PowerPoint to Blackboard

If you are using PowerPoint to deliver your e-learning and just loading the presentations into blackboard, you will want to read on. 

When you upload a PowerPoint file to Blackboard, you are giving away your intellectual property for others to download and potentially use again.  Trust me, I know.  When I first started creating e-learning in 1999, I had my presentations showing up all over the state.  Previous students were downloading them, removing my name, and taking credit for my work.

There are a few ways to prevent this from happening.  The best solution is to use software to compress and copy protect your presentations.  Impatica and Articulate are two different solutions to look at.  I use Impatica since this is what DCCC provides.  Impatica will dramatically compress the file sizes (20mb down to less than 1mb) and makes it nearly impossible for someone to download your presentation. 

If you don’t have access to a software solution you can use PowerPoints built in features.  Save the presentation “as a web page” and then load it into Blackboard.  This will make it very difficult for somone to copy or take your presentation since it is now in multiple files.

Here’s how to save as a webpage:
1.  Click Save as
2. Under “Save as type” select “Web Page”
This will creat two main files, a folder with all the presentation files in it and an html file outside the folder.
3.  Highlight both the file folder and the html file
4.  Zip these files with your zip program

Now you have your PowerPoint presentation ready to be loaded into your BlackBoard course.

Here’s how to load your zipped files into Blackboard so students can see them:
1. Go to Control Panel
2. Go to the location you want to load the file
3. Click to add an “Item”
4. Enter the information (Name, text information)
5.  Attach the Zip file from above
6.  Change “Special Action” to “Unpackage this file”
7.  Click “Submit”
This will bring you to a different screen where all of the files in the zip file has been opened.  You will see them under “Embedded Media Information”
8.  Beside “Entry Point” select the .htm file (same one that you zipped earlier)
9.  Select “Yes” to Launch in new window
10. Click “Submit”

You have now loaded your presentation into Blackboard in an HTML file that will allow the students to view the presentation as a web page.  Your material will be more difficult to download or copy. 

Negative:
Loss of animations:  Anything that you had animated in PowerPoint will be static in the HTML file that you loaded.  If you have items that animate and cover other items, you will have to change those slides to prevent the objects from covering each other. 

File size:  If file size is an issue, you may find this method will actually increase your file size somewhat if you are using sounds.  (It actually exports all of the sounds into .wav files and loads them into the folder with everything else.)

Positive:
Navigation additions:  The presentation (at least in PP 2007) includes a frame with the outline on the left hand side.  This provides the ability to quickly “jump” around the presentation as necessary.  Especially if the students had to quit halfway through the presentation.  They can then come back and jump straight to where they left off.

Whether you choose to use a compression software like Impatica or Articulate, or you use the web page feature of PowerPoint, you should protect your intellectual property.  Like it or not, there are people out there who will use your intellectual property for something other than what you intended on.