Adding an item

To add an item, go to your Course Content area and select “Build Content”, then choose “Item” from the list.

Things to remember:

  • Everything in Blackboard must have a name.
  • You can expand the text editor to give you extra options.
  • You use the WYSIWYG Editor to format your content. (There is the “Source Code” button to allow additional editing such as embedding videos from external services (Vimeo/YouTube, etc).
  • You can attach files to your item – we will come to this shortly.
  • “STANDARD OPTIONS” allow you to adjust the availability of items to specific dates and times.

The screenshot below gives you an idea of how versatile an “item” is:

Adding an item

The following video explains how to use the Text Editor to tailor your content:

Use the Content Editor

Before you continue…

Work through the following information on Blackboard’s help page: Add tables in the editor before attempting the following activities.

The highlighted areas on the image of the text editor toolbar below will also help.

Text editor tool bar

Activity – Build content item

  • Enter a content area and use “Build Content” to create an item.
  • Add some text (perhaps introduce yourself to your students).
  • Using the editor menu, find the “Insert/Edit Table” option and add a table.
  • Take some time to explore the formatting options and make some changes (e.g. text colour or size).
  • The “Permit Users to View this Content” option should remain as Yes.
  • Submit to save what you have done.

Activity – Build content item (Advanced)

  • Repeat the creation of the Item, but this time you will add a YouTube video*.
  • Use your web browser (IE/Chrome/Firefox) to navigate to “YouTube”. Select a YouTube video to view.
  • Click “Share” then “Embed” to locate and copy the “embed code”.
  • In the Text Editor menu of the item you are trying to create, select the Source Code option.
  • Paste the embed code into the Source Code area and select “Update”.
  • When you return to the WYSIWYG Editor, the embed code is hidden and the video is shown.

*Another way to add a YouTube video is to use Blackboard’s “Mashup” feature. If you want to know more, click the following link: How to Create a Mashup.

Note: If you want to embed a video that is not hosted on YouTube, such as Vimeo or the University’s Video Portal, then you will need to use the method shown in the activity above.

If you feel confident with adding an item, move to the next page, where we will look at adding other content types.