What is Blackboard content?

Blackboard (Bb) Content is a tool that allows faculty and staff to store, manage, and share content outside of courses and organizations. The Content system has a number of features that enhance the capabilities that already exist in Blackboard.

myMason Toolbar

myMason Content Collection Sidebar

Blackboard Content can:

  • function as a virtual hard drive for both individual users (5 GB) and for academic departments (50 GB), available from anywhere by logging in to Blackboard
  • make reusing files much easier—faculty can save a file in the Content area once and link to that file from many courses and organizations
  • allow easy file management—when a file needs updating, faculty can update it only once with no need to go into each course to upload an updated version of the file
  • make it easy for faculty and staff to share their files with the users both within Mason and outside
  • provide an easy drag-and-drop interface through the Bb Drive that makes copying and managing a large number of files easier

How does this differ from Blackboard Courses?

You can continue to add content directly to courses and use Course Copy for future semesters. The Content system may be best suited for:

  • individual faculty who want to upload all of their content first and then link to it from multiple courses
  • departments with courses with multiple sections/instructors who want to have standard content
  • departments who want to provide their faculty and staff off-campus access to internal files

Academic Department Folders

Under Institution Content, a folder for each academic department has been created and all faculty have access to view their department's folder. In order to add staff, and begin to add content. For more information, read the knowledgebase article Academic Department Folders.

Learn to Use It

Step-by-step instructions are available in our Self Paced Blackboard Course. Log in to myMason, choose Courses, and look for the enroll button under Faculty Help. If you need help, contact us to request a meeting to see if this is the right tool for you.

Blackboard Drive

Bb Drive provides choice and simplicity in how you create, access, manage and edit the files you store in the Content Collection of Blackboard Learn on your desktop. Bb Drive can save you time and makes it easy to update files.

Data Security and Privacy

Highly sensitive information should not be stored anywhere in Blackboard. Some examples include, but are not limited to Personally Identifiable Information (PII)—information that could lead to identity theft, such as:

  • Social security numbers
  • Credit card numbers
  • Passport numbers
  • Classified research information
  • Personal health information

See University Policy 1114: Data Stewardship and related Appendix A for more details.