Using the Blackboard Calendar

Juggling competing responsibilities isn't easy. Use the calendar to keep track of upcoming assignments, events, and other due dates.

Watch a video about the calendar

Doesn't seem familiar? Jump to the "Ultra" calendar video.

Video: Use the calendar explains how to use the calendar to keep track of your events and due dates.

Find and navigate the calendar

Doesn't seem familiar? Jump to the "Ultra" help for finding the calendar.

You can access the calendar from your course, from the Tools panel on the My Institution tab, or from the My Blackboard menu.


calendar

  1. View events by day, week, or month.
  2. Use the arrows to navigate to another month.
  3. Select the plus (+) to create a new event. You can also select a date to create an event. Assign the event to the appropriate calendar, select the date and time, and add a description.

    Students can't create an event on a course or institution calendar.

  4. Select an event to manage it. You can also select and drag an event to change the date.
  5. Select the calendars you want to show, such as institution, personal, or course. By default, all calendars are visible. You can change the color of each calendar to suit your preference and to easily determine which events correspond with each calendar.

    All institution events appear in the institution calendar. All course events, such as assignments due, appear in the course calendar. Courses you hide in the My Courses module on the My Institution page will also be hidden in the Calendars list.

  6. Get an iCal URL to import your Blackboard Learn calendar into an external calendar application, such as Google Calendar. After the Learn iCal URL is set up in an external calendar, it's updated dynamically with new Learn calendar events.

    Events may take up to 24 hours to appear in your external calendar. You can't import external calendars into the Blackboard Learn calendar.

Choose your view

Doesn't seem familiar? Jump to the "Ultra" help for calendar views.

The calendar displays a consolidated view of all your institution, course, organization, and personal calendar events. You can view events by day, week, or month. You can 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 appear automatically in the course calendar. Only instructors can create course calendar events.

You can choose the first day of your week in your personal settings in My Blackboard. You can also choose from four calendar display modes:

  • Gregorian only
  • Gregorian-formatted with Hirji date conversion in parentheses
  • Hijri only
  • Hijri-formatted with Gregorian date conversion in parentheses

Create an event

Doesn't seem familiar? Jump to the "Ultra" help for creating a calendar event.

  1. Select the plus (+) button or select a specific date to create an event.
  2. Type the New Event Name.
  3. Choose a calendar to associate the event with, such as your personal calendar.

    Only instructors and administrators can add events to the course and institution calendars.

  4. Select the Start and End times.
  5. Type the Event Description. Event descriptions have a 4,000-character limit.
  6. Select Save.

Make a repeating event

You can make recurring events by selecting the Repeat check box. The options in the table describe when the event repeats.

Repeat Options Description
Daily Event ends after a specified number of times -OR- on a particular date.
Weekly Repeat Repeats an event on a day of the week. Event ends after X number of times -OR- on a particular date.
Monthly Repeat Repeats an events on a day of the month (1-31) or day of week (first Sunday, second Monday, and so on) supported. Events ends after X number of times -OR- on a particular date.
Bulk Add (Series) Create a series with the repeat options.
Bulk Delete (Series) Delete the entire series created using the repeat options.
Edit an Instance Edit an instance of the series. If you change the date/time of the instance, that particular instance has a "broken" icon to indicate that it no longer conforms with the original series rules.

Changing the name or description of an instance doesn't break the instance from the series.

Edit Series (Known Limitation) At this time, you can't edit the series. After you create a series, you can bulk delete or make changes to an individual instance.

Edit or delete an event

Doesn't seem familiar? Jump to the "Ultra" help for editing an event.

Change or delete an event:

  1. Find the date of the event in the main calendar view.
  2. Select the event to edit or delete it.
  3. Select and 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's associated with stays the same.
  4. You can also select and drag an event from the main view to another date on the smaller monthly view to change the date.

drag and drop a calendar date


drag and drop dates on a calendar

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.


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Get Help

Technical Support and Student Help

Division of IT Service Desk

815-753-8100
servicedesk@niu.edu

Teaching Support and Faculty Help

Center for Innovative Teaching and Learning

815-753-0595
citl@niu.edu

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