Putting a Syllabus in Blackboard

The concept for putting a syllabus online is the same whether your syllabus is on the web or in Blackboard. You are still putting a document onto a web server. In Blackboard, you have the option of putting your syllabus in several different formats. I will discuss the pros and cons and how-tos for several formats.

Word Documents: If you already have your syllabus as a word document, you can simply upload the file to Blackboard by following the instructions for uploading. The advantage of this is that you don't have to recreate your syllabus in a different format and you may feel more comfortable using word. The disadvantages are many. Your syllabus will not display within Blackboard. Your students will have to download it and view or print it on their own. It's possible that they may not have Microsoft Word (though it is available in most of the labs on campus). And it is a static document that doesn't add much to your online course (more on that later).

PDF (Portable Document Format): Although this format is readable by more people, it has some of the same problems as using word documents: lack of internal display and being static.

HTML or Web format: This is (in my opinion), the best option for putting a syllabus into Blackboard. Obviously, you will have to create an html file first (follow directions on the previous page). When you're ready to put the syllabus into Blackboard, there are two ways to do this. One is to simply attach the html file, which will create a link to the file that will dispay within the Blackboard course.

To do this, follow the steps below:

Log in to Blackboard and enter the appropriate course.
Select Control Panel in the bottom left-hand corner.
Select the appropriate content area or create a new one.
Click on "Add Item," the first option.
In the first section, choose or type in a name for the syllabus.
Scroll down to the section section and click the "Browse" button.
Select your file and click enter. Unless the file is an image, video, sound or Flash file, your only option is to create a link, which is selected by default.
Students can then click the link and still navigate to other areas of the Blackboard course.

Another option is to embed the html code into Blackboard. To do this, follow steps 1-5 above. Instead of selecting a file, you will be pasting html code into the text box.

Open your html file in a browser or in a text editor.
If you use a browser, view the source of the page. In a text editor, you will already be viewing the source.
Select all of the code and copy it.

Place your cursor in the text box in Blackboard and paste the code.
Select the HTML option.
When you choose this option, students will see the page when they click on the menu item, thus eliminating one click from their navigation.

(click on image for larger view)

One final option: Type or paste text into the text box. If you have a word or text file that you've already created, you can copy and paste just as you would for an html file. You may lose some formatting but using the "Smart Text" option, you can add bold and italics much the same way as you would in a word processor. If you're starting from scratch, you can simply type in your information in the text box. Either option will display the same way as the html option above.

One advantage of putting a syllabus online is that you can link to other things--either within the course or to other sites on the internet. For some ideas and best practices, see our Online Syllabus-Best Practices page.