Links – internal & external

Summary

A course link is a shortcut between one area in your Blackboard paper and another. For example, you could put a Course Link in your Course Documents area that links to something in your Course Information area, or you could put a Course Link in your Assignments area that links to a forum in the Discussion Board. You can also add an external link – a link to any website – to any content area in Blackboard.

Resources

• Creating Content in a Course Area (help.blackboard.com)

Creating Links

Course Links

A course link can be added to any content area in Blackboard. Traditionally, content areas were named “Course Information”, “Course Documents”, “Assignments”, “Labs”, etc, but Blackboard allows you to name your content areas whatever you like. Course Links act as useful shortcuts between two different parts of your paper.

You can link to Blackboard content Items, Folders, Learning Units, Discussion Forums, and available Tools.

To add a course link:

1. Go to the the content area (Course Documents, etc) that you want to add the course link to.
2. Click on the Build Content button then select Course Link button.
3. Give your course link a name, and add a description.
4. Click on the “Browse” button to choose item to link to – a course map will open in a new window
5. Click on the “+” buttons to expand a content area or folder to reveal the contents of each area.
6. Click on the name of the item that you want to link to.
7. Click the Submit button.

External Links

An URL can be added to any content area in Blackboard. By default, content areas are named “Course Information”, “Course Documents”, “Assignments”, “Labs”, etc, but Blackboard allows you to name your content areas whatever you like.

To add an URL:

1. Go to the content area (Course Documents, etc) that you want to add the URL to.
2. Click on the Build Content button then select Add URL.
3. Type the URL in the “URL” box (i.e http://www.otago.ac.nz).
4. Type any accompanying text in the “Description” box.
5. Set display and availability options for this URL:
   • If you want this URL to be visible to students, click “Yes” beside “Permit Users to View this Content?” (Otherwise click “No”). If you want to make the Item visible to students based on more complicated criteria (such as grades, group membership etc), use the Adaptive Release function after creating the Item.
   • If you want to track the number of times a student views this item, click “Yes” beside “Do you want to track number of views?” (Otherwise click “No”).
   • If you want to make this URL appear to students before and/or after specific date/s, click the “Display After” and/or “Display Until” checkboxes, and choose the appropriate dates from the drop-down lists. If you want to make the Item visible to students based on more complicated criteria (such as grades, group membership etc), leave this section alone and use the Adaptive Release function after creating the Item.
6. Click the Submit button.