Blackboard offers a variety of ways to create and organize course materials in your course. This article will explain how you can create your individual pieces of content in content areas and folders. In addition, you will learn how to create content items, tests, assignments, and links to tools within a content area or folder. For additional information about adding and creating content, visit this Blackboard support article. 

Create a Content Area and Organize Your Course Menu

The content area is where you can add new Items, Folders, Assessment, tools, etc. You can create as many content areas as you need. Most courses may already have content areas: Course materials and Assignments. If you would like to add additional content areas to your course menu, please follow the steps outline below:

  1. Start within your course, with Edit Mode turned on. Then, hover over the plus symbol in a circle at the top of the left menu. Select the first option "Content Area".

    Content area screenshot

  2. Enter a name (Course Content, Assignments, Syllabus, etc.).

  3. Click the checkbox "Available to Users".

    Screenshot of adding a content area

  4. Click "Submit".

The new content area is created at the bottom of the upper part of the left menu. You can drag it by the left edge to reposition if desired. Click on the new left menu link to enter the content area.

Create a Folder to Organize Content

Folders are a type of container that you can use to organize content. You create folders in existing content areas, learning modules, lesson plans, or other folders. After you create a folder, you can add content and additional sub-folders to it. For example, in a content area, you can create folders for each week of your course. Then, you can add content items, assignments, file attachments, links to websites, tests, assignments, multimedia, and additional folders. Students can select any of the items and don't have to follow a sequential order.

1. In your course, navigate to a course content area (a course content area will have Build Content, Assessment, Tools, and Partner Content buttons at the top.

2. Hover over Build Content to access the menu and select Content Folder.

Screenshot of Blackboard Content Folder
3. Type a name, optional description, and select the appropriate options for availability, tracking, and display dates. Display dates don't affect a folder's availability, only when it appears.

4. Click Submit. After you submit, a link to the new folder appears. A newly created folder is an empty container. Select the folder to add content.


[This article was adapted from Northeastern University ITS.]