Hello Faculty Member!
In this page, you will find instructions that will help you navigate through the tasks you need to do and the actions to need to take to get your course started in Blackboard. You will also find additional help resources and important information pertaining to Humber’s policies on copyright and accessibility/AODA.
Happy building and creating!

Land Acknowledgment: Honouring the Land
Humber College is located within the traditional and treaty lands of the Mississaugas of the Credit. Known as Adoobiigok, the “Place of the Black Alders” in Michi Saagiig language, the region is uniquely situated along Humber River Watershed, which historically provided an integral connection for Anishinaabe, Haudenosaunee, and Wendat peoples between the Ontario Lakeshore and Lake Simcoe/Georgian Bay regions. Now home to people of numerous nations, Adoobiigok continues to provide a vital source of interconnection for all.
Instructions for Faculty
Below are some useful information and tips to help you with your online experiences. The goal of this document is to outline some best practices when teaching online and/or using Blackboard, remind you of things you need to do before your course begins, and to provide some resources.
-
Create a folder on the content page called: GETTING STARTED and add or build the following items:
- Upload your Course Outline or create a link to it from SharePoint/OneDrive.
- Upload your Critical Path. Download a Sample Critical Path Template.
- Upload a Welcome Message. This can be an announcement, document or video, or a combination of the two. Download a Sample Welcome Message Template.
-
Create a folder on the content page called: ASSIGNMENTS & ASSESSMENTS. Within this folder build all gradable content based on your critical path. Create the following (if you are using them in your course) in this section:
- Discussion
- Assignments
- Test and Quizzes
- Journal
-
Create a folder called LEARNING MATERIALS. This is where your course content will be built.
- If your course has been brought over from Original Blackboard. Go through the course content and ensure all components are functional (e.g. quizzes, links, discussions, groups, assignments, etc). Fix any broken elements (except HTML pages created by the Digital Learning team) or contact the Instructional Support Studio for help.
As the course instructor, here are some best practices that you can follow to make this a great experience for you and your students:
- Get to know your students, read their Introduction/About You posts and get a feel for why students are in the class/what they hope to achieve by taking this course.
- Post an announcement at the beginning of every week containing a brief orientation or refresher for what you expect students to do this week. Any reminders can also be included in these announcements.
- Coach/prompt/engage in discussions
- Set aside time to mark assignments regularly. It’s difficult to keep up on marking submissions when you don’t get to see the students (face-to-face) on a regular basis. If you make a point to log in a couple of evenings after the assignments are due, marking will be completed promptly, and you won’t be swamped at the end of the course.
- Provide constructive and informative feedback to your students on their assignments. They are eager to know how they are doing.
- To avoid losing student emails, encourage them to use Messages within the course to contact you. Blackboard will email you a notification of messages received and include the course code in the subject line.
- Encourage students to find valuable resources that can be shared with others and to get to know each other online. If you find resources, be sure to share them with students via Announcements.
- Use Open Educational Resources (OERs) when possible. This will reduce the financial burden to students and promote sharing of resources.
- Relax and enjoy the experience! There is a lot of potential for the course to move beyond what you imagined, so be open to what your students are doing and keep track of these for future offerings.
There are several resources you can access for help while building your online course:
- Visit Faculty Blackboard Help for guidance about our Learning Management System (LMS) Blackboard.
- Contact the Instructional Support Studio if you need any help with Blackboard (i.e. setting up a course site or resetting an exam attempt).
- Visit the Innovative Learning website for teaching resources.
- Visit Innovative Learning Upcoming Events page for a list of our workshop and webinar offerings.
- Short Videos: Introduction to Blackboard Learn with the Ultra Experience for Instructors
- Submit the eForm to Request a Development Course (DEVU) or Sandbox Site (SBXU).
Contact Information Technology Services (ITS) if you are having difficulty installing software, have password issues, or any other technical issues on or off-campus.
Here are some help resources that you can share with students:
- Open Learning Centre (OLC)
- If your student needs assistance with navigating Blackboard, advise them to contact the OLC.
- Student Learning Kit for Students
- Tutorial Videos for Students on How to Navigate Blackboard
- Accessible Learning Services
- Contact Accessible Learning Services if you are looking for a student accommodations memorandum or for information on the accommodation process.
Humber College is required to comply with Canadian copyright law and institutional licensing agreements. This means that the copying and distribution of copyright-protected materials, regardless of format, is subject to certain limits and restrictions.
It is the responsibility of Humber faculty to be aware of these restrictions and to use materials in accordance with institutional directives. Watch CiCAN legal counsel’s explanation of the Fair Dealing guidelines.
If you are adding any materials to this course, please ensure they are copyright compliant. Please provide citations for all sourced content, including imagery.
Go to Humber Copyright for details.
Copyright staff are here to support you. Email us at copyright@humber.ca with any questions.
What Faculty Can Distribute in Blackboard
- Short excerpts: a short excerpt is 10% from any print source OR one book or textbook chapter OR one journal/magazine/newspaper article or page.
- Scanning tips to create readable content: photocopy the short excerpt including the title and reverse pages (the source citation), scan the copied pages then save the document as a pdf file.
- Library eReadings: copyright staff can create pages designed for Blackboard that include Humber Libraries' article and eBook links organized by week or topic.
- Content from Internet sources: faculty can share Internet content as long as the content has been posted by the copyright holder, it is not password-protected (i.e. members-only) and the source is cited.
- Videos and music: the copyright rules for the use of videos and music can be found on the Humber Library Copyright website.
Any documents that you upload to the course must follow accessibility guidelines.
Please ensure all images have either alternative text or a long description, and that all videos used in the course are captioned.
Please visit Accessible Learning Services: Information for Faculty for more information.
The following resource contains instructions and resources that have been created for Humber faculty.
To get started with Panopto in your course, you may download the Panopto template, which includes:
- A link to the Panopto LTI for your course
- A link to Panopto instructions for Faculty
- A link to Panopto instructions for Students
- A question bank that includes a template for Panopto Video Assignment Instructions
Want to share Panopto instructions for students? This curated list of resources will provide students with instructions and troubleshooting tips for using Panopto.