Customizing the Navigation Menu

Default Course Navigation Menu

There are eight buttons included on the course navigation menu by default when instructors request a new Blackboard course: Announcements, Course Information, Course Content, Discussion Board, My Grades, Send Email, Blackboard Help, and Tools (hidden from students by default).  For more information about how these work and suggested information to be included within each one, view the New Blackboard Course guide.

Menu Buttons

The following areas are Tool Links, which means they can perform one specific function: Announcements, Discussion Board, My Grades (only visible from student view), Send Email.  Course Information and Course Content are content areas, which means anything can be added within these areas using the buttons on the action bar (shown below):

Blackboard Help is a web link that takes students to the official Blackboard Help page for the current version we have installed.  Tools is hidden by default (instructors can show it if they wish) because there are several tools available that are not used in most courses.  Instead of having all tools visible, instructors can add those they wish to use as additional buttons on the navigation menu.  

Customizing the Navigation Menu

We recommend keeping the number of buttons on the navigation menu to as few as possible to help student more easily navigate a Blackboard course.  Instructors may customize the navigation menu as much as they would like by adding, deleting, renaming, or rearranging any buttons on the navigation menu.  To make changes to the navigation menu:

• drop down next to any menu item to rename, hide, or delete the item
• click on the + sign in the upper-left area of the navigation menu to add a new button (tool link, content link, web link, etc.)
• click on the left end of a menu item and drag it to rearrange the menu items

Resources

For more detailed instructions - and a video - about customizing the navigation menu, visit Instructor Features on the Blackboard Help site.

For additional assistance with customizing your navigation menu, contact the TLC at tlc@icc.edu or (309) 694-8908, or visit us in room 240A on the East Peoria campus.

Next week our Blackboard Users' Group will meet in the TLC on Wednesday, September 2 at 12noon or Thursday, September 3 at 3pm - participants may attend either session.

Our October blog series will focus on the Blackboard Grade Center.