The screen shot below shows what information would be displayed if you clicked on the course documents button.  Most of the content of the course can be found in this section so in that sense it is the most important section.  The exceptions are announcements,  information about the course and the instructor, assignments, and external links.

The Blackboard interface has 8 large buttons, but only 6 of them bring up course content.

The kinds of content found in the course documents section are listed below:
 

The Course Documents button is the most popular button within the Bb platform.  The Course Documents section holds the content of the course. For example, in this orientation course there are three folders posted in Course Documents: Steps, Strategies, & Resources..  Other possible contents include:
Course Documents Student Resources Field Trips Instructor Resources Chapters Units Teacher Tips Resources Lecture Materials Supplemental Materials	Handouts Lecture Supplements Lecture Notes Course Packet Modules Presentations Animation Library Image Library Practice Tests Exercises Additional Materials
Contents can be posted as a document, a folder containing documents, or a link. When starting a new course, the first thing you would want to check would be any last minute announcements posted by the instructor.  Announcements opens automatically when you enter the Bb course management shell. When you log in, you go to the announcement section. Next you would probably want to review the course description and outline so you would click the Course Information button.  Clicking on the button would display the contents of that section on the screen.   Next you might want to know something about your instructor so you would click on Staff Information. The part of the syllabus dealing with the instructor and how to contact him or her is found in the staff information section. As shown above, the buttons are organized into a standard sequence.  Clicking on one of the buttons displays the contents of that section in the frame on the right.  The buttons below are not active as in Blackboard, to make them work you have to click on the red triangle. CLICK ON RED TRIANGLE Announcements Course Information Staff Information Course Documents Assignments Communications External Links Student Tools  Quiz* 1.  The Blackboard learning environment suggests sorting the contents       of your course into how many boxes or sections?  ___ 2.  The contents of each section are displayed when the corresponding       _________  is clicked. 3.  The buttons are arrange a. alphabetically b. randomly c.  in the order that a student would usually access them 4.  The  information in a traditional syllabus can be found in what two       sections?  ________   __________ *Blackboard provides a sophisticated test construction utility that will automatically grade quizzes showcase.blackboard.com/courses/5_steps/index.html

When student's log into their online course they can't help but see the announcements you post. Use the Announcements section of Blackboard to notify them of changes to the content, timelines, deadlines, and any item that was mentioned in class.

 

Encourage meta-communication about the process of online discussions and offer suggestions for improving the experience for all the participants.

 

For the discussion forum component of the course, send email messages to those who are falling behind, or who are reading but not writing. 

Items in this section may include:

Syllabus Course Description Overview Objectives Frequently Asked Questions Meeting Times Textbook

Course Goals Materials needed for the course Course Projects Quiz and Test Information Grading Policies Attendance Policies Plagiarism and Cheating Policies

For this small course, there is only the quick look at Blackboard functionalities and a brief overview of the course.
 

Six Basic Steps to Building an On Line Course   Prepare Yourself Understand Hardware and Software Specifications. Find out where to go for help. Gather your materials Determine your assignments including discussion topics Build an outline Plan Your Delivery Move your content to Bb [Blackboard Course Management Shell] Course outline  (sample)    Course Outline You have already begun developing the organization and plan for your course. Shape these ideas and thoughts into an outline. Questions to consider in your outline include: How many weeks do you have in the semester, term, year? From your list of topics that you made during, "Prepare Your Materials", how many topics do you intend to cover? What is a feasible amount of topics to cover in your time frame? What will you include with each topic? Examples of suptopics are: introduction, objectives of unit or chapter, lecture notes, handouts, exercises, related readings, practice tests. The process of making a course outline will make the transition online a seamless.    Course Materials Delivery At this point, you have had a chance to think about organizing your course materials.              Determine which materials should be delivered in-class and which items can be              delivered online. To attain course objectives, which materials are better              introduced in the classroom and which are better produced online?              In another light, a popular phrase in the Internet world is, "Let's take this offline",              meaning, "Let's discuss this in another place at another time". What elements of              your course are "offline" and which ones would be better in an online format?              Prepare the materials for electronic delivery. This may include scanning              graphics or creating electronic versions of paper-based materials. If neseccary,              consult your administrator or instructional technologist for assistance and              advice.              Once you know how to prepare materials for electronic delivery, the more able              you will be to aid your students.   Plugin Resource Center: http://training.blackboard.com/courses/bbedu102/ Content Test Course: http://training.blackboard.com/courses/bbedu105/    Course Objectives Identify Course Objectives         Objectives are the skills, attitudes, or information that the students are expected to         possess after instruction. Oftentimes, the objectives and activities are seen as similar         course entities. Activities are the learning experiences in which the students will         participate as part of the instruction. Activities, projects, and assignments are used to         assess how the students are meeting the course objectives.         Create a list of desired learning outcomes in relation to some of the content topics of         your course. By creating a list, you will be able to shape instructional objectives from it.         For example:              Course Topic: America's Involvement in WWII              Desired Outcomes from this Topic: Name the Dates of America's              involvement in the WWII, Name the countries who were considered Allies              Learning Objective: By the end of this course, students will identify the              dates of WWII and the countries involved in WWII.         The identification of objectives will help you determine which materials will be beneficial         to your students. They will also aid you and your students in clarifying the focus of the         course.   Course Materials         Next, what materials do you have or need to develop to meet these objectives?         Gather all materials that you have developed for your course.         Materials include: handouts slide shows syllabus overheads lecture notes past projects assessments (tests, quizzes, surveys) discussion topics         Take note of items already in electronic format such as word documents,         spreadsheets, or PowerPoint slides. These formats could easily be included in any         online course format.         Course Materials and Learning Styles         Next, Do your materials appeal to different types of learners and learning styles?         Different learning styles include: auditory, visual, and kinesthetic.              Auditory learners prefer verbal instructions, discussions, dialogues. Audio clips              with instructions for activities or projects would be helpful to this type of student.              Visual learners prefer demostrations or active descriptions. Video clips and              supplemental images with lecture notes would be helpful to this type of student.              Kinesthetic learners learn best by doing. Assignments, projects, or labs are              helpful for this type of student to learn. Textual descriptions in the online course              would give constant guidance to the learner is there were a question or inquiry.         In looking at the materials you have or will need to develop, are there areas where the         text could be enhanced by images or audio files? Could certain word documents         warrant an update or rewrite? Are instructions to assignments written clearly? Could         these instructions be more useful in a video format. The Assignments section holds assessment materials and everyday homework items. For this course, two sample assignment folders are displayed. Other assignment items include: How to make an assignment is almost a course in itself.  It is easy to assign an essay. It is difficult to make it clear as to exactly how to complete the assignment. Essays Papers Presentations Homework Assignments Group Assignments Reading Assignments Writing Assignments Help and Tips discussion on-line  [an essential assignment, it cannot be a request or preference] The Communication Center offers six opportunities to collaborate with your students.  For this course, these functionalities will not be used. Send E-Mail: Notify students of changes in the schedule or other topics by sending an email.  For practice, you may send an email to Dr. Bett at sbett@lycos.com Discussion Board: Continue your class online by extending class discussions to the discussion board. This is an excellent tool to activate learning and maximize student participation.  External web boards are also available.  Check out www.egroups.com/group/telelearning  Student Roster: Keep records and information available to the class Virtual Chat: This Java-based communication tool is a "program-within-a-program". You will need a Java-enabled browser for this tool. This tool creates real-time discussions as opposed to the discussion board. Student Pages: Students are able to create web pages within the course. This tool is an effective way for students to get to know each other and for class projects. Group Pages: Group pages function the same way as student pages, except that they focus on group projects and assignments. Note: More detailed explanations and tutorials about the Communication Center are available from the Learning Services Division of Blackboard. External Links provide your students to web sites and destinations that are applicable to the course. For this course, all the external links pertain to online learning and course content Educational Web Sites         There are millions of links that provide educational resources. The only problem is that         there is not enough time in the day to reach all of these resources. To start out, look at         the following two links to see examples of what the Internet has to offer in terms of         educational links.         There are more links provided in the External Link section of this course.              TechLEARNING.COM: An online magazine for educators provides articles,              software/hardware reviews, and professional development ideas.              http://www.techlearning.com              Kathy Schrock's Guide for Educators: An excellent web site that is now part of              the Discovery Channel School Site.              http://school.discovery.com/schrockguide/edproj.html       http://www.wested.org/hyper-discussions/