CourseSites by Blackboard

Get Started Building Your Course Online

1. Sign Up

Signing up for a free account is easy.

2. Create Course

Create Your Course in a snap.

Now you’re ready to invite students.

In the left navigation, click Control Panel, Click Users and Groups, click Course Invitations.
Fill in To and Subject fields, edit the Message if you'd like.
Click Submit.

Signing Up

Signing up for CourseSites is fast, simple and secure. Instructors can create a regular account, or register using credentials from popular social media services like Facebook, Twitter and Windows Live. When signing up, instructors also designate a CourseSites URL, which leads to their very own public instructor homepage.
Course Invitations

In this video, you will take a tour of the Invitations feature, which enables you to invite students, faculty and guests to your course website.
Instructor Homepage

In this video, you will take a tour of the public-facing instructor homepage, where instructor's can upload a photo and profile, as well as post blog entries. You will all see how students can access your course via the instructor homepage.

Course Themes

In this video, you will take a tour of course themes that enable Instructors to customize their course website. Choose a theme that suits your mood, subject, location or season.
Course Structures

When setting up courses in CourseSites, instructors have a choice of 52 pedagogically-driven structures which can align with their preferred teaching method, course organization or experience with other online learning platforms.
Live Classroom and Instant Messenger

In this video, you will take a tour of the Live and Instant Messenger features available to help teachers and students communicate with each other.

Tutorial 1: How to Build Your Course Online

This tutorial will show Instructors how to build their course online. Instructors will learn how to access the Create a New Course page, choose a structure and a theme for their course, and begin customizing their course.
Tutorial 3: Selecting or Changing a Course Structure

When setting up courses in CourseSites, instructors have a choice of 52 pedagogically-driven structures which can align with their preferred teaching...
Tutorial 5: Modifying the Course Menu

This tutorial will show Instructors how to add a new Content Area to the Course Menu, reorder a menu item, show a menu item to students and rename a menu item.
Tutorial 7: Inviting Students to Your CourseSite

This tutorial will show instructors how to invite students to participate in their course and monitor the status of their invitations.
Tutorial 9: Organizing the Grade Center

Manage grades in one convenient place and instantly post them online for your students. This tutorial will show Instructors how to freeze, hide, and reorder Grade Center columns.

Tutorial 2: Selecting or Changing a Course Theme

This tutorial will show instructors how to select or change a Course Theme using the Select Course Theme menu or the Control Panel.
Tutorial 4: Creating an Assignment

This tutorial will show instructors how to create an assignment and upload an associated file for students to use.
Tutorial 6: Navigating CourseSites as an Instructor

This tutorial will show instructors how to navigate CourseSites.
Tutorial 8: Creating a Discussion Board Forum

This tutorial will show instructors how to create a Discussion Board Forum and modify the settings to support their instructional objectives.
Tutorial 10: Grading an Assignment

This tutorial will show instructors how to locate an Assignment in the Grade Center, review and grade it, and provide feedback for the student and other instructors if necessary.

Meet John Fontaine, Lead Developer for CourseSites

Hear John Fontaine, Lead Developer for CourseSites, discuss his varied interests.
Meet George Kroner and Wayan Wirasaputra, Technical Leads for CourseSites

Hear from Gegorge Kroner and Wayan Wirasaputra, Technical Leads for CourseSites by Blackboard.

Meet Jarl Jonas, Sr. Project Manager for CourseSites

Hear Jarl Jonas, Senior Program Manager for CourseSites, and former teacher, discuss why he wishes he had CourseSites when he taught high school.

Topic	Description	Recording
Getting Started with CourseSites	Below are the recordings for the two sessions held the week of January 17th on Getting Started with CourseSites. After the recording launches, you may need to expand the View menu at the top left and select Default View to see the full recording	Click here for recording
Staying on Track with Notifications	CourseSites contains powerful notification features that can help you and students to stay on track. Learn how to set your notification settings to help optimize your course management and assist students with remaining on task or even ahead!	Click here for recording
Transform Static to Ecstatic! With SoftChalk, CONNECT and Scorecenter!	Ready to move beyond static PowerPoint and PDF content in your online courses? Learn how easy it is to create engaging CourseSites using the free SoftChalk for CourseSites. Combine the resources of digital repositories with your existing content. Add interactives, video, web widgets and other rich media to develop engaging learner content. Track student score results into your Blackboard Grade Center. You will be amazed at how easy it is to use SoftChalk for CourseSites. (And did we mention that SoftChalk for CourseSites is FREE?!!!) The session also covers how to get SoftChalk and get started.	Click here for recording