Examples for Organizing Ultra Content

One of the biggest challenges in the transition from original to ultra course view is the need to re-think how course content is organized. In response to student feedback, Blackboard has designed ultra course to keep content in single location and near the top-level of the course. In ultra courses, all course materials live in a single scrolling page under the Content tab and cannot be nested more than two folders deep.  For instructors that were accustomed to creating a number of content areas in the left-hand menu of their original course or used deeper folder structures, this can feel very limiting. This page provides examples from courses offered at Syracuse University to demonstrate approaches other instructors are taking in organizing their Blackboard ultra courses. 

Expand each example to see screenshots and more explanation about the tools each course uses. Clicking screenshots will expand them to a larger size for viewing. 


In this example course, folders are used to organize the course materials by type. The instructor has defined four main content types: Schedule and Syllabus, Course Resources, Weekly Content, and Exercises & Projects. The first two folders are populated primarily with files, links, videos, and Blackboard "documents." The last two folders contain sub-folders.

Weekly Content is sub-divided by the week of the semester with the newest week on top; folders contain resources for content covered each week.  Exercises & Projects is sub-divided by assignment with the newest on top; each folder contains Blackboard "assignments" where students submit the materials for the assignment. 

Because there are four main content types and all the course content is organized into these folders, there is little content at the top-level of this course.

 Screenshot of user interface 

Folder for Information about the Course

The first two folders contains information about the course mechanics.

Screenshot of user interface.

The files in the Syllabus and Schedule area are created directly in Blackboard as "documents." These open as an overlay over the course in the same browser window.

Screenshot of user interface.

The Course Resources folder has a combination of links to other websites, which open in a new window, and Blackboard documents.

Screenshot of user interface.

Course Content

The Weekly Content folder contains a set of sub-folders, each of which contains the materials required for class that week. This instructor has ordered the content with the most recent week on top and older weeks in reverse order.

The instructor uses date availability to control when each folder will appear so students only have access to content for the current week and all preceding weeks. This also ensures that the content for a given week is the first sub-folder a student sees throughout that week in the course.

Each sub-folder contains a mixture of content types: links, Blackboard documents, PDF files, and videos.  

Screenshot of user interface.

The documents in this section of the course have a combination of text and images to instruct the student on the use of software used in the course.

Screenshot of user interface.

Assessments

The folder labelled Exercises & Projects contains sub-folders for each project.

Screenshot of user interface.

Each project is broken into smaller steps, each of which has a separate Blackboard assignment where students submit their work. The assignment page contains details about what they should do and what they will submit to complete the step. 

Screenshot of user interface.