select Enforce Language Pack to always display this course in the selected language pack.
  4. Select Submit.

If you don't choose a language pack for a course, the course displays in the user's preferred language pack. If the user hasn't set a preferred language pack, the course displays in the system default language pack.

Watch a video about changing the course language pack

The following narrated video provides a visual and auditory representation of some of the information included on this page. For a detailed description of what is portrayed in the video, open the video on YouTube, navigate to More actions, and select Open transcript.


Video: How to Change the Language of the User Interface: Instructor shows how to change the course language pack.

Course areas not impacted by language pack selections

For the most part, the Control Panel appears in the selected language pack of a course and not in the language pack selected by the user. In a few places within a course, the page will display with the system default or the user's preferred language pack rather than the course language pack. These pages won't display in the selected course language pack:

  • Control Panel > Course Information > Edit Item, Copy Item, Add Item, Delete Item
  • Control Panel > Copy Files to Content Collection
  • Control Panel > Discussion Board > Add Forum
  • Control Panel > Announcements > Confirmation receipt

When using right-to-left language, English numbers are never flipped. For example, something like A58B265 stays the same in left-to-right and right-to-left. Dates, slashes, and media controls don't change direction, but directionals and scroll bars flip or switch locations.

Whether it's the Hijri or Gregorian calendar, if it's written in English with English numbers, the calendar displays left-to-right. However, if it's in Arabic, the calendar flips and is displayed right-to-left.