The Blackboard calendar can display a consolidated view of all your institution, course, organization, and personal calendar events. You can filter by course, and view events by day, week, or month. The features available depend on your role in Blackboard:
- Instructors - Only instructors can create course calendar events. You can use the course calendar to provide students with dates for course-related events, which will appear to all members of the course. Common entries include upcoming tests, due dates for assignments, or special lectures. Course items with due dates appear automatically in the course calendar. Note: Non-graded items with due dates, such as tasks, don't appear in the calendar automatically. You'll have to add these events directly to the course calendar to ensure students see them.
- Students - Use the calendar to keep track of upcoming assignments, events, and other due dates (not editable by students). You can add personal events that are only visible in your own calendar.
The Blackboard landing page includes access to a secondary calendar, accessible from the Base Navigation menu (the main menu, outside of your courses, seen immediately after login). You can still access the classic version of the calendar from the Tools menu inside of your courses. The landing page calendar has an improved user interface, but you may prefer the in-course calendar. Please see the following sections for more information about using both versions of the calendar.
Blackboard Ultra Calendar: Access from Landing Page
The updated Blackboard calendar can be accessed from the Ultra Base Navigation menu that you see immediately upon login. This calendar has an updated user interface, but most of the features are identical to the original Blackboard calendar. You can use either calendar to see all your upcoming due dates and meetings across your courses in one place.
Find and Navigate the Calendar
You can access the new calendar interface from the Ultra Base Navigation menu – the main menu seen immediately after you log in to Blackboard. Click Calendar in the menu on the left to open the Blackboard Calendar page, then use the Schedule/Due Dates and Day/Month menus at the top of the page to toggle between views. Use the arrows to the left and right of the month to see past and upcoming appointments and due dates. You can use the gear icon (in the top-right corner of the page) to access your calendar settings and filter the events displayed on your calendar by course.
Create and Edit an Event
Use the '+' icon in the top-right corner of the page to add an event to your personal calendar or the course calendar (instructors only), edit your schedule, or add office hours (instructors only).
- Add Event - Students can add an event to their personal calendar, and instructors can use the drop-down menu to select a course where they would like to add an event. You can also include other information, like: start/end date and time, repetition, location, and description.
- Edit Schedule - Select courses to add to your calendar using the '+' icon next to each course ID.
- Add Office Hours - Instructors can select a course calendar, where they can share their office hours. You can include other information, like: start/end date and time, repetition, total occurrences, location, and description.
Select the title of an event you added to change its details. You can move and delete events in your calendar, drag and drop them to change times/dates, or delete events that you no longer need. Students can't modify, move, or delete events added by instructors.
Share Your Calendar
Your schedule is a mix of academic and personal commitments. To help keep up with everything you've got going on, it helps to put everything on one calendar. You can share your Blackboard Learn calendar with external services like Google Calendar, Outlook, and the Calendar application for Mac and iPhone. This way, course events appear alongside your personal events, and you don't need to log in to Blackboard to see your course events and due dates. Please see the Sync My Blackboard Calendar Knowledge Base article for more information about setting it up.
More Information
For the most up-to-date information about using the Ultra Base Navigation (UBN) Calendar, please see Blackboard's help page for instructors or students.
Blackboard Original Calendar: Access from Course Menu
The classic Blackboard calendar can be accessed from your class. This calendar has the classic user interface, but most of the features are identical to the new UBN calendar. You can use either calendar to see all your upcoming due dates and meetings across your courses in one place.
Find and Navigate the Calendar
You can access the calendar from your course. In your course menu (on the left), click Tools, then select Calendar.
The calendar will open inside of your course page:
- View events by day, week, or month.
- Use the arrows to navigate to another month.
- Select the plus (+) icon to create a new event. You can also select a date to create an event. Assign the event to the appropriate calendar, select the date and time, and add a description.
Note: Students cannot create an event on a course or institution calendar.
- Select an event to manage it. You can also select and drag an event to change the date.
- Select the calendars you want to show, such as institution, personal, or course. By default, all calendars are visible. You can change the color of each calendar to suit your preference and to easily determine which events correspond with each calendar.
Note: All institution events appear in the institution calendar. All course events, such as assignments due, appear in the course calendar. Courses you hide in the My Courses module on the My Institution page will also be hidden in the Calendars list.
- Get an iCal URL to import your Blackboard Learn calendar into an external calendar application, such as Google Calendar, Outlook, or the Calendar application for Mac or iPhone. After the Learn iCal URL is set up in an external calendar, it is updated dynamically with new Learn calendar events. For more information about setting it up, please see the Sync My Blackboard Calendar Knowledge Base article.
Note: External calendars can't be imported into the Blackboard Learn calendar. This integration transfers information in one direction: from Blackboard to your external calendar.
Create an Event
Regular Event
Add a one-time event to your calendar.
- Click the plus (+) icon or select a specific date to create an event.
- Enter a new event name.
- Choose a calendar to associate the event with, such as your personal calendar.
Note: Only instructors and administrators can add events to the course and institution calendars.
- Select the start and end times.
- Enter an event description (4,000 character limit).
- Click Save.
Repeating Event
You can make recurring events by selecting the Repeat check box. The options below describe when the event repeats.
- Daily - Event ends after a specified number of times -OR- on a particular date.
- Weekly Repeat - Repeats an event on a day of the week. Event ends after X number of times -OR- on a particular date.
- Monthly Repeat - Repeats an events on a day of the month (1-31) or day of week (first Sunday, second Monday, and so on) supported. Events ends after X number of times -OR- on a particular date.
- Bulk Add (Series) - Create a series with the repeat options.
- Bulk Delete (Series) - Delete the entire series created using the repeat options.
- Edit an Instance - Edit an instance of the series. If you change the date/time of the instance, that particular instance has a "broken" icon to indicate that it no longer conforms with the original series rules. Note: Changing the name or description of an instance does not break the instance from the series.
- Edit Series (Known Limitation) - At this time, you cannot edit the series. After you create a series, you can bulk delete or make changes to individual instance.
Edit or Delete an Event
To change the date of an event or delete it from your calendar:
- Find the date of the event in the main calendar view.
- Select the event to edit or delete it.
- Select and drag an event to another date in the main view to change the date of the event. The time of the event and calendar it is associated with will remain the same.
Note: You can also select and drag an event from the main view to another date on the smaller monthly view to change the date.
More Information
For the most up-to-date information about using the Original Course Navigation Calendar, please see Blackboard's help page for instructors or students.
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