CIRT, University of North Florida

Adding a Banner to a Course

The Upload Course Banner option provides the instructor the opportunity to place a course logo, or banner graphic, on the Announcements page. This can be a banner with the course title, or any other item, such as a scanned photo, comic strip, etc. The banner is displayed at the top of the Announcements page when a person first enters the Blackboard site. The banner will not appear at the top of any other page.

A course logo, or banner, will need to be created first in a graphics program in a ”.jpeg” or “.gif” format. The suggested size for the banner is 450x90 pixels.

The UNF Course Banner Gallery contains images that may be used as a course banner in Blackboard. The images may be used "as is" or may be modified by adding text in an image editing program such as Photoshop or Paint.

To add a banner:

Click Customization > Style from the Control Panel menu of your course.
Scroll to Select Banner.
Click Browse for Local File to locate your banner image on your computer or disk, then click Submit to upload the Banner image to your course.

Changing the Course Menu and Area Availability

Instructors have the ability to turn on and off areas of a course that appear in a Blackboard course site on the navigation menu. Instructors may also personalize their Blackboard course sites by modifying the name of content and/or tool areas on their Blackboard course menu.

To modify the course menu:

Drag and drop menu items to re-order the course menu.
To modify a menu item, click the Item Options button then Rename Link.
To hide a menu item, click the Item Options button then Hide Link.

To change the look of your course menu:

Click Customization > Style from the Control Panel.
Select the radio button next to Text or Buttons.
Select the Style Properties. Note: the selections are different for buttons and text.
Click Submit to update the course menu.

Adding Items to Your Course Menu

To add items to the course menu:

To add a new menu item, click the blue "+" at the top of the menu and select from the create options.
Add Menu Items

Create Content Area: Creates a new content area in your course.
Create Tool Link: Allows you to link directly to a tool area such as Send Email, My Grades, etc.
Create Course Link: Allows you to link directly to any part of your course.
Create External Link: Allows you to link directly to a website from the course menu.
Create Module Page: Creates a new module page in your course.
Create Subheader: Creates a text header for display on the Course Menu.
Create Divider: Creates a horizontal divider for use on the Course Menu.