Customizing your course menu

The Course Menu is the part of your course's Blackboard page that allows students to navigate to the content of the course. The default course menu options - "Announcements", "Course Information", "Staff Information", and so on - might not suit your class, however. This tutorial will show you how to edit the course menu.

  • Navigate to Bb6 Control Panel

    Log into Blackboard and select the class whose course menu you'd like to change. Once inside the class, click on Control Panel.

  • Click Manage Course Menu

    Under Course Options, click Manage Course Menu.

There are three ways to customize your course menu from this screen: (1) by adding a new link; (2) by changing the order in which the links appear; and (3) by removing unwanted links.

Adding a new link

  • Select the content to add

    Near the top of the Manage Course Menu page is the word Add followed by several buttons. In the example that follows, I will be adding a Content Area to my course menu. The process for the other types of content (Tool Link, Course Link, and External Link) is very similar.

    Click on Content Area to continue.

  • Enter information and submit

    On the next screen, enter the Name of the new content area. This is the text that will appear as a link on the course menu, so be sure to select something descriptive. You may choose from among some common names in the dropdown menu, or you may type in your own. Also be certain that the box Available for Student/Participant Users is checked, so that your students will have access.

    Click Submit when you're ready to continue.

  • Click OK to continue

    You'll get a verification screen that looks like this. Click OK to get back to the Manage Course Menu screen and see the change you just made, which will appear as the last item on your course menu.

Changing the order in which links appear

  • Choose where you want the item to appear

    Each item on the Manage Course Menu screen has a number by it that determines where on the course menu the item will appear. Let's say that I want to move Assignments from number 5 on the list to number 1. To make this change, select 1 from the Assignments dropdown list.

  • Verify that your change has been made

    As soon as you enter the new number, Blackboard will make the requested change. After the screen refreshes, the course menu will have been reordered. In my case, since I chose to put Assignments at the top of the list, every other item on the list is bumped to a lower position automatically.

Removing unwanted links

  • Click Remove next to the unwanted item

    You can remove items from the course menu by clicking Remove next to that item on the Manage Course Menu screen. In my case, I'm deleting Staff Information.

  • Click OK if prompted

    Blackboard will ask you if you are sure that you want to proceed with deleting the item. If you're sure that you want to remove this item from the course menu, click OK.