Adding a Banner to your Course Shell
By Ireta Ekstrom, PhD, CMU Instructional Developer

Many faculty like to customize their course shells by adding a personal banner. The banner is a wide rectangle, so most images will need to be cropped or resized to fit correctly.  Keep in mind that photos you do not take yourself may need copyright permission before using and if you have photographed faces it is good practice to obtain a release.

We recommend that you edit your new banner to be approximately 510 pixels wide X 160 pixels tall, which is about 7 inches wide by 2 inches tall. The resolution should be limited to 72 pixels (or dots) per inch and in a GIF or jpeg format.

To place the banner in your class shell, open Blackboard and log in >> click on the name of your class >> click on control panel >> click course design and then course banner. Browse for your picture and click submit >> OK and OK.
One instructor’s banner, with customized text, is shown below.

Your banner can be reused from year to year and can create a welcoming opening page for your students.

Note: If you need assistance scanning, cropping or editing your photos, please contact Ireta Ekstrom in FaCIT at 774-3615