Step 7: Course Calendar and Announcements.
Introduction
On this page, you will learn the how to use the Course Calendar to your advantage by leveraging different views as well as using it for personal items. In additon to the calendar, you will learn the importance of class announcements and how professors use the Announcement feature to alert you to critical class information.
Key Points on this Page
The importance of utilizing the Course Calendar effectively.
Accessing the Calendar from the main Blackboard page and within a course.
Changing the view of the Calendar by schedule or due dates and by day or month.
Checking Calendar settings for filtering and adding events to personal calendars.
Using Announcements to stay informed about critical class information.
Tips for accessing Announcements and potential changes in viewing content.
Reminder about the expiration of Announcements and email notifications.
The Course Calendar
The calendar displays a consolidated view of all your institution, course, organization, and personal calendar events. You can view events by day, week, or month. You can view and organize upcoming and past events into categories.
Accessing the Calendar
You can access the calendar from the main Blackboard page after logging in by clicking the Calendar Icon.
Additionally, inside of a course, you can access a more granular view by clicking Calendar under the Resources section on the Navigation bar.
Changing the View
The Calendar gives you two ways to view content, either by Schedule or Due Dates and either by Day or Month. Both toggles are found on the top of the Calendar.
Checking Calendar Settings
You can filter which Course Calendars you wish to see, as well as adding ICS Calendars, all from the settings option. To view the settings, click the Cog wheel.
In addition, you can also add items that you want to see by clicking the Plus icon and adding events to a calendar called My Personal Calendar.
Between these calendars and settings, as well as Notifications that you learned in Step 4, you are now fully equipped and prepared to handle any assignment or task that comes your way.
Using Announcements
Announcements will generally be the first thing you see when you enter a course in Blackboard.
However, some faculty may change the template so that you see content, lessons or other material when you first go to the course home page.
You can click on the Announcements link in the upper left navigation bar. If that isn't displaying, try the Student Tools link.
If that is also not displaying, your instructor may have disabled these features. Talk to your professor about the reasons you'd like to see it included!
Important: Announcements may expire and may be simultaneously sent with the announcement out via email at the same time as it is posted.
Page Summary
On this page, you were stepped through accessing the Calendar from the main page and within courses, altering viewing preferences, and managing Calendar settings for personalized use. Additionally, we highlighted the importance of Announcements, how to access them, and considerations for viewing content variations.
Exercise
Go into your Blackboard Orientation course, and read the announcements posted.
After you have completed this exercise, please go to Step 8.