Your Course View
All of your course content appears in the main part of the page. When you open a piece of content, it slides out in a layer on top of the Course Content page. Close layers to go back to a previous spot in your course.
- Navigation bar: Open frequently used tools in one step. Select a tab to check the course calendar, respond to class discussions, access the course gradebook, and send a message.
- Details & Actions: Manage your course with these options:
- Create and manage groups: You can create group sets to use for graded assignments, tests, and discussions. You can also create groups for activities other than graded work, such as volunteering or field trips and ask students to self-enroll.
- Roster: View your class list. You can access basic profile cards and match faces to names. You can also send messages to anyone involved with your course.
- Course availability:
- Open: Open a course when you're ready for students to participate.
- Private: Make a course private while you add or experiment with content, and then open it to students when you're ready. Students see private courses in their course lists, but they can't access them.
- Blackboard Collaborate: Use a Blackboard Collaborate session as a convenient launch point for scheduled and impromptu meetings. The icon appears in purple to show you and other course members when people are active in the Collaborate room.
- Attendance: Mark attendance grades and access detailed records.
- Announcements: Create or schedule course announcements for all course members to view.
- Add content: Select the plus sign wherever you want to add content. If you want to copy or import content, open the menu on the right side above the content list.
- New activity: If you've enabled conversations on content, activity icons appear for new conversation activity. The activity icon also appears with new discussions and group conversation activity.
If you see a gauge icon next to your files, your institution uses Blackboard Ally to measure the accessibility of your course content. To learn more, visit Ally help for instructors.
Watch a video about the course environment
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: Navigate Inside a course with the Ultra Experience showcases Ultra's modern, comfortable, and simple interface. The streamlined navigation and workflows are designed to allow you to get in, get done, and get out.
Customize your course
If allowed, you can add a course banner image to help personalize your course. Your image displays along the top of the Course Content page and as the course card thumbnail in the Courses list.
Your administrator determines course image availability
Select Edit display settings under Course Image from the Details & Actions pane.
You can edit the existing course image or upload a new image. By default, the course image is the same image used in the course card thumbnail. If you don't upload a new image, the course card image becomes the course image.
Select Upload new image and choose the image you want to upload. Your image must be at least 1200 x 240 pixels and it can't be larger than 25 KB. Images with text should be avoided as they aren't accessible and don't scale well.
You can drag to reposition your image and use the slider to zoom in on your image. Select Save when you're finished.
If you wish to add alternative text for screen readers, type a description of the image in the alt text box. Select Mark as decorative if no alternative text is needed.
Your new image becomes the course card image in the Courses list. If you toggle the course image on it also displays in your course.
Don't like the new image? In the Course Image settings panel, select Clear Image to remove the uploaded image and revert back to the default.
