Before you start planning and designing the course, it is recommended to familiarize yourself with Blackboard environment. It will help you some ideas on  how to organize the course contents, activity links, and how to customize them to fit your needs.

The Blackboard environment includes a header frame with images and buttons customized by the System Administrator and tabs that navigate to different areas. Clicking on a tab will open that area in the content frame.

 

The Tabs in Blackboard

Once you log in to Blackboard, you will be able to see these following tabs on the top of the page:

My Blackboard	The My Blackboard tab contains tools and information specific to each user's preferences. Tools and information are contained in modules. Users can add and remove modules from their My Blackboard tab. The System Administrator may restrict access to or require specific modules.
Courses	Users click on a link from the Courses tab to access a Course. The page displays the list of all courses that the users were/are enrolled and taught/teach; and the course catalog. Please note that students will not see the unavailable courses.
Organizations	Users click on a link from the Organization tab to access an Organization. The page displayes the list of all available organizations that the users are managing or participating and the organization catalog.
Bb Support	The Bb Support tab contains several external links to: eHelp - The Cal Poly Pomona on-line, 24-hour-a-day, seven-days-a-week, self-service computer-user help line. Bb Tutorials and Self-Study Materials on eHelp site – List of Bb tutorials and self-training materials.  Studio 6 Contact Info – Contact Information to get help from Studio 6 Instructional Technology Assistants.
Faculty e-Library	The Faculty e-Library tab contains an external website of Cal Poly Pomona's Library and Blackboard integration support.

 

The Course Menu*

The course menu is the navigation links inside the course. After you click on your course, the course menu can be found on the left-hand side. The default of the course menu links from Blackboard are:

Announcements	New update and reminder - assignment due date, test availability, virtual meetings.
Instructor/Faculty Information	Instructor's contact information - email, work phone, office location, office hours, personal webpage.
Content Areas (Syllabus, Course Documents, etc)	A wide-range of content items including: learning materials, lecture notes, presentations.
Assignments	Assignments listing - the due date, description for class work, links to assignments, links to tests.
Communication	Links to communication center-  email, Discussion Boards, Collaboration Sessions, Student roster, Group pages, Messages.
Resources/External Links	Links to outside learning materials - outside materials, a hyperlink, brief description for each external source.
(Course) Tools	Student's tools - Digital Drop Box, Edit Home Page, Personal Information, Course Calendar, View Grades, Student Manual, Tasks, and The Electric Blackboard.
Course Map	Web site navigation map - a collapsible tree directory.
Control Panel	Course Control Panel area - to set up and administer a course Web site.

 

*All the course menu components may be customized as you wish. For example, a faculty member might prefer the name "Course Materials" instead of "Course Documents".