Upload any documents, photos, folders, and work to the Content Collection. You can use your username folder to store personal course files that you're working on. When you're ready, you can submit the files or attach them to other coursework. In your courses, you can add links to files stored in the Content Collection. You can also link to projects you may be working on.

You can download items and any associated metadata from the Content Collection. The result is a .ZIP file package that contains the original structure of the files and folders as well as a single .XML file that defines the metadata for all files and folders in the package.

If you've downloaded an item from the Content Collection and made edits, you can upload the package and the associated metadata. When complete, the files and folders overwrite the existing files or folders (or add a new version) in the Content Collection. The item's metadata file in the package overwrites the existing metadata as well.

The package must be one that has been previously downloaded from the Content Collection and it must be in the form of .ZIP file.

Download a package

  1. In the Content Collection, go to the folder that contains the files or folders you want to download.
  2. Select the files and folders to download.
  3. Select the Download Package button. You can also find the Download Package option in the item's menu.
  4. A window may appear asking you if you want to open the file or save it. Select Save File and select OK.

A single .XML file accompanies the downloaded files and folders called metadata.xml. This .XML file contains the metadata for all of the items downloaded.

Edit the metadata

After you download the item, you can edit the accompanying metadata.xml file outside of Blackboard. Keep in mind the following when editing the files:

  • You can add new metadata fields to the file. For the new metadata fields to be visible in Blackboard Learn, you need to also associate a metadata attribute for the item in the file. Without the attribute, the metadata is saved, but not visible.
  • The .XML file must be properly formatted for the system to upload the file.

Upload a package

You can upload files to any content area where you have permission to do so. The Upload button appears along with the options to Upload Files or Upload Package. Packages are .ZIP files that will be unpackaged into the folder you selected.

  1. In the Content Collection, go to the location where you want to upload files.
  2. Point to Upload and select Upload Zip Package.
  3. Browse for the file and choose the encoding type, if applicable.
  4. Select Submit to start the upload.