PREPARE YOUR HOME PAGE

Once you are registered on the Blackboard forum, go to Blackboard and enter your user id and password to open the page. Select Tools from the menu on the left.  

Then select Edit Your Home Page. This will open a workspace for you to develop your own home page. 

Personal Introduction: Go to the Intro Message box and write a short essay (200-300 words) about your background, professional and personal interests, pets and hobbies, college studies and goals, etc. You can add more information about yourself in the Personal Information box. Think of the other students in the class as your audience, and try to help them get to know you through your home page information. You may want to give them your email address and phone number, or not. That is up to you. 

URLs: The home page asks for your favorite URLs. You can copy/paste these from their home pages and write a short description of each. If you try to submit a long description, it will not load properly.

Add an Image: Click on the Browse button, which is below the Personal Information box. This will open a window for locating files on your computer.

Locate the image you want to use and select it by clicking on the "open" button of your file selection window.  This image should add to the sense of yourself on your homepage, but it does not have to be a picture of you.

For example, if you hate to show your own picture, and you have a cat you adore, use the cat's picture (cats take wonderful pictures), and remember to tell us a bit about the cat. You may prepare this image by scanning it in, or you may capture an image off the internet with a right click of your mouse. Do not use an image that is much larger than 150x150 pixels (about 2 inches square), or the page will get lopsided. Your image must be saved in either a .gif or a .jpg format.

Select medium or low resolution, if you have the option. If the image you want to use is too large, you can cut or shrink it. Some simple editing programs will only let you cut off parts of the picture; others, such as Photoshop, will let you actually reduce the size of the image itself. How to scan it if you don't have a scanner? A friend may have one; there may be one at work. You could check out the college computer labs, or there are places such as Kinko's where you can use a scanner for a fair chunk of change. Be aware that Kinko’s will only scan non-copyrighted images.

Once you have scanned an image into a file on a floppy, it is simply a kind of file; you can carry it around, edit it, post it as an attachment, or keep it for further use. 

When you are done, click on the Submit button to post your home page. Don't worry if you mess up the first time; it's easy to re-edit your home page at any time. However, once I grade it, I won't re-grade it. So, if you are still working on it, put a note to that effect at the top, so I won't grade it until you are finished.

Your home page (Exercise 1) is worth up to 50 points.

Remember:

NOTE: After students create their home pages, they can be seen by going to "Communication," and then to "Roster," and then selecting "Search." This will give a list of students and when you select a name, it will take you to that student's home page. However, at the start, most will be empty.

Copyright 1998 by Diane Thompson; Last Update: 11/11/2005