Find and navigate the calendar

From the global calendar in the list where your name appears, you can see all your upcoming due dates and meetings across your courses—all in one place.

In your calendar, you can find this information:

  • Office hours, course schedule, and events: These appointments appear automatically on the calendar when you add them to a course.
  • Due dates: When you create content with a due date, the dates appears automatically in the calendar.

When you access the calendar from inside a course, it shows events for that course only. Select the Calendar tab from the course's navigation bar.

Image of a course page, with the Calendar tab underlined in purple

Other topics on this help page:

Watch a video about the Calendar

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 Vimeo

Video: Manage your Calendar - Instructors explains how to use the calendar to keep track of your events and due dates.

Choose your view

Image of the global calendar, showing a course event and an assignment due date
  • Select Day or Month to zoom in on one day's tasks or plan for the weeks ahead.
  • Select Due Dates to focus only on your upcoming deadlines.
  • Select the Calendar Settings button in the upper-right corner to choose the calendars you want to see.

Add or edit an event

You can add two different kinds of events: events for your personal calendar, and events for your courses. Select the title of any event you've added to change its details.

You can move and delete events in your calendar. Drag and drop events to change times or delete events that you no longer need.

Locations are displayed with the event's time and title on the calendar page. Descriptions are only displayed when you select the event for more details.

Personal calendar events

To add events to your personal calendar, select Calendar from base navigation bar. Select the New Event button, which appears as a plus sign within a circle, and then select Add Event.

Course calendar events

To add events to a course calendar,  go to the Calendar tab of the course you want to add an event for. Select the New Event button, which appears as a plus sign within a circle, and then select Add Event. You can also add events directly from the global calendar by selecting that course's calendar from the dropdown menu when you go to add an event.

Image of the Add Event panel, showing a course calendar as an option beneath the personal calendar in a dropdown menu

Students can't delete or move events added by you.

Add or edit a course schedule

You can add a course schedule by selecting Add course schedule under Details & Actions on the course's Content page or by going to the course's Calendar page, selecting the New Event button, and then Add course schedule from the dropdown menu. The course schedule now appears beneath Details & Actions on the Content pages of everyone enrolled in the course.

Image of the Course Schedule beneath the Details & Actions section, showing two different course event times

After you've added a schedule, select the pencil button beside Course Schedule on the course's Content page or Edit course schedule from the Calendar page if you want to edit any item on the schedule.

Nickname is a required field. The nickname is the name of the event on people's calendar pages. Location is an optional field.

You must remove all events on the course schedule to remove the course schedule from your course's Details & Actions on the Content page.

Share your calendar

Your schedule is a mix of academic and personal commitments. To help keep up with everything you've got going on, you can put everything on one calendar.

You can share your Blackboard Learn calendar with external services so course events appear with other events.

You can't share calendars for individual courses. When you share your calendar, events for all of your courses appear.

  1. Select Calendar from the base navigation bar.
  2. Select the Calendar Settings button.
  3. From the Calendar Settings screen, select the dots button and select Share Calendar.
  4. Copy the calendar link. Share the URL only with trusted sources.

When you connect your Blackboard Learn calendar to an external calendar, all course events appear one year in the past and into the future.

Add calendar to iCal

To share your Blackboard Learn calendar with iCal, you'll add it as a calendar subscription.

  1. Open iCal on your Apple device.
  2. Go to File > New Calendar Subscription.
  3. Paste the Blackboard Learn calendar link and select Subscribe.
  4. Enter the calendar's name and adjust other settings. In the Location field, select iCloud if you want the calendar to appear on your other authenticated Apple devices such as iPhone or iPad.
  5. Select OK to finish set up.

More on subscribing to calendars on a Mac

Add calendar to Google calendar

Share your Blackboard Learn calendar with Google calendar to view all events in one place.

  1. Open your Google calendar in a browser.
  2. Under Other calendars, select Add other calendars, and then select From URL.
  3. Paste the Blackboard Learn calendar link and select Add calendar to save.
  4. Open the calendar's settings to rename it and adjust sharing and notification settings.

More on adding external calendars to Google calendar

Add an external calendar

If you prefer to use Blackboard Learn's calendar, you can also add an external calendar file to your Blackboard Learn calendar so course events appear with other events.

  1. Select Calendar from the base navigation bar.
  2. Select the Calendar Settings button.
  3. From the Calendar Settings screen, select the dots button and select Add Calendar.
  4. In the window, drag and drop or upload the calendar file. Only ICS files are supported.
  5. Select Add Calendar to finish and import events.

When you add your external calendar to Blackboard Learn, events appear one year in the past and into the future. The events are grouped under My Personal Calendar to show that you added them yourself. The events don't reference the calendar or the name of the file you uploaded.

You can edit or delete events you upload just like any other event you add.

What is ICS?

ICS refers to a standardized calendar file type that lets you export and import files between different applications. These files use .ics at the end of the file name. Many popular calendar applications, including Google Calendar and Apple Calendar, use the ICS standard.