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Bb Tip #149: Add Profile Avatar to Humanize Course

Humanized learning increases the relevance of course content and improves students' motivation to log-in to your course week-after-week. Whether you are teaching a face-to-face, hybrid, or online course, humanizing and personalizing your Blackboard course can go a long way to providing an inviting space for your students.

One of the ways you can humanize your Blackboard courses is to add a profile avatar. By default, when you do not setup your profile avatar it will appear as a blank avatar in the Blackboard system. Rather than having this gray faceless image, faculty and students can upload a profile image (avatar) to represent them throughout the Blackboard system.

profile avatar

The profile avatar appears in the page header, people tool, blogs, journals, discussions, wikis, and roster. The profile avatar also appears in the notifications modules—What's New, Needs Attention, and To Do—which appear on the Xavier University tab or on a course's home page.

The recommended pixel size for an avatar is 150 by 150. Larger images should be clipped.

You can only have one avatar picture at a time to be used throughout the entire Blackboard system.

NOTE: The University has the following policy regarding profile avatars:

Users may not send, display or receive pictures or other media which are copyrighted, abusive, obscene, sexually inappropriate, threatening, racially offensive, or considered harassment or offensive to human dignity.

Faculty should include this statement about what is not an acceptable profile avatar when they ask students to upload a picture to be used as their avatar.

Follow these steps to do it.

To upload a picture to be used as your profile avatar:

  1. Expand the [Global Navigation Panel] by clicking the arrow on the right of your name.
  2. Click on [Settings].
  3. Click on [Personal Information].
  4. Click on [Personalize My Settings].
  5. Select [Use custom avatar image]. Click [Browse My Computer].
  6. Select the avatar image file and click Open.
  7. Click [Submit].

Want more information?

Step-by-step instructions to upload profile avatar (PDF) are available.
Humanizing your courses.
Personalize your Blackboard course using template variables.
Explore Blackboard’s On Demand Learning Center.
Try these Blackboard How-To documents.
Visit the Blackboard FAQs for additional blackboard information
or schedule a one-on-one session, email, or
call Janice Florent: (504) 520-7418.

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