You can add, remove, reorder, and rename items on the course menu.

To rename an item on the course menu, follow these steps:

1. Hover your mouse over the course menu item you would like to change.
2. Click on the downward arrow that appears to the right of the item name.
3. Click Rename Link.
4. Type the new name of the menu item in the text box.
5. Click the green check or hit Enter on your keyboard to save.

Learn more about the Blackboard Course Menu.

Additional Resources:

• How to Manage a Blackboard Course (PDF)
• Navigating the Blackboard Environment (VIDEO)

There are two main ways to add files to a Blackboard course:

1. Upload single files:
   • How to Upload Files to a Blackboard Course (PDF)
2. Create an Item:
   1. In your Blackboard course, open the Content Area where you'd like to add the file(s), such as Outline.
   2. On the Content Area page, click Build Content and select Item from the menu.
   3. On the Create Item page, enter a Name for the item.
   4. Within the Content Editor box, you can optionally format text and embed links, images, documents, and other media using the Add Content icon.
   5. Scroll down to the Attachments section and click Browse Local Files to select and attach files from your computer.
   6. Click Submit to finish.

Learn more about creating Content Items in Blackboard.

Additional Resources:

• Working with Text in Blackboard's Content Editor (VIDEO)

While you can upload any type of file to Blackboard, each course has a size quota. So, for larger video files, it is recommended you host them on the Echo360 Platform, which can be linked to your Blackboard course.

• Upload a Video Using Echo360 (PDF)

Yes, you can embed YouTube videos using Blackboard's Mashup tool.

1. Navigate to the content area where you would like to embed the video.
2. Click on Build Content and Item.
3. Click on the plus sign at the top of the text box.
4. Select YouTube Video.

 To embed other types of media, contact the ITL at itl@gwu.edu.

Instructors can use Echo360's lecture capture tool to create and edit customized instructional video content using their computers. Echo360 Universal Capture: Personal is available to all GW faculty.

• Get started with Echo 360 Universal Capture: Personal (PDF)
• Create a Capture with Universal Capture: Personal (PDF)

Additional Resources:

• Editing Capture Videos
• Share a Capture Video with Another Course (PDF)  

Echo360 has an auto-transcript feature that you can utilize. You can also edit the auto-transcript and apply it as captions.

First, you would need to create an Echo360 course section on Blackboard and upload your video to it. Auto-transcripts are then made available about 30 minutes after the video is published to the course section. Students can view the transcript while they watch your video.

To create an Echo360 course section in Blackboard and upload a video from your computer, use the following instructions:

• Upload a Video Using Echo360 (PDF)  

To create an Echo360 course section in Blackboard and use Echo360 Universal Capture: Personal to record and publish your videos, use the following instructions:

Additional Resources:

• Accessing the Echo360 Transcript Editor
• Applying Updated Transcripts as Closed Captions

Yes, you can paste text from an external source into Blackboard; however, you will have the best results if you type your text directly in the editor and format it with the available options. You may see formatting issues when you paste text from a website or a Word document directly into the editor.

Additionally, pasting text into the content editor using a right-click of the mouse results in a message alerting you that your browser does not support this behavior. You can still copy and paste using the following keyboard shortcuts:

• Copy - Windows: Control + C; Mac: Command + C
• Cut - Windows: Control + X; Mac: Command + X
• Paste - Windows: Control + V; Mac: Command + V

Learn more about working with text in Blackboard's Content Editor.

Additional Resources:

• Using Blackboard's Content Editor (VIDEO)
• Why did the formatting change after I pasted text into Blackboard?

You can make content unavailable to all students or apply date and time restrictions to control when it appears. You can even apply Adaptive Release Rules to content to control which students can access it and when.

To set a simple Date/Time restriction on content:

1. Open your Blackboard course and find the content that you want to edit.
2. Put your mouse on the content's name, click the downward arrow that appears to the right, and then click Edit.
3. Choose Yes to make the content available.
4. Find the Display After and Display Until section and set your restriction.
5. Click Submit.

Learn more about controlling the availability of content in Blackboard.

You can copy all the materials from a Blackboard course or just specific sections.

1. Open your origin course, the course from which you want to copy.
2. Go to the Control Panel, click on Packages and Utilities, and click on Course Copy.
3. On the Course Copy page, click Browse next to Destination Course ID.
4. In the pop-up window, find the course that you want to copy INTO, select the radio button to the left of the Course Name, and then click Submit.
5. Back on the Course Copy page, either choose to Select All or check off the materials you want to copy.
6. Click Submit once to start the course copy process. You will receive an email when the course copy is complete. All copied content can be modified in the destination course.

Learn more about the behavior of copied materials on Blackboard.

Additional Resources:

• How to Copy Course Materials from One Blackboard Course to Another (PDF)
• Automatically Adjust Availability and Due Dates in a Blackboard Course (VIDEO)

If you receive an error in Blackboard or cannot access videos or tools like Collaborate Ultra, Echo360, or VoiceThread, you may need to configure your browser's cookie settings to allow third-party cookies. It is best to restart your computer after updating any settings.

To unblock or allow third-party cookies in your browser, follow the browser-specific steps below:

• Google Chrome (Note: Select Allow all cookies)
• Safari (Note: Uncheck 'Prevent cross-site tracking')
• Mozilla Firefox
• Microsoft Edge

Also, check that you are using a supported browser for the tool you are using:

• Blackboard
• Collaborate Ultra
• Echo360
• VoiceThread

Contact the Instructional Technology Lab for assistance.

There is a current issue on some versions of the Chrome browser where a PDF file does not load past the first page or two and users are being asked to log in.

It is not a Blackboard issue but actually has to do with a PDF setting referred to as Fast Web View, which is meant to allow for a PDF to be downloaded one page at a time for faster web viewing. However, Chrome handles this differently from other browsers resulting in the PDF not loading and you being asked to log in.

To view the document, you can:

1. Use a different browser to view the PDF, like Firefox, Edge, etc.
2. Download the file to your computer and open it from there.
   • Right-click on the file name and choose to Save link as.

OR

• In Chrome, enter chrome://settings/content/pdfDocuments in the address bar and choose to download PDF files instead of automatically opening them.

To fix the file, you can disable the Fast Web View setting in Adobe Acrobat, re-save the PDF, and replace the file in Blackboard with the modified PDF.

To disable Fast Web View in Adobe Acrobat:

1. Open the program Adobe Acrobat. (If you don't have this installed, you can install it on your home or work computer using GW's Adobe Creative Cloud license. How to log in to Adobe Creative Cloud.)
2. Go to Preferences.
3. In the Categories list, select Documents.
4. Under Save Settings, on the right, uncheck the box for Save As Optimizes For Fast Web View.
5. Click OK.
6. Open the PDF and re-save it using Save As. This will force the file to be re-saved using the new setting you enabled. Future PDFs that you create/save as on your computer should now automatically be saved without Fast Web View.
7. You can then upload the newly saved PDF to Blackboard.

Pasting text from word processing software or other websites can sometimes give unpredictable results. You'll have the best results if you type your text directly in Blackboard's content editor and format it with the available options.

To fix formatting issues in Blackboard, you can remove the formatting and reformat it with the options in the Content Editor.

After you paste text into the editor, select all the text and then select the Remove Formatting icon to remove the formatting. Only use this option if you understand that all formatting will be removed.

Alternatively, before you paste your text into Blackboard, you can paste it into a simple text editor program, such as Notepad (Windows) or TextEdit (Mac), and clear the formatting. Then, you can paste the text into the editor and format it as you want.

Clicking a link to an outside website or resource that is set to open within Blackboard will result in a message stating, “The content below is outside the Blackboard Learn environment.”

This message is not an error; it just means that the content displayed is not on Blackboard. If you want to avoid this message, set external links to Open in a New Window.

Learn more about adding links to external web sources on Blackboard.

Additional Resources:

• Blackboard: How to Link to External Websites (PDF)  

In newer releases of macOS, all applications now require individual user permission to be set manually for Echo360 to access your camera and microphone or to record your computer’s Desktop (Display):

1. Open System Preferences
2. Go to Security & Privacy and click the Privacy pane.
3. Select Screen Recording from the available options and select the checkbox for Echo360 Capture in the apps list.
4. Repeat step 3 for the Microphone and Camera, if necessary.

Learn more about allowing access to inputs in macOS.

Under some circumstances, users have issues viewing Echo360 videos or when trying to log into Echo360. To resolve this, you may need to configure your browser's cookie settings to allow third-party cookies.

Follow the browser-specific recommendations to be sure your browser has the correct settings.​​​​

Contact the Instructional Technology Lab for assistance.

Additional Resources:

• Echo360 supported browsers