Pierce Library, Eastern Oregon University

Placing Course Materials in Blackboard

Course Materials

Types of Materials Accepted
Preparation of Materials for Scanning
Processing
Student Blackboard Account Required

Using Course Materials with Blackboard

Part I: Create a link within the left-hand window
Part II: Embed a link into a syllabus, course document or assignment

Course Materials

Course Materials are a digitized collection of materials or links available through Blackboard. Students can access the materials from their Blackboard course link.

Types of Materials or Formats Accepted

Library-owned materials. Either print or digital.
Instructor or department owned materials including books, journal articles, exams, lecture notes. Either print or digital.
Reproductions of materials with copyright permission, such as journal articles, chapters from books, and music pieces from sound recordings.
EOU produced works such as reports and student paper (with permission).
Electronic files in formats such as MS Word, Adobe PDF files and MS Power Point can be emailed to the Public Services Librarian.
Web-based resources such as links to faculty web pages, government resources, and public domain resources.
We can also often create a persistent link to full text articles in some databases.
Remember that to access some of these formats requires your students to have special software. For example Acrobat Reader 7.x or the Power Point viewer.

Pierce Library reserves the right to reject any Course Materials that it deems violates Copyright Law. Faculty members are responsible for acquiring permissions beyond those provided by the Copyright Act. All questions that faculty have regarding copyright permissions should be directed to their school Dean.

Collection Management will consider purchasing any materials that are not in the Libraries' collection. Provide us with a complete citation. Faculty are encouraged to spend some of their book monies for these materials where appropriate.

Preparation of Materials for Scanning

Provide complete citations for each item or the title page from the book.
You can specify the format you wish the materials to be converted into, Power Point (PPT), Adobe (PDF) or persistent URL. Both PDF and PPT formats require special software for students to be able to access them. Each format has different advantages. Please ask if you have questions regarding format.
Provide the cleanest possible copy for scanning (the original is the best). Do not give us double sided copies to scan.
What you see in your copy is what your students will get. We scan at 300 dpi B & W in PDF format to keep the file size down, unless you specify otherwise. We can also scan PDF and PPT in color (these files will be larger and harder to download).
Originals sized 9 X 12 inches or smaller are required for our digital scanner.
Items to be scanned should be less than 50 pages in length or 10% of the item..
Divide large documents into two or more shorter pieces for scanning.
Submit materials in first use priority order.

Processing

Require a Course Materials Request Form.

Materials are processed in the order of receipt.
Processing time:
- Allow 48 hours weekdays during first 2 weeks of a quarter.
- Allow 24 hours weekdays during the remaining period.
An email with scanned items attached will be sent to the instructor upon completion of processing.
Please contact Ken Watson (23546) if you are having any problems opening or reading any of the course materials.

Student Access

Students will access all of their course materials through Blackboard. They will recieve their Blackboard account upon registration to EOU.

Using Course Materials in Blackboard

Within Blackboard there are several ways to create a link to course materials. Only students registered for your course in Blackboard will be able to access these resources.

The simplest way is to create a link that will appear in the opening frame on the left of your course, See Part I of these instructions for assistance in creating that link. Some faculty embed these links into their class syllabus, course documents, etc., which requires specificity to that area. Part II addresses this method.

Part I: Create a link within the left-hand menu

Create a link from your Bb course:

Log into your Blackboard Bb course.
Go to the Control Panel of your course.
Under Course Options, click on Manage Course Menu.
Click on Add 'Content Area'
1. in 1, Set Area Properties
  - change name drop down box from assignments to Course Materials
2. click on the Submit button and then ok
Return to the Control Panel, under Content Arrea select the newly created Course Materials link
1. To add a resource located on your computer click on the "+item"
  - in 1, Content Information
    - type the title of the resource in the "Name" box
    - enter additional optional infromation in the "Text" box
  - in 2, Content
    - browse for local file and attach
  - in 3, Options
    - make content available - yes
2. To add a resource accessible from the Web click on the "+external link"
  - in 1, External Link Infromation
    - type in the "name" box the name of the website or resource to be used
    - enter the address in the "URL" box
    - enter additional optional infromation in the "Text" box
  - in 3, Options
    - make content available - yes
  - click on the Submit button and then ok
Test the link by going out to the course level of Bb.

Part II: Embed a link into a syllabus. course document or assignment

Links may also be embedded into your online course syllabus, course documents, assignments, etc. Consult with your librarian liaison or contact Blackboard support.