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Topic Overview

You can use the Course Calendar to provide students with dates for course related events. Course Calendar events appear to all members of the course. Common entries you may include in the Course Calendar are:

• Section meetings
• Instructor Office Hours
• Exams
• Guest speakers
• Course Items with Due Dates

The calendar displays a consolidated view of all institution, course, organization, and personal calendar events for a user. You can view events by day, week, or month. You can also view and organize upcoming and past events into categories.

Course calendar events appear to all members of the course. Common entries include upcoming tests, due dates for assignments, or special lectures. Course items with due dates automatically appear in the course calendar. Only instructors may create additional course calendar events.

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• View events by day, week, or month.
• Navigate between months.
• Click the plus (+) to create a new event. You can also click inside a date to create an event. Assign the event to the appropriate calendar, select the date and time and add a description.
  • Students cannot create an event on a course and institution calendar. Instructors cannot create an event for institution unless they have administrator privileges.
• Click an event to manage it. You can also drag and drop an event to change the date. To learn more, see How to Edit or Delete an Event.
• Select the calendars you want to show, such as institution, personal, or course. By default all calendars are visible. Optionally, change the color of each calendar to suit your preference. Using a distinct color for each calendar displays at-a-glance which calendar the event is associated to without opening the event.
  • All institution events appear in the Institution calendar. All course events, such as assignments due, appear in the course calendar.
• Get an iCal URL for importing your Blackboard Learn calendar into an external calendar application. Once the Learn iCal URL is set up in an external calendar, it is updated dynamically with new Learn calendar events. For example, log in to Google Calendar and access the Other Calendar drop-down list. Select Add by URL and paste the iCal URL generated by Blackboard Learn.
  • You cannot import external calendars into this calendar.

How to Access the Calendar

1. On the course menu, click Tools
2. On the Tools page, select Calendar

-OR-

On the My Institution tab, select Calendar in the Tools panel

-OR-

From the Global Navigation, select Calendar

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How to Create an Event

1. On the calendar, click the plus (+) to create a new event. You can also click inside a date to create an event
2. Type the New Event Name
3. Select a Calendar to associate the event to, such as your personal calendar.
   1. Only instructors and administrators can add events to the course and institution calendars.
4. Select the Start time and End time
5. Type the Event Description. There is a 4,000 character limit for event descriptions.
6. Click Save

Recurring Events

Optionally make events repeat by selecting the Repeat checkbox. Additional options appear that allow you to create multiple events based on a repeating pattern.

Specifics on Repeating Events and Limitations

How to Edit or Delete an Event

On the Calendar, navigate to the date of the event in the main view. From the event you can:

• Click the event to edit or delete it. 
• Drag an event to another date in the main view to change the date of the event. The time of the event and calendar it is associated with remain the same. 

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• Drag an event from the main view to another date on the smaller monthly view to change the date.

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Course Items With Due Dates

When you create items, such as tests or assignments,  in the course with due dates, the calendar event automatically appears on the course calendar for that day.

For calendar events associated to content items, all adaptive release and availability rules are handled, ensuring that the release of an item is in synch with the calendar.

How to Add a Calendar Link to the Course Menu

If you want students to access the Course Calendar from the course, you can add a link to the Course Menu for one-click access to the tool. You can also customize the name of the link.

1. Change Edit Mode to ON and point to the plus sign above the Course Menu. The Add Menu Item drop-down list appears.
2. Select Tool Link
3. Type a Name for the link
4. From the Type drop-down list, select Calendar
5. Select the Available to Users check box
6. Click Submit

Sources and Relevant Links

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Find and navigate the calendar

From the global calendar in the list where your name appears, you can see all your upcoming due dates and meetings across your courses—all in one place.

In your calendar, find this event information:

• Office hours: These appointments appear automatically on the calendar when you add them to a course.
• Due dates: When you create content with a due date, it appears automatically in the calendar.

Choose your view

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• Select Day or Month to zoom in on one day's tasks or plan for the weeks ahead.
• Select Due Dates to focus only on your upcoming deadlines.
• Select the Calendar Settings icon in the upper-right corner to choose the calendars you want to see.

Create and edit an event

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To add events to your personal calendar, select Calendar from the left 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 you no longer need. Students can't delete or move events added by you.

Share your calendar

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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 the Calendar Settings icon.
3. Open the menu next to the Calendar Settings heading.
4. Select Share Calendar.
5. 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 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. Enter 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 set up.

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.

Sources and Relevant Links

Blackboard Calendar