Navigate a Blackboard Course Site

You are viewing instructions for Ultra view in Blackboard

If you did not specifically request to have your course regenerated in Ultra view, go to Navigating Blackboard Original  instead.

If you are just getting started with Blackboard Ultra, our early adopting faculty have helped us compile a "10 tips" document that you might find helpful! Requires UA login to view. 

At a glance

Instructor View

UAS uses Blackboard to house online courses or course materials. You can access your course via the UAS Online portal or directly through classes.alask.edu. Course sites are created automatically for all UAS courses and are a good way to manage communications, assignments, and grading whether your course is online, face to face, or hybrid.

NOTE: The only thing you are required to use Blackboard for (for all courses, even those that meet in-person), is posting a syllabus. 

When you enter your course site, you will be viewing it as the instructor. The main area will house all of your course content. There are also some important menus.

1. A menu at the top where you can navigate to areas within your course such as announcemnts and gradebook.

2. A menu to the left with tools and settings for such tasks as turning on progress tracking (recommended!), managing your roster, and adding integrations such as Zoom. 

3. A "+" sign with a contextual dropdown menu (additional items appear when you click it). This is how you'll add content to your course - either by copying or creating new items. Anywhere you click the plus sign is where your content will initially be created (you can also drag items after creation to move them). 

4. A "..." menu in the upper right area which will also allow you to add content, and has additional useful options like batch editing content. 

To see what students will see in your class, select theStudent Preview option in the upper right. (Note that the UAS menu with the gray background will still display instructor-only links in student preview mode such as "upload syllabus" and an EAB link. This is a known issue with the student preview, and will not impact your actual students). 

UAS also has a custom menu (bottom left) with some handy links for our instructors. You can use the "update course syllabus" link to upload your syllabus, or you can find it under "books and tools" as well.