Blogs: A basic how to.

Blogs are going to be used in Blackboard similarly to Journals, and since I've been posting a lot about Journals lately, I figured I would toss out a little information about the layout of the Blog tool.  Like Journals, the Blog tool has been designed to be pretty visually clutter free.  

Along with the clutter free design has come a little bit of confusion about how to use the feature.  First, people are not seeing instructions on the main page.  That information has all been cleanly put away in the "About this Blog" dropdown.  So make sure to expand that area and get the information you are seeking!  When you are done reading the instructions, feel free to collapse this section by clicking on the chevron again.

Once you have created a Blog Entry, the entry you have just made will take up a majority of the space on the page so that people can read your entry without distractions.  Though, an index will appear on the right side of the screen which will assist with easy navigation once there are many entries to sort through. 

When somebody makes a comment on your blog, it will appear in the bottom left corner of your entry.  You will have to manually expand the section by clicking on the double chevron.  The comments will appear, and you will be able to collapse them when you are done.  Again, the default collapsed view of the comments is set this way so that the page is visually clutter free.

You can also feel free to scroll through the blog entries of fellow classmates by clicking on the left or right arrow on either side of your name.  Feel free to comment on their post by hitting the Comment button on the bottom right corner of their post.