The Calendar in Ultra Base Navigation

When to Use?

Timing is everything, that’s why a calendar has been added to Ultra Base Navigation. This global calendar provides events from across the system, showing dates from multiple courses in one convenient location. If you access the calendar with a course, it displays due dates, the course schedule, office hours, and events for that course only. Any events you add within a course are specific to that course. Follow the instructions below to learn more. 

Procedure

The global calendar page displays your upcoming due dates and meetings across your courses—all in one place. You can see your schedule for the day or month at a glance and plan to stay on top of upcoming deadlines.

To narrow down what you see on your calendar, select the settings icon. Here you can choose the calendars you want to see.

 

You can add an external calendar to your Blackboard Learn calendar, or you can share your Blackboard Learn calendar to an external calendar. Refer to the bottom of the article for sharing instructions.

You can add events, course schedules, and office hours. Additionally, instructors can associate events with particular courses so that they appear on students’ calendars.

• Add events to your personal calendar by selecting Calendar from the list where your name appears. Select the plus sign and add an event title, date, time, and location.
• Select the title of an event you added to change its details.
• You can move and delete events in your calendar. Drag and drop personal events to change times or delete personal events that aren't needed. You can't delete or move events added by your instructor.

For the course schedule, instructors can customize multiple meeting times for each course if the class meets at one time and location for a lecture, and a different time and location for a lab.

Instructors can set office hours for all courses at once or set specific times for each course.

The course view of the calendar displays due dates, the course schedule, office hours, and meetings and events for that course only. Any calendar events the instructor adds here will be specific to that course.

When an instructor adds a due date to an assignment, the assignment is automatically added to the course calendar. All of this information rolls up into the global calendar.

And finally, all of this is true for courses in the original view, as well.

Share your calendar

Your schedule is a mix of academic and personal commitments. To help keep up with everything you've got going on, it helps to put everything on one calendar.

You can share your Blackboard Learn calendar with external services so course events appear with other events.

 You can't share calendars for individual courses. When you share your calendar, events for all of your courses appear.

1. Select Calendar in the menu where your name appears first.
2. Select Calendar Settings icon.
3. Open the menu next to the Calendar Settings heading and select Share Calendar.
4. In the window, copy the calendar link. Share the URL only with trusted sources.

When you connect your Blackboard Learn calendar to an external calendar, all course events appear one year in the past and into the future.

Add a calendar to iCal

To share your Blackboard Learn calendar with iCal, you'll add it as a calendar subscription.

1. Open iCal on your Mac.
2. Go to File > New Calendar Subscription.
3. Paste the Blackboard Learn calendar link and select Subscribe.
4. Add the calendar's name and adjust other settings. In the Location field, select iCloud if you want the calendar to appear on your other authenticated Apple devices such as iPhone or iPad.
5. Select OK to finish the set up.

 More on subscribing to calendars on a Mac

Add calendar to Google calendar

Share your Blackboard Learn calendar with Google calendar to view all events in one place.

1. Open your Google calendar on a computer.
2. Next to Add calendar, point to Add other calendars and select From URL in the menu.
3. Paste the Blackboard Learn calendar link and select Add calendar to finish set up.
4. Open the calendar's settings to rename it and adjust sharing and notification settings.

 More on adding external calendars to Google calendar

Add calendar to Microsoft Outlook / Office 365

Share your Blackboard Learn calendar with Microsoft Outlook / Office 365 to view all events in one place.

1. Login to Office 365 with your GVSU username and password.
2. Go to Outlook and click Calendar to view your calendar.
3. Select Add Calendar and then Subscribe from web
4. Paste the Blackboard Learn calendar link (it should end in .ics) and enter a calendar name.
5. In the Add to dropdown, select the calendar group to add your calendar to, such as My calendars.
6. Click Import

 More on adding external calendars to Microsoft Office 365

Add an external calendar

If you prefer to use Blackboard Learn's calendar, you can also add an external calendar file to your Blackboard Learn calendar so that course events appear with other events.

1. Select Calendar in the menu where your name appears first.
2. Select the Calendar Settings icon.
3. Open the menu next to the Calendar Settings heading.
4. Select Add Calendar.
5. In the window, drag and drop your calendar file. You can also click to upload the file. Only ICS files are supported.
6. The file name appears in the window. If you selected the wrong file or want to change your selection, select the Delete icon.
7. Select Add Calendar to finish and import events.

When you add your external calendar to Blackboard Learn, events appear one year in the past and into the future. The events are grouped under My Personal Calendar to show that you added them yourself. The events don't reference the calendar or the name of the file you uploaded.

You can edit or delete events you upload just like any other event you add.

What is ICS?

ICS refers to a standardized calendar file type that lets you export and import files between different applications. These files use .ics at the end of the file name. Many popular calendar applications, including Google Calendar and Apple Calendar, use the ICS standard.

See also: Calendar