Finding lecture notes & learning materials

You’ll find your lecture notes and learning materials in Course Content view in your Blackboard Ultra module, the default page in your Blackboard course.

ultra-screen-st-learning-res.jpg

 

The majority of your learning content will be saved in Blackboard Ultra Folder symbol folders or Blackboard Ultra learning module symbol Learning modules, they will most likely be arranged by week.

Types of learning content

Clicking on a folder or Learning modules will reveal a list of content.

Course content view expanded folder containing learning resources
An expanded Course Content folder containing a link, a Vevox poll, a pdf and a document

 

Different types of content are represented by different icons:

Blackboard Ultra document symbol Documents (web pages containing text, images and video)

Blackboard Ultra images symbol Images

Blackboard Ultra document symbol Downloadable files such as PDFs/PowerPoint slides

Blackboard Ultra link symbol Weblinks that will link to web content outside Blackboard

In addition you will see image-20240911-134028.png assignments or tests

Another symbol you may see is Blackboard Ultra Rocket symbol this represents integrated third-party software e.g. Turnitin (assignments), Vevox (polls & quizzes) or Matlab (data)

Folders, documents and files

Click on a folder Blackboard Ultra Folder symbol to expand the content, this folder contains lecture notes in a file (PDF) that can be downloaded and a document a web page that contains a recording of a lecture:

 

Click on a Blackboard Ultra document symbol file, it will open in a layer above the course content area.

The following is a downloadable pdf, use the Blackboard Ultra Ally symbol Ally button to generate an accessible version,

the Blackboard Ultra download symbol download button to download the file

and Blackboard Ultra close symbol to close the file

 

Clicking on a Blackboard Ultra document symbol document will also open it in a new layer above the Course content. Documents may contain text, images and video, they may also contain some downloadable files as well.

Use the image-20240903-111910.png Ally button to generate an accessible version

and image-20240903-111823.png to close the file

 

Learning Modules

Learning modules are similar to folders, however they are used to organise content (documents, links, files) in sequence. The following are examples of Learning modules in Course Content, one has an image the other the icon image-20240903-103051.png, the one on the right has forced sequence enabled.

You are expected to work through the Learning module content in sequence, using the previous and next buttons at top of each item.

Forced sequence Learning Modules

A list of content with a chain of circles and lines, means that forced sequence is activated and you must complete each item in order, before moving on to the next.

The circle shows the status of each item

learning module padlock symbol padlock = locked

learning module green tick green tick = complete

learning module half-circle symbol half circle = started

learning module grey circle symbol grey circle = current/ starting point

 

You need to click on the first (learning module grey circle symbolcurrent item) in the list. The item will open and you’ll see that the link to the next item is greyed out, this means you need to complete the item i.e. read the document to enable the link.

 

When you read to the bottom of the document the link will become activated and then you can progress to the next page.

 

As you progress through the sequence, completed items are ticked off the list.

If you need to leave the learning module, your progress is retained and you can come back to where left off by clicking on the learning module grey circle symbol current or learning module half-circle symbolstarted item

 

Related Articles

Centre for Digital Learning Enhancement
ulster.ac.uk/learningengancement/cdle