Integration of Other Online Technologies into Blackboard

If you are using Blackboard and need to connect to another tool that has an URL (web address), the following steps illustrate how to add a link to your Blackboard menu.  Some examples of online technologies that you may wish to incorporate into your Blackboard course are:

How to integrate these tools into your Blackboard course:

Quick Instructions (in 3 easy steps):

1. Copy the web address URL of your course tool (C2C, Pepper, etc.)
2. Create a "Web Link" in your Blackboard course menu
3. Give the link a name, and paste your URL. Make available to Users, and Submit.

Detailed step-by-step Instructions:

(using C2C as an example)

1. Copy the web address URL of your course tool

If you need to find your C2C URL, it will be listed in myOISE (www.oise.utoronto.ca/myoise/).  Click on the 'open in new window' link beside your C2C course.

Copy the URL.  You can do this by copying the entire URL from your Internet browser (or you may have been sent the URL in an email message).  Be sure to have highlighted the entire URL address before you select "copy" by right clicking on the URL.  Copy can also be performed using the top "Edit" menu, or "Ctrl-C" / Command-C.

2. Create a "Web Link" in your Blackboard course menu

Open your course in Blackboard (Login to Blackboard, and select your course in the "My Courses" section). Make sure "Edit Mode" is ON. Click the plus sign (+) in your course menu, and select "Web Link "

3. Give the link a name, and paste your URL.  Make available to Users

Enter the name for your course menu (in this example, "C2C").  Paste the URL.  Check off "Available to Users".  Click Submit.

Other Options to consider

Editing your Blackboard course menu

You may wish to move your link to a higher position in your course menu.  To re-arrange the order of your menu items, click on the little up/down arrows to the left of the menu item, and drag&drop to a new position. 

You may also wish to clean up your menu by deleting or hiding any unused menu items.  To do this, click on the little double down arrow icon beside the menu item you want to get rid of and select "Delete".  This will allow you to hide the link from your students, but retreive the item at a later date if you change your mind.  For example, most instructors at OISE do not use all of the default sections, so deleting the following menu items can be done: "My Grades", "Home Page" and "Contacts".  For the "Tools" link, please select "Hide Link" for that specific menu item.

Remember, you will need to Make Your Course Available before you students can see and access your links.

Issues that may arise

A few things to consider when linking inside Blackboard.

The Double Login Dilemma
Remember that Blackboard uses your UTORid username and password to allow access to your course.  Your external online tool may have it's own set of login credentials (a different username/password). For example you will still require separate Pepper login information since you need to login to Pepper when inside Blackboard.

C2C utilizes the UTORid system, and therefore does not require a double login.  A link to your C2C website is all you need.

Open in a New Window
You can also link to your external website URL's in any of your Content Areas.  You can do so through Create Item, or Create External Link.  In either case, remember to select the option "Open link in new window".  Some web browsers (mostly Internet Explorer), may have security issues when linking to external websites from within Blackboard.  To avoid this, we always recommend selecting the "Open in a New Window" option when creating a link in Blackboard.