What’s New? 

• Announcements are pop-up notifications inside a course. 
• Class Conversations allow talk about assignments and assessments for questions without creating specific discussion boards. 
• Group Discussions are no longer built inside of groups but are housed under discussions. 
• Messages replaces the ability to email from courses. 

How do I create items? 

• Organization with Modules and Folders. Remember, you can only build two levels deep.  
• Content (Written documentation with multiple feature options; Video tutorial) 
• Assignments (Written documentation with multiple feature options; Video tutorial) 
• Tests (Written documentation with multiple feature options; Video tutorial) 
• Discussions (Written documentation with multiple feature options; Video tutorial; Best practices) 
• Journals (Written documentation with multiple feature options; Video tutorial) 

Best practices for communication:

• Announcements: Announcements allow you to post critical time-sensitive information and may include push notifications, emails, and/or pop-up notifications. 
• Messages: From a course, you can access messages from the navigation bar. The course messages page shows all messages from the course you’re in. 
• Conversations: Allows students to contact their instructors and peers for questions about specific assignments, or assessments, if made available. 
• Journals: Students can express their thoughts, questions, and concerns privately with instructors. 
• Discussions: Students can share ideas, gather feedback and refine opinions and plans with their classmates. 

Course Storage and Retention Policy Updates:

• From now on, we are only retaining two years of course history on Blackboard. An additional three years of course archives are available upon request. You must provide both the course term and CRN. 
• Courses are limited to 5GB of storage space. To save space, please use Panopto to host your videos and link them to your Blackboard courses. 

The next OnCampus will feature how-to tips for rosters, accommodations, and gradebook setup.  

— Karly Good, ITS