I was assigned the task of figuring out how to "build a master course in Content Collection" so that faculty could feed all of their courses from a single place.
From what research I've done, it would seem that the actual way to go about doing this is to store things in a single course, and when adding files to a new course, I would then, instead of browsing for a file on my computer, I'd navigate to the supposed "master course" and create a link to it through that means.
There is no actual "Master course" feature, per se, right?
SUNY Cortland's instructional designer
Hi John - you are correct. There is no "master course" feature in Bb. So to build a Master, create a new course and call it Master. Then populate it/design it as needed but any time you upload files, this is when I would suggest housing the files in the "institution folder" of the content system. This way all courses using the master course will have links to files instead of actual files making it smaller and if you need to update any of the files you will just need to update the one in the institution area and all links will then have the new updated file.
hope this helps,
paige
Thank you Paige,
that helps greatly.
Further question: The Institution folder - Does this mean that anyone institution-wide can access these files?
You would need to set Read permissions on the files in the institution folder so all users of the content would be able to access it through the courses. Now you can set up a folder for all the content and not give permission to the folder but give permission on the files so students wouldn't see the folder if they went to institution content (test this first to double check the permissions are working correctly) but they would be able to see the files linked from the course.
If you didn't do this part, they would be able to see the files from the institution content, but if only read permission is set they only thing they would be able to do is read the file as they could if they accessed from the course.
Hmm...
Would professors be able to set their own permissions to each file they upload? Or would the administrator have to put things in the institution folder?
That would depend on the permissions you set for the instructors. You can give instructors full access to folders (or sub folders) so they would be able to set this up freeing the admins from having to manage it.
Gotcha.
Appreciate the info. Much obliged. :)
Paige- or others- I can't seem to remember how I have edited the Banner area in a course home page. I have searched several times on the help engine- but the answers describe menu button/ choices my system doesn't have. Anyone who could help on this would be much appreciated.
Thanks!
Course Management Pane / Control Panel > Customization > Teaching Style
It's the sixth option.
Hate to put a shameless plug in here, but here's the tutorial I made for my faculty to use:
http://www2.cortland.edu/dotAsset/931270bb-8ecd-4de0-a387-d5536deffe78.pdf
Thanks, John--nice tutorial! It's a bit frustrating that Blackboard keeps changing the name of these control panel areas, since "Teaching Style" is a fairly new name...
Mike
Thank you Mike, and agreed on that name-changing frustration!