Reduce Your File Size for Blackboard
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You may run into various issues when uploading files to Blackboard. This webpage will provide solutions for these different situations. In all cases, it is important that you keep the original version of all your course materials in your local or cloud files.
- File size is too large to upload to Blackboard
- You need to upload video/audio files in your course
- You need to reduce the overall size of your course
- Still need help? Contact the Delphi Center
Situation 1: File size is too large to upload to Blackboard
When you are uploading PPT, Word or PDF files, here are a few options to fix file size issues without impacting the visual quality of the images.
- Select a picture in your document. The Picture Format tab appears.
- On the Picture Format tab, in the Adjust group, select Compress Pictures.
- Under Compression options, do any of the following:
- Make sure that Apply only to this picture is not selected so that the changes you make here will apply to all pictures in the document.
- Select Delete cropped areas of pictures. This option removes the cropped picture data but note that, if you delete the cropped picture data, you won't be able to restore it.
- Under Resolution, select Use default resolution.
- You may also want to delete the image editing data and lower the default resolution. By default, when you edit an image, the data from the original is retained (to ensure the image can be restored). Discarding it means that you can't restore the changes you make, but it will reduce your file size. Lowering the default resolution for images also reduces your overall file size.
- Go to File > Options > Advanced.
- Under Image Size and Quality, do the following:
- Select Discard editing data. This option removes stored data that's used to restore the image to its original state after it's been edited. Note that, if you discard editing data, you won't be able to restore the image after you edit it.
- Make sure that Do not compress images in file is not selected.
- In the Default resolution list, select a resolution that is 150ppi or lower.
You may store large files in OneDrive then link them to your Blackboard course by adding the link anywhere in Bb via the edit link option. You can use any cloud service but here are directions for the most common at UofL.
OneDrive
Step 1: Copy to your OneDrive link
- Sign into your Microsoft Account
- Upload/Save files to OneDrive
- Select your file, choose Copy Link, then choose Copy. This will allow your students to view your file without having any special type of access.
Step 2: Add link to Blackboard
- Expand the Content Editor (as needed), select the Link icon
CardBox
Step 1: If you don't have Cardbox, you can request an account with steps below
- Go to identity.louisville.edu
- Login, click on Request Access up at the top of the page
- Then put a check next to Include Self
- Then go to step two in the dropdown box press Search
- Put a check next to Cardbox
- This takes about 24 hours to activate, sometimes a bit longer than 24 hours, but you'll receive an email that says welcome "Welcome to Cardbox...." : ....and there are further instructions here: https://louisville.edu/its/cardbox
Step 2: Share CardBox files with students
- Upload files to Cardbox
- Select "Share" link toggle for the item you want to share
- Choose the “People with the link” option.
- Choose Copy
- Navigate to Blackboard and to the location where you want to post the file
- Select Build Content > Weblink
- Paste URL you copied
Situation 2: You need to upload video/audio files in your course
Your own recorded video with mp3 or mp4 files will likely be too large to upload directly. We recommend utilizing Panopto to host the files. Panopto also allows you to use the videos in multiple courses without having to upload multiple times.
The following online module contains a wide variety of information about Panopto but you can focus on the Share your audio/video content through Panopto for this task:
Faculty Guide to Panopto: Share your audio/video content through Panopto
Steps outlined in the module:
- Create Panopto Recordings folder in a Blackboard course
- Upload videos to Panopto
- Share content by Embed/link videos in your course OR share with a link.
Situation 3: You need to reduce your overall course size
Blackboard's course size limit is 500 MB which may prevent you from copying your course to the next semester. Review the steps below to identify the cause and the resolution.
- Access your course and navigate to the Control Panel menu. Select Packages and Utilities.
- Then select Course Copy.
- Navigate to the File Attachments section and select Copy links and copies of content (include entire course home folder). Click the Calculate Size button.
- This will show you the size of your course. If you are reaching the 500 MB limit you can follow the remaining accordions to fix the issue.
- In your course, click Content Collection under Course Management on the left.
- Click the name of the course to access the content for the course. This tool lists all the files that are currently stored in your course.
- Click the top box to select all the files and then uncheck the Recycle Bin.
- Click Recycle. This step will analyze all the files and determine which files are not linked in the course.
- You will get a message pop up that says “These items will be moved to the Recycle Bin. Continue?” Click OK.
- The next screen will list all the files that are still linked in the course. Click Cancel. This step avoids deleting the files that you are using.
- Click the Recycling Bin folder, Select all the files and click Delete. This removes the files you don’t need from the course.
- Return to accordion above to check your course size again to see if the size has decreased.
- Return to your content collection folder and look for large files. You may need to follow the directions earlier in this document to reduce the size of large files that were uploaded before the limitations were put into place.
- Look for mp3 or mp4 files in your content collection that need to be moved to Panopto using the directions above in "Situation 2" on the webpage.
Still need help?
If you have completed all of the above steps and they do not rectify the issue, please contact the Blackboard Support Help Desk for further assistance.