In order to upload a banner into a Blackboard course, the instructor needs to have a properly-sized banner created. Banners should be about 600 x 60 pixels; larger banners take up too much of the announcements space. Banners must be created and sized outside Blackboard and uploaded as a .gif or .jpg file.
To add a banner:
Some useful websites that will help you create banners easily are:
Click here for examples of sample banners for use in Blackboard.
Additional exampls of starter banner backgrounds provided by Central Washington University are available here.
Blackboard will accept a variety web-friendly image formats. It is recommended to use banner image files in either .jpg or .gif format.
After you've created your banner, the final step prior to loading it into Blackboard is to export your banner to a web-friendly image format like .jpg or .gif. To do this, within Fireworks simply click "FILE > EXPORT WIZARD" and follow the step-by-step instructions to exporting your image. You can then upload your banner to your course.
It is true than any software that allows for cropping and exporting of graphics can be used to create a banner for use in Blackboard. You need not spend a lot of money to purchase a high-end editing package. One free software worth downloading and trying is Serif Photo Plus 6.0 available as a free download from http://www.freeserifsoftware.com/software/PhotoPlus.
Go to CONTROL PANEL > COURSE DESIGN > COURSE BANNER. Click the box next to "Remove this banner" Finally, click "Submit" and then "OK."
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Last Updated: 09/26/2007