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Using the Document Unpackager to upload multiple files to Blackboard
(New feature
available since Spring 2005)
Contents
Introduction
Step By Step - Creating the ZIP Archive
Step by Step - Uploading the ZIP
Archive to Blackboard
Introduction
This tool allows you to upload a zip
file containing multiple documents to
the Blackboard server, and have that
archive be expanded to create a separate
Blackboard course content item for each
file in the archive. The directory structure in the zip file
is also translated into folders within the system,
so it is possible to easily organize
course materials. This tool is only for
uploading file attachments (Word
documents, PowerPoint slides, and
Acrobat PDF files, for example) and is not for uploading html
files or other types of text directly
into posted messages.
Note: Please be patient as it
may take some time to process large sets
of files.
Step by Step -
Creating the Zip Archive
As is often the case, a few pictures
help give an overview of the process
better than words.
First, a set of files that an
instructor wants to upload to the
Blackboard system, inside a folder (in
this case, a folder called Course
Content on my desktop, but it could be
anywhere).
Next, create a .ZIP file from the
files you want to post. Since most
Smith computers have WinZip installed,
we will illustrate using that.
Select the files you want to add to the
ZIP archive, right-click, and pick Add
to Zip...
In the Add dialog box that appears,
give the Zip archive a name (in the "Add
to archive" field) and hit Add.
You should not change any other options.
The resulting archive from this example
looks like the following.
Notice that there are two files (the
"Syllabus" and "Syllabus as PDF" files)
at the top level, then three folders,
each with folders and files inside of
that. It mirrors the structure
shown in the Explorer windows above.
Step by Step
- Uploading the ZIP Archive to
Blackboard
This tool can be used to do mass
uploading of content to any Content Area
in Blackboard, but is probably most
useful for the "Course Documents"
section. That is what we will use
in this example. Log in to Blackboard,
enter your course, and go into the
Control Panel and hit the Course
Documents link. At the far right
of the "Add" bar is the "Add Other"
menu, denoted with the
icon. Under that, select "Document
Package" and hit the
button.
You will then be presented with a screen
that lets you set the properties for ALL
of the documents you are about to post.
So, for example, if you wanted every
file in the ZIP archive you are
uploading to have its number of views
tracked, you would want to hit the "Yes"
radio button for that field. The
only required change here is to use the
Browse button to select the ZIP archive
you made above.
After hitting Submit (and waiting a
while for the upload to complete and for
the files to uncompress and be posted)
you will get an acknowledgement screen,
and then be taken back to the Course
Documents screen. You should see
your documents and folders all posted to
the server.
IMPORTANT: While the upload
process seems reliable, the ordering of
the documents posted seems
unpredictable. You will want to
check through the uploaded files and
folders to ensure they're all in the
order you expect them to appear.
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