Your Course Shell
Navigating Blackboard's Course Environment
After clicking on the name of your course, the course shell appears. The layout of the course shell consists of three areas. Instructors can access University services and other course shells by using the tabbed system along the top of the course shell area. Also, the SU homepage, the 24/7 Support Center and the Logout icons can be accessed in this area.
Instructors and students can navigate through the course shell by using the Navigation bar located on the left-hand side of the course shell. The course map is also located in this area and when clicked provides a map of the course in outline form.
The Content area in the center of the screen displays the content of the course for both instructors and students.
The Blackboard course environment is divided into two views, the Student View and the Control Panel. The Student View— where content, assessments, and collaborative tools are accessed—is the only view to which students have access. The Instructor of the course has access to both the Student View and to the Control Panel, where the Instructor builds and manages the course. As an Instructor, it is important to be familiar with both the Student View and the Control Panel and to be able to move back and forth between the different views.
Advanced course Design and Menu Options
The appearance of the Course Menu can be customized by choosing between two different views, the Quick and Detail views. The Quick view displays the top-level of course materials where the links are displayed as either buttons or text. The Detail view displays course materials as seen the Course Map where the view expands to show the hierarchy of course navigation.
Quick View |
Detail View |
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Also included in both views is a new Tool Panel. Faculty have the option to modify the Tool Panel to display/not display Course Tools, Communication and the Course map in Display and Quick view. This feature can be used to separate Tools from the main content.
Overview of the Student View
The Navigation menu on the left allows users to navigate between the course's main navigational areas. The content or tools of those navigation areas appear in the Course Area. The navigation area can be minimized by clicking on the red arrow located in the upper-left hand corner of the area. A course map is provided to instructors and students to use for easy navigation.
Faculty |
Student |
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Students never see the Control Panel button. |
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All users, no matter what their role in the course, will see the Student View when they first enter the course.
