Course Cartridges enable Instructors to gain access to complete sets of teaching tools provided by academic publishers. In one central location, Instructors can find relevant, publisher-created materials. Once the materials are downloaded to a Blackboard Learning System Course, Instructors are free to customize the content by adding and deleting materials as needed to correlate with specific topics covered in the classroom.
Course Cartridges can serve as supplements to existing online courses, or provide an excellent start for faculty who are just beginning to develop online teaching strategies. Instructors will benefit from the ease of use, variety, and professional quality of the materials available on Course Cartridges.
Instructors download Course Cartridges from the Course Cartridge Repository and install cartridges into Courses through the Control Panel.
Click Import Course Cartridge in Course Options on the Control Panel to open the Import Course Cartridge page.
Enter the Course Cartridge Download Key in the field provided. Course Cartridge content will be added to course materials.
Note: The Download Key can be obtained from the publisher. Without a Download Key, it is not possible to add Course Cartridge content.
Cartridges may be designated as Copy Protected or Open Access. Only one Copy Protected cartridge may exist in a course. Open Access cartridges may be downloaded by Instructors into courses that already contain cartridge content. Therefore, a course may contain one Copy Protected cartridge and multiple Open Access cartridges.
Once an Open Access cartridge is added to a course, the content from this cartridge acts like all other content. This content is not differentiated during operations, such as Course Copy.
Follow the steps below to download a Course Cartridge.
Select a textbook with a companion Course Cartridge by browsing the Course Cartridge Catalog, located at http://cartridgecatalog.blackboard.com/catalog/
Obtain the Instructor Download Key from the textbook publisher.
Begin the Course creation process.
During the course creation process, enter the Instructor Download Key obtained in Step 2.
Click Submit to create the course.
An email will arrive when the Course Cartridge has finished loading into your new course.
Students must follow the steps below to access the Course Cartridge materials.
Enroll Students in the Course.
Instruct Students to purchase required textbook or other publisher provided materials that contain the Access Key.
When first accessing the Course content, Students will be required to enter an Access Key. Once validated, Students will no longer need the Access Key.
There are no restrictions on Open Access cartridge content during import, export, archive, restore or copy operations. This content is treated like other content in the course
Copy Protected cartridge content functions in the following ways:
Archive: When a course is archived all cartridge content in the course is saved with the archive.
Restore: When an archived course is restored by the System Administrator, the cartridge content is included in the restored course.
Export: When a course is exported, cartridge content is not included.
Import: The only time cartridge content is included during a course import is if the package was created as an archive. Cartridge content is not included in exported packages.
Copy: Cartridge content is always included in a Course Copy with Users (exact copy) operation. The user has the option to include cartridge content as part of a Copy Course Materials into a New course operation or a Copy Course Materials into an Existing Course operation.
Note: Content from only one Copy Protected cartridge may be copied into a course.