Creating A Course Banner And Personalizing Your Blackboard Course

Customizing Your Blackboard Course

How to Add a Course Banner

Select the course you want to add the banner to from your My Blackboard courses module.

Select the Control Panel from the left navigation menu and from the Course Options area, select Settings

From the Settings Menu select Course Design

From the Course Design Menu select the Course Banner option.

Click on the Browse button and navigate to the location of your banner. Select the banner name and click Open. You will see your attached image file name in the box. Click Submit. You will then get a confirmation page. Click Ok. Your banner will display on the Announcements page.

Helpful Hints in Creating your Banner: Banner must be a gif or jpg. Resolution should be low – 75 ppi (pixels per inch) will work well on a monitor. Size can be stated in either pixels or inches for an image but pixels are recommended. A photograph will display clearly and at reasonable size if both dimensions are no larger than 150 pixels. Graphic Editors -(what can they do?)

(Photoshop, Fireworks, Photoshop Elements, Microsoft Photo Editor, Microsoft Word)

 Photoshop and Fireworks can resize, change resolution, change brightness, contrast, color tints, rotate, make transparent, and apply a large number or artistic effects  Elements (a stripped-down version of Photoshop intended for use primarily with digital pictures), contains the same capabilities as Photoshop with the exception of drawing input.  Microsoft Photo Editor can crop, resize, rotate, adjust contrast and balance, add transparency, and show pixel size but cannot change resolution.  Microsoft Word can crop, adjust brightness and contrast, set transparent color but not change resolution.  Graphic-editing programs also come with some digital cameras.

Editing in Photoshop – Open the file in Photoshop, then go to Image, Image Size. A window opens allowing resolution and sizing changes. Just lowering the resolution will change the size of the image. If the largest pixel size (length or width) is greater than 200, you may want to decrease that number – just enter a smaller number in the box. Note – at the bottom of the Image Size Window is the Constrain Properties box, which is selected. This box assures the graphic will remain proportional when resized. Leave the box checked if it contains people or if maintaining proportion is important. Be sure to save the image with a jpeg or gif extension.

Creating Banners on the Web: You also have the option of creating a banner on the web by going to free banner making websites. Simply create the banner, save to your computer, and then upload to Blackboard. For example:

1. Go to www.flamingtext.com 2. Follow the instructions to create your banner (no apostrophes or !'s) 3. Click on CREATE A BANNER button when finished selecting your options NOTE: Suggested banner size is 450 x 90 pixels 4. When your banner appears do one of the following. a. IBM PC - Right Click on the banner and select SAVE PICTURE AS… b. MAC – Hold the mouse button down on the banner until the men appears then select SAVE AS… Save the image in a location that you will easily find. (ie.: Your desktop) 5. Now go to your Blackboard course’s control panel and select Settings, Course Design and select Course Banner. ______Free Banner Sites

Flaming Text Media Builder Text Maker (no apostrophes, !’s ok!) http://www.flamingtext.com/start.html http://www.3dtextmaker.com/ . Click “Headings”! Solid color on a white background . Fun choices Many font types to choose from . Some animation Animation

The Banner Generator http://coder.com/creations/banner/banner-form.pl.cgi . Very customizable (almost confusing) . Many font types to choose from . No Animation