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Websites

Summary

If you’re familiar with HTML and/or web-page editing software, you can create your own web-pages, then zip them up and upload it to Blackboard. This method is also useful if you convert Powerpoint to HTML and want to use it in Blackboard – you will also need to zip it up before uploading it.

Resources

Importing a Website into Blackboard

Preparing the file

  1. In your Web site, use relative URLs instead of fixed URLs for internal links. Fixed links include the server’s domain name as part of the link. For example, the HTML code for a fixed link might look like this:
    <a href=”http://domain.name.com/docs/intro/special.html”>Click here</a>
    While a relative link might look like this:
    <a href=”docs/intro/special.html”>Click here</a>
    If you are using a web authoring tool like Microsoft Front Page 2000, Macromedia Dreamweaver, or any of a number of other similar applications, these programs should prompt you to choose between fixed or relative links.
  2. Put the entire website in a single directory (or folder). The main directory can have sub-directories with files inside them, of course, but all the files and sub-directories need to be under one directory to facilitate the compression process.
  3. Move the directory (or folder) to your local computer. If the website is on a remote web server and you do not have a local copy of it, you will need to create a copy of it on your local computer.
  4. Determine the website’s entry point. The entry point (commonly known as the site’s “home page”) is usually named something like index.html or default.htm. Before uploading the website into Blackboard, you need to make sure you know the name of the HTML file that will be the site’s entry point.

Working with a ‘Zipped’ File

In order to maintain the integrity of your presentation, the Web Site that you just created needs to be compressed in one of these formats: zip, gzip, or tar. The tar and gzip formats are primarily used only on UNIX or Linux computers. The zip format is standard on all Microsoft Windows computers and can also be used on Apple Macintosh computers. We will only deal with the zip format here.
The procedure for creating the zip archive file will vary slightly depending upon the compression utility that you choose. WinZip (for Windows users) and StuffIt (for Macintosh users) are popular, but there are other freeware and shareware programs available as well. Refer to the documentation for your compression utility to learn how to operate that particular program. Whichever program you choose, make sure that:

  • the compression tool retains the directory structure
  • the compression tool saves to the .zip format

After you have selected the compression utility that suits your, compress the entire directory that contains the website you wish to incorporate into Blackboard. This should result in a single file with a name that ends in .zip.

Uploading your ‘Zipped’ file

  1. Open up your Blackboard paper and find Files in the Control Panel
  2. In Files you will see a directory of the files and folders in your Blackboard course
  3. Go to Upload > Upload Theme Package
  4. Browse your computer to find your zip package and hit Submit
  5. Your website files should now be successfully uploaded

Creating a link to your website

  1. In your Blackboard paper navigate to where you would like to put the website
  2. Go to Build Content > File
  3. Select Browse Course and find your website’s entry point (something like index.html)
  4. Once you have finished adding the file – check the website works by clicking on the link.

Last updated: 22 May 2014

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