Naming Assignments, Exams, and Files for Upload into Blackboard

Summary:  Certain characters in names of course materials in Blackboard can either make the component unavailable to students and faculty or break connections with the gradebook.  These include:

• Names on graded assignments
• Names on graded discussion boards
• Names of files uploaded to Blackboard by students or instructors

We recommend that you use ONLY letters and numbers in your file names and in the names of any "graded" item (Blackboard exam, survey, or quiz; Blackboard Assignment, Blackboard graded discussion, or any uploaded file).

1. Here is a list of things that CAN NOT be in your file or "graded" component name:
& # % . , ; : * ^ ! @ $ () + ? / \ []{} + =

2. Good practice for file naming on any file for use on the web (Blackboard is a web site) is to make the name short, use ONLY letters and numbers,  and to NOT use spaces.  Files must be named appropriately prior to uploading them into Blackboard.

Good Examples: JonDoeAssignment3.doc or JonDoe-assignment3.ppt
Bad Examples: Jon Doe Assignment #3.doc (will not be accessible as uses illegal character)
Jon Doe Poetry Assignment for week three for ENW555.doc (too long and uses spaces)

3. Blackboard "graded" components ( (Blackboard exam, survey, or quiz; Blackboard Assignment, Blackboard graded discussion) can have spaces in the names, but again all the banned characters in #1 should not be used and we recommend again ONLY letters, numbers, and spaces. To avoid the long name taking up space in your gradebook, faculty should again keep the names short.