Since Summer 2006 the University has licenced third party plug-ins for Blackboard that provide blog,
wiki, and podcast functionality. These have worked well and take up has been reasonable. It was necessary to
licence third party plug-ins for this functionality because it was not provided as part of the core Blackboard
product.
With the recent upgrade to Blackboard the vendor has introduced their own blog and wiki features which
are more embedded into the core application. There are differences between the two but the core functionality
remains reasonably consistent.
The University has determined that it is no longer necessary to licence the third party blog, wiki and
podcast tools and the decision has been made to not renew the licence for these tools in May 2013. This will
provide a substantial cost saving to the University which can be re-invested in further developments to the Managed
Learning Environment.
The new blog and wiki tools are currently being documented and from 31 August 2012 the new blog and wiki
tools will be enabled.
At the same time the existing “Campus Pack” blog, wiki, and podcast tools will be set to be unavailable
to new users.
If you are planning to use blogs, wikis and podcasts, in the new academic year (2012/13) please use the
new Blackboard blogs and wikis, instructions for which will be made available on the iSolutions web site from 31
August.
Podcasts can be uploaded as audio files, or if RSS is required the Panopto Lecture Capture system can
provide this functionality.
Add a link to a new page from the page you are currently editing
1. While you are editing a page you may wish to create a link to go to a new page.
2. Highlight the text that you wish to make a link from, and click on the insert link icon.
Inserting a link
3. Select Link to a new page.
4. Enter the name for the page.
5. Click on Insert.
Save
6. Your link has now been inserted, so click on Save to save your changes to the existing page.
Follow the new link
7. Click on the link you have just created to go to the new page.
New page, ready to edit
8. Click on the link to begin editing the page.
9. When you have finished, click on Save.
New page ready for viewing
10. Now your new page has been created, when users click on the original link they will be taken to your new page.
Alternative method, using “new”
An alternative method is to use the new link from the wiki menu.
1. If you wish to create a new page within a wiki. Click on new.
Page Details
2. Enter a name for the page.
3. Enter the text you wish to add on this new page.
4. Click on Save.
Create a link to your new page
5. You will be taken back to the wiki page.
6. Look to the bottom right at the Site Navigation area. This lists the pages in the wiki, you should see your new page. The current page you are viewing is in grey.
7. Access the page FROM WHICH you wish to create a link to the new page you have just made in the earlier steps.
Edit the page
8. Click on Edit to edit the page.
Set up the link
9. Find the text in this page that you wish to turn into a link that will take the reader to the new page you have made.
10. Highlight the text by dragging your mouse over it and holding down the left mouse button.
Insert Link
11. Click on the insert link button.
Link Details
12. Choose Link to an existing page.
13. Select the new page that you have created from the list.
14. Click on Insert.
Save
15. Click on Save to save the changes to the page.
16. You will be taken back to the page where you have just made the link.
Link created
17. Clicking on the link will take the reader to your new page.