New Blackboard Interface

Navigating the New Interface

Blackboard Learn 2012 features an updated interface which is cleaner, easier to navigate and faster to use.  Here are the three things you need to know to get started:

1. Turn Edit Mode On; this will enable you to see all the tools available to instructors.  This setting is located in the upper-right corner of every course.
   
   
    
2. Hover your mouse (cursor) over what you want to work on; this will reveal all tools for that item.  In the new interface, tools don't all appear on the page at once; mousing over an item will reveal the tools associated with it.
   
   Note the reordering tool which appears to the left and the "action button" which appears to the right when you mouse over any item on the page.
    
3. Click the "action button" to reveal additional menus of tools and options.  This is the same technique as in the previous version of Blackboard, but the shape of the action button has changed slightly.
   
   
   This pop-up menu appears only when you click the "action button" to the right of the item you want to work with.

And one more nifty new feature

Quick course-to-course navigation: click the “action button” located next to the “home” icon to quickly jump from one course to the next:

The New Course Home Page

The new Blackboard interface also involves a new course home page, which is the default for every new course.  This "module page" includes a number of tools in addition to the familiar Announcements module.  These tools become more useful the more that you use other features of Blackboard.  For example, if you use discussion boards, blogs or wikis, or frequently post new documents, that will appear in the "What's New" module so that students know where to look for new material.  If you use assignments, tests or other assessments with due dates, those will appear in the "To Do" module (and in the Alerts module when the due date is past).  Tasks and Calendar reflect items enter in the internal Blackboard calendar and task tools.

You can configure the course home page in any way you wish.  If you know for sure that you will not be using assignments or tests with due dates, you could remove the To Do and Needs Attention modules.  If you don't intend to use the internal Blackboard task or calendar tools, you could remove those modules.  To remove a module, hover your mouse over the title bar and click the "X" in the upper-right corner.  (If you ever decide you need those modules back, they can be added via the "Add Course Module" tool button in the upper-left.)

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