Blackboard Tip
Create an External Link
By Ireta Ekstrom, PhD, CMU Instructional Developer

If you want students to visit a specific website from your course shell, it is easy to add an external link in a content area. By clicking on the link you create, students will be taken directly to the outside website or directly to a publisher’s materials that complement the text. You can choose to create a button and have a content area specifically labeled External Links or links can be added to a folder within a content area or an as item in a content area.

As you create your external link, please note the options available to you. We recommend that you choose the “Open in a New Window” option for two reasons. A new window helps ensure that you are not violating copyright restrictions by making it clear to students that they have entered a site separate from the course management system, and you have not copied the material into the course shell. A second reason is ease of navigation – a new window allows a student to move back and forth between the newly opened site and the course shell.

To access FaCIT’s tutorial on External Links, click here and look for Add External Link under Organize/ Set up Course.