Blackboard Ultra (Faculty) - Course Content: Link a File From OneDrive in Your Course

Linking a File from OneDrive

Blackboard Ultra allows you to link to files stored in your OneDrive account. This makes it easy to post resources for students and keep them updated as you make changes to the original files. This is not the process for sharing files for collaborative activities; these files are "view only" for the students in the course. 

This is the recommended practice for keeping your course shell quota within the Blackboard storage limits rather than uploading files to the course. Once you've linked the file into the course shell, all updates and changes to that file can be made within Blackboard. 

Steps to Link OneDrive Content:

1. Navigate to your Blackboard Ultra course.
2. Within the course content area, hover your mouse where you want to add the file.
3. Click the plus sign to add content.
   
4. Select Content Market from the menu.
   
5. In the Content Market, select Microsoft OneDrive Attachment. You may need to authorize Blackboard to access your Microsoft account the first time you do this, which will be prompted through a pop-up window.
   
6. A OneDrive window will open, displaying your files and folders. This may take a few seconds.
    
7. Navigate to the file you want to link. You cannot select a folder. 
8. Click the checkbox next to the file. You may only select one file at a time to create a link.  
9. Click Select.
10. The file will now be linked in your Blackboard Ultra course content with a cloud icon indicating the type of link and stored in a SharePoint site with a name that matches your course name. Students will be able to click the link to access the file directly from SharePoint within the shell.
    

Important Considerations:

• Permissions: Students have view-only access to items linked in the course through Microsoft OneDrive Attachment. You can confirm by using the Student Preview feature. As a student preview user, click on the newly linked file, and you will see "View Document" instead of "Edit Document" in the top right corner of the item after it's opened. You cannot change this to a collaborative option without creating a new link in the shell using the MS Education Collaboration tool in the Content Market. 
  
• Real-Time Updates: This method allows you to interact with your document directly within the course shell. When you click on it, as the owner, you will have the option to click "Edit Document." That will open a new tab where you can make changes. Close the tab when you've finished.  Make all changes pertinent to this course in the file within the Blackboard shell. Changes you make to the file you located in your OneDrive in steps 7 and 8 above will not be reflected live in this course.
• New Storage Location: The file stored in your OneDrive is not the same file that students are now accessing in Blackboard. To navigate directly to the file in SharePoint instead of Blackboard, on your SharePoint site, search for "Course: [your course name]". The files are stored in Site Contents>OneDriveLTIFiles>Shared Items in that SharePoint site. 
• Alternative Option: Using a regular Link from the Create menu will link directly to your OneDrive location, but you must adjust the sharing permission to grant students viewing access and set it to open in a new window which can be disruptive to the flow of the student's engagement. If you move or rename the file or the enclosing folder in your OneDrive, it will break the link you shared in Blackboard. 

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