Standard Announcements
Page last modified: Wednesday July 19 2006
There are several instances within Blackboard where it is not clear how to use a function, or what the options mean. To prevent the students from experiencing common errors it is a good idea to provide them with clear instructions on how to use this feature of Blackboard - this is especially important if Blackboard is being used for assessment.
A previous tip reported on the use of scheduled announcements in Blackboard. It is possible to re-use these standard announcements in the following semester by changing the date. It is easy to use the administration system to change the dates of all announcements at the before the start of semester when setting up the course for the new intake.
We have developed a range of announcements intended to instruct the students on how to use Blackboard when conducting their assessments. In addition, images showing the button that student should click are included to aid student understanding. Here we reference the actual image used by Blackboard, this takes advantage of caching and means that it is not necessay to upload an image to Blackboard and embed it in the page.
All that is necessary to add the announcement is to copy a piece of HTML code. These snippets of HTML are provided in this document for Blackboard instructors to freely copy (and modify the wording). Please email the author if you have any comments on the standard wording that has been used in these instructions, or if you have a standard instructional message that needs a Blackboard image added.
Instructors at other institutions will need to determine the URL of any images they wish to reference, since the URL will be different. It is possible to do this by viewing the image properties or by viewing the HTML source code.
Note that all the following code snippets assume the use of the Blackboard Smart Text option rather than the HTML option. Smart Text processes HTML code and preserves line breaks so it is usually a better option than HTML where line breaks must be added through <br> or <p> tags.
Dropbox
The main confusion with the digital dropbox is the difference between the Add File and Send File options. How the standard announcement looks:
The code to add this announcement:
You should be able to access the digital dropbox in the Tools menu of the course website.
<img src="http://bb.unitec.ac.nz/images/ci/toolbtns/filesend_off.gif" width="130" height="24" alt="BB Send File button" align=left hspace=5> To submit a file to a lecturer you have to click the <b>Send File</b> button.
<img src="http://bb.unitec.ac.nz/images/ci/toolbtns/fileadd_off.gif" width="130" height="24" alt="BB Add File button" align=left hspace=5> The <b>Add File</b> button uploads a file that only you can access. For example this would allow you to work on a draft from multiple locations.
Disscussion Board - New Thread
How the standard announcement looks:
The code to add this announcement:
Remember, your Web site critique is due by 2400 hours Thursday August 28th, 2003. It should be posted to the Discussion Board on the course Web site, using the <b>Add New Thread</b> button. The subject of the message should only contain the name of the Web site you are critiquing.
<img src="http://bb.unitec.ac.nz/images//ci/toolbtns/threadadd_off.gif" alt="Post New Thread button">
<img src="http://bb.unitec.ac.nz/images//ci/listbtns/modify_off.gif" alt="Modify Post button" align=left hspace=5> It is possible to edit your post up to the due date by clicking the Modify button.
Discussion Board - Replies
How the standard announcement looks:
The code to add this announcement:
Remember, your replies to other syndicate member's Web site critiques are due by 2400 hours Thursday September 4th, 2003. They should be posted to the bulletin board on the course Web site as a reply to the original critique.
<img src="http://bb.unitec.ac.nz/images//ci/listbtns/reply_off.gif" alt="reply button" align=left hspace=5>
To post a reply click the Reply button which can be found at the bottom of the original post.
<img src="http://bb.unitec.ac.nz/images//ci/listbtns/modify_off.gif" alt="Modify Post button" align=left hspace=5> It is possible to edit your post up to the due date by clicking the Modify button.
Determine Image Location
When you write your own standard announcements you may want to include other Blackboard images. To include them you will have to determine the location (address) of the image. To determine the location of an image in Blackboard, first navigate to a page that contains the image.
Most web browsers, if you right-click on the image, you can choose Properties from the right-click menu and this will display the image location. It should be possible to copy and paste the location from the Properties dialog.
An alternative method for Netscape-based web browsers only is to right-click on the image and choose View Image. This opens the image up in the whole browser window and displays the URL of the image within the browser location bar.
