TWU Blogs

Manage Course Menu

Why?

As the instructor, you need to control what appears on the menu and you need to control how this information information appears. Have you ever had double buttons on your menu? Manage course menu is the selection in Blackboard to help you control some things on your menu.

Implications for Teaching and Learning.

Extra buttons, incomplete names on menu items, and/or buttons leading to no content will impact how students perceive your course. In simple terms, these confuse students and cause them to miss important information. You want to create a menu that leads to your content and information for the course in a simple and efficient format. As the instructor, you have control over what appears in the course menu and you should exert this control. For example, if you do not plan to use the discussion board, you can remove the link from your course menu. Or, if you currently use all of the content areas but need an additional area for Lab Documents, you can add a content area and give it whatever name works for your course. This area allows you to customize Blackboard’s features to fit your unique needs.

Setting it Up.

The Course Menu appears on the left side of a course Web site. Content and tools are accessed from the Course Menu but managing content and tools is done through the Course Control Panel.

Within a course site, click Control Panel
Click Manage Course Menu in the Course Options area
In the Add area, do any of the following:
1. To add a new content area menu item click Content Area
2. To add a new tool link menu item click Tool Link
3. To add a course link menu item click Course Link
4. To add an external link menu item click External Link
To reorder the items in the Course Menu, click the arrow on the number box to the left of the menu item and select the order number.
To modify/remove existing menu items, click the appropriate Modify or Remove button to the right of the menu item.