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Add Course Documents to a Course

BeachBoard provides the option to upload any type of file and to share that file with students, for example a Microsoft Word document, a Microsoft PowerPoint presentation, an Adobe Acrobat file, a GIF or JPEG image file, and so on. These uploaded files are called "course documents." Your students can download these course documents and view them on their own computers. This option guarantees that your students can access your course documents 24 hours a day from any Internet-connected computer in the world.

Watch a closed-captioned movie that shows you how to add course documents to a BeachBoard course [opens in a new window]

Add Course Documents

  1. On your computer, make sure the file name of the file contains only letters and numbers. The file name can contain no special characters except for underscores ( _ ), no spaces, and only one period before the file extension (such as tech101syllabus.doc)
    • Mac users: Please remember to add a three letter file extension to the end of your file's name.
    • Office 2007 users: Some students may not be able to open course document files saved in the new .docx, .pptx, or .xlsx file formats used by Microsoft Office 2007. To make your course documents accessible to all students, you may want to save your course document in a more universal file format by opening the file in Word 2007, PowerPoint 2007, or Excel 2007, clicking on the Office logo in the upper left corner of the page, choosing Save As, and either
      • Choosing Word 97-2003 Format... for Word documents, Excel 97-2003 Format... for Excel documents, or PowerPoint 97-2003 Format... for PowerPoint files; or
      • Choosing PDF or XPs... and saving your Microsoft Office 2007 document as a PDF.
  2. Login to BeachBoard
  3. Under My Courses, click the name of the course into which you would like to upload a file/add a course document.
  4. Click the course's Control Panel image icon link.
  5. Under Content Areas, click the Course Documents image icon link.
  6. Click the Item icon image icon.
  7. Type a name for your course document [e.g., Chapter Three PowerPoint Presentation] in the Name field image icon.
  8. Type a description of your course document in the Text field image icon. This is optional.
  9. To the right of the words Attach local file, click the Browse button image icon. This opens a Choose file pop-up window.
  10. Find your course document on your computer and click the Open button. This process is similar to the process of attaching a file to an email message.
  11. Ignore the Link to Content Collection item box.
  12. In the Name of Link to File window, key in the name of the program you used to create the course document (e.g., Microsoft Word document, Adobe Acrobat file, Macromedia Flash Paper document, etc.)
  13. In the Special Action pulldown list, choose Create a link to this file.
  14. Choose the appropriate availability and date options (see Options below.)
  15. Click the Submit button.

Options

  • Make the content available – Enable this option to let your students see your course document. This is set to Yes by default.
  • Track number of views – Enable this option to track how many times individual users access your course document. This is set to No by default.
  • Choose date restrictions – Enable both the Display After and Display Until options to control when your course document is visible. This option automates the “make the content available ” option. This is unchecked by default.

Recognized Content Attachments/Filetypes

The following file types are recognized by BeachBoard. Note: While you can use any of the following filetypes in your BeachBoard course, your students will not be able to open or view most of these filetypes until they install the appropriate viewer programs. For example, your students will not be able to open and view Microsoft Word .doc files until they install Microsoft Word, the Microsoft Word Viewer, or a Word-compatible word processor on their computers.

Application files

ai, aim, bcpio, bin, cdf, cer, cpio, csh, csv, doc, eps, exe, hdf, latex, mif, ms, nc, oda, pdf, ppt, ps, roff, rtf, rtx, xls, sh, shar, src, sv4cpio, sv4crc, t, tex, texi, texinfo, tr, ustar, vst, wrl, xls

Audio files

abs, aif, aifc, aiff, au, kar, m3u, mid, midi, mp1, mp2, mp3, mpa, mpega, pls, smf, snd, ulw, wav

Compressed files

gtar, gz, hqx, jar, sit, tar, Z, z, zip

Image files

art, bmp, dib, gif, ief, jpe, jpeg, jpg, mac, pbm, pct, pgm, pic, pict, png, pnm, pnt, ppm, psd, qti, qtif, ras, rgb, svg, svgz, tif, tiff, vml, vsd, xbm, xpm, xwd, wbmp

Microsoft Office files

csv, doc, docx, ppt, pptx, rtf, xls, xlsx

Text files

csv, dtd, etx, htc, man, me, tsv, txt

Web files

body, class, css, htm, html, jad, java, jnlp, js, jsf, jspf, swf, wml, wmlc, wmls, wmlscriptc, xht, xhtml, xml, xsl

Video/Multimedia files

asf, asx, avi, avx, dv, dvi, mov, movie, mpe, mpeg, mpg, mpv2, qt, rm, swf, wvx

More Information

Q: Can I see what my course documents will look like to my students?
A: Yes. Login to BeachBoard and, under My Courses, click the name of the course that contains your course documents. Click the Course Documents link on the left side of the page. Click the link for a course document you wish to review. This shows you what your course documents look like to your students.

Q: What kinds of documents can I upload to BeachBoard?
A: You can upload just about any file type to BeachBoard (see Recognized Content Attachments) above. However, the type of document you upload affects how your students can view it. If you upload documents you created and saved in specific software programs such as Microsoft Word or Microsoft Excel, your students must have that particular software installed on their computers to view those documents. For example, if you upload a Microsoft PowerPoint document, your students will have to download and open the file in PowerPoint or the PowerPoint viewer.

Q: Does BeachBoard automatically check files for viruses?
A: No, the BeachBoard server does not check for viruses. You should have a virus protection program on your personal computer. You can request virus protection software from your college tech. You should protect your computer from documents you download within BeachBoard and from documents you download from the Internet.

Q: How fast (or slow) will my students download my files?
A: Download time will vary based on Internet traffic and connection speed. You should keep your files small enough so your students with slower connections can access them in a reasonable amount of time. If you cannot keep the file size down, use the field in the Add Item area to provide your student with information describing what the file is, how large it is, and why it is important that they view it. Notifying your students of this information will let them know that they should wait a little longer for the file.

[Special thanks to Cal Poly, Pomona for their help with this page.]

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