Moving Readings from ERes to Blackboard

We have phased out our Docutek ERes system, since that functionality can be provided more effectively in Blackboard. Using one system (Blackboard) rather than two is also much easier for students, since they'll be able to find their online course materials in one place only (their Blackboard course), a place that is password protected and limited to students enrolled in a particular course. The process of moving documents from ERes to Blackboard is not difficult, although it involves two distinct steps, which we will detail in separate Web pages:

• Downloading the PDF Files from ERes
• Uploading PDF Readings into Your Blackboard Course

Once you have copied all the ERes files onto your hard drive, you are ready to add them to your Blackboard course(s). Unfortunately, that process needs to be done one file at a time, for each of your courses. Where you'll put the readings will depend on how you structure your Blackboard course. Below, we suggest creating an "Electronic Readings" folder in the "Course Materials" section of your course, but that is only a suggested location. This suggested process of uploading your electronic reserves into Blackboard has two steps:

• Creating an Electronic Readings Folder
• Uploading PDF Files into the Folder

Creating an Electronic Readings Folder

1. You can access your Blackboard course by logging in to myBucknell (opens in new window) and by clicking on the relevant course listing in the My Blackboard "gadget" on that page or by logging in directly to Blackboard (opens in new window).

2. If you are on the main My Blackboard page in Blackboard, you can access your course by finding it in the Custom My Courses module in the middle column on that page and then clicking on the link for the course:

   

3. You should make sure that the Edit Mode switch at the top-right corner of the page is in the On position (which it should be by default), to allow you to edit your course:

   

4. We'll assume in this help sheet that you haven't changed the default structure of your Blackboard course and that you want to create the "Electronic Readings" folder in the Course Materials section of your course. Click on the Course Materials button in your course navigation menu to navigate to that area of your course:

   

5. To add a folder, put your mouse over the Build Content button. In the New Page section of the menu that drops down, click on  Content Folder :

   

6. Blackboard will take you to a Create Content Folder page. We recommend that you name the folder something like Electronic Readings, although of course you can choose a different name (Electronic Reserves, On-Line Readings, etc.) Type your chosen name for the folder in the Name box.

   If you would like to color-code your folders to make them easier to identify, you can choose a color other than the default (black) by clicking the chevron for the "Color of Name" value () and selecting the color you want from the chart of color swatches that appears.

   Although the name of the folder will most likely make it obvious what materials are contained in it, you could also type a brief description of the folder in the Text box, so your students will have a sense of what they will find in the folder:

   

7. Scroll down to the Options section of the page. The default options should work for electronic readings in particular. In other words, "Permit Users to View this Content" should be "Yes", and "Track Number of Views" can be "No,", since you don't really need to know how often students click on a folder. If you want to limit when students can see the folder (and therefore all the items contained in it as well), you can use the Display After and Display Until settings to control that time frame:

   

8. Click the button to send your changes to the server.

9. In the green status bar at the top of the page, Blackboard will confirm that the folder was successfully created, and you should see the folder within the content area you chose. If you'd like to re-order the items in this section of the course, you can click and hold on the double vertical arrows () to the left of the folder name and drag the folder to a different position on the page.

Uploading PDF Files into the Folder

Once you have created the "Electronic Readings" folder, you are ready to upload the actual PDF files that make up those readings into your course. (We're assuming that you have followed the directions above about creating an Electronic Readings folder in the Course Materials section of your Blackboard course, and that you are still in the Course Materials section of the course.

Please note that to determine how to name the document in Blackboard and to find the correct PDF file, you'll need to open the summary spreadsheet that lists all your former ERes readings, following these instructions (instructions open in new window).

To add documents to the "Electronic Readings" folder:

1. On the Course Materials page, click on the link for the folder that you just created; in our example, we've called it Electronic Readings:

   

2. To add your first reading to the folder, put your mouse over the Build Content button, and click on "Item" in the Create column:

   

3. Type a name for the item in the Name box.

   If you like to use different colors for particular items to indicate their type, you can choose a color other than the default (black) by clicking the chevron in the "Color of Name" area and clicking on a color swatch in the chart of available colors that appears.

   We recommend that you type a brief description of the item in the Text box, so your students will have a sense of what article it is that they will be viewing:

   

4. Scroll down to the Attachments section of the page, and click the Browse My Computer button:

   

   Navigate to the appropriate folder on your hard drive to find the file that you want to upload into your Blackboard course. If you followed our first set of instructions (page opens in new window) for downloading files from ERes, then you'll most likely find your file in the ERes folder under your My Documents folder, in one of the numbered folders that you downloaded from the server. Once you find the appropriate PDF file, click on the name of the file to select it, and then click on the Open button:

   

5. In the Link Title box, Blackboard will put the name of the file, which should be sufficient. You can scroll down to the Options section of the page. In general, the default settings are usually acceptable, particularly for the first setting, "Permit Users to View this Content", which should be "Yes". You may want to select the "Yes" button to track the number of views, if you want to get statistics at a later point about how often students have accessed this particular reading. You can set Display After and Display Until dates for the content, although usually that isn't required. In the figure below, we choose the basic recommended settings of making the item visible, tracking the number of times students view the item, but not restricting the item's availability to students:

   

6. Click the button to send your changes to the server.

7. In the green status bar at the top of the apge, Blackboard will respond that the item has been successfully created. You should see the item you just added within the folder.

8. You'll need to repeat Steps 2 through 6 above for each reading that you want to add to your Blackboard course.

9. Once you have finished adding all of your online readings to this course, you'll most likely need to repeat these instructions for your other course(s) that have electronic readings that were part of our ERes system. To return to your list of courses in Blackboard, click on the Tab in the top-left corner of your screen, which returns you to the opening page in Blackboard.

Last revised February 23, 2011.  Please send questions or comments to itec@bucknell.edu.