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Creating a Web Site in Blackboard

The Blackboard Content System is available to all Regent University students and faculty via the Share tab in Blackboard. The Content System makes it easy for you create e-Portfolios or traditional web pages. This document outlines the steps to creating a web space in Blackboard and moving an existing web site to it.

Before you begin
This document assumes that you already have an existing web site on another server, or are intending to create your own website by writing web code. If you don't already have a website, we strongly encourage you to consider using the built-in Portfolio functionality of Blackboard. This allows you to easily create web sites through a step-by-step process and doesn't require you to know how to write web code. Click here for more information about creating Portfolios through Blackboard.

Step 1: The 'My Content' folder
As a Blackboard user, you have your own personal storage space in the Share tab, called My Content. By default, this area is private, and only you have access to documents you store in your My Content area. If you've never used the Blackboard Content system before, log in to Blackboard and click the Share tab to begin. You will automatically be placed in your My Content area. On the left, you'll see other icons, such as 'Regent Content', 'Portfolios', 'Learning Objects', and 'Tools'. Click here for a basic tour of the Content System.

In order to place your web site in the My Content area, you'll need to create a special folder that is accesible to the public. Keep in mind that your web site will most likely not be the only thing you put in your My Content area. You can store documents, spreadsheets, papers, and other materials that you won't necessarily want to make available to the public. We recommend that you create folders in your My Content area to clearly separate public content (such as your website), and other private or group documents.

Step 2: Creating a folder for your web site
To create a Blackboard web site, we need to create a special folder to store your web files. You don't want to put your website into the root level of the My Content folder, because the root level is not publicly accesible. Plus, you'll want to reserve that area for other private documents you eventually may put there.

1. Log in to Blackboard and click the Share tab. You will automatically be taken to your My Content folder.


2. Inside your 'My Content' area, make a folder to hold your website by clicking the Folder icon in the toolbar. You can name it whatever you'd like, but it should be short and simple, like "public" or "website". Leave the other options alone and click OK.
   


3. You should now see your new folder in the My Content area along with any other documents and folders you have there. Now, you need to change the permissions for this folder so it is accessible to the public. To do this, click the 'hand' icon in the Permissions column to the right of your new folder.
   


4. On the Permissions page, choose 'Public' from the drop-down menu in the toolbar and click the Go button. On the next page, you should only grant Read permissions (these are the defaults), then click OK.
   


5. Now, your new folder is accesible to the public. In your My Content area, the permissions icon for the folder should change to show a globe with an open hand, to indicate the folder is shared to the public. Anything you put in this folder is readable by anyone on the internet.

Step 3: Connecting to your folder
Blackboard provides two means for getting items into the Content System. The first way is using the "Add Item" button in the toolbar. This method is slow and cumbersome, because you can only upload one file at a time. The second method uses Web Folder technology, and allows you to drag and drop your files into Blackboard just as you would with any other folder on your computer. Depending on your operating system and configuration, there are several different methods for creating a web folder connection to Blackboard.

• Using Windows XP and Internet Explorer

1. In the Blackboard Share tab, click the 'My Content' icon in the menu on the left. This ensures that you're at the root level of your My Content folder.
2. Click the 'Web Folder' icon in the toolbar. A password window should appear (if not, look in your Windows task bar).
3. Enter your Blackboard username and password. If you're on your personal computer, check the 'Remember Password' option, then click OK.
4. Your My Content folder should open in Windows Explorer, ready for you to copy your web site files.
5. In the future, you can access this web folder directly by going to the My Network Places area in Windows.
   

• Using a Mac, Windows Vista, or a browser other than Internet Explorer
  
  Please view this document for detailed instructions on connecting to a Blackboard web folder from a Mac, Windows Vista, or non-Internet Explorer browser.

Skip to step 5 if you're creating a new web site. As you create your web site, store the files in your Blackboard web folder.

Step 4: Copy web site files to your web folder
Now that you've connected to your web folder, you can copy your files to Blackboard by dragging them from their current location into the Blackboard web folder.

1. Using the web folder connection you just created, navigate to the folder you created earlier to hold your web site files. At this point, the folder should be empty.
2. Next, open the location that currently holds your web site (such as your S: drive).
3. Select all of the files in your old location (use Ctrl+A or Command+A to select all).
4. Drag the files from your old location to your new Blackboard folder.
5. Once the files have completed copying, you're done!

Step 5: Final Preparations
The last step to hosting your web site in Blackboard is to make sure your index or home files are named properly for Blackboard. The index or home file is the HTML document that a web server loads automatically when someone goes to your web site. There are many different naming conventions, but Blackboard requires that your home files be named index.html. If your home files are named differently, such as home.html, home.htm, index.htm, or index.shtml, you will need to rename these files to index.html in order for your web site to work properly in Blackboard. Make sure to adjust any links to reflect the name changes.

You can rename your home files just as you would any other file on your computer by using the web folder connection you set up earlier.

Step 6: Viewing your web site
In order to view your web site over the Internet, you need to know the web address. Every Blackboard user folder address has the same beginning:

http://regent.blackboard.com/bbcswebdav/users/

Then, simply append your MyRegent ID to the end of the address, and you've established the address to your Blackboard 'My Content' folder. For example, user 'bobsmi' has an address of:

http://regent.blackboard.com/bbcswebdav/users/bobsmi/

From there, simply append the name of the web folder you created. For example, if user 'bobsmi' created a folder called 'website' in his My Content folder, the internet address of his web site would be:

http://regent.blackboard.com/bbcswebdav/users/bobsmi/website/

One final tip: folder and file names are case-sensitive. A folder called "Website" is different than a folder called "website". Make sure you note upper and lower case differences when determining your Blackboard web site address.