Blackboard course sites have long had a 6GB limit on the total size of a course site. This limit is necessitated by limits on our overall Blackboard storage (and also the reason we only keep courses on Blackboard for 4 years). Unfortunately, this course quota occasionally results in faculty being unable to upload new content to their courses without deleting older content, often at an inopportune time.
When working with faculty on course quota issues, the CETL often find that a handful of very large files (usually video) are often what pushes courses to their size limit. Had those files been identified before upload and handled differently, the course would never have reached its limit.
Fortunately, a recent update to Blackboard has allowed us to implement a size limit on uploads. This limit, set to 250MB, is large enough that most folks will never encounter it. That said, if you're reading this, there's a fair chance you have encountered it. So how should you proceed?
Audio / Video Files
If you are attempting to upload audio or video to Blackboard, you should use the YuJa Media Library instead. Upload your media to YuJa, then embed it in a Blackboard text box. The instructions linked below work as well for faculty posting pre-recorded video into a course site content area as for students uploading a recorded presentation as a homework assignment submission.
Embed a Video in a Textbox
Students Submitting Video Homework
If you are a student who needs to submit a video for a homework assignment, the process is essentially the same as the above Audio / Video instructions. Students will want to open the assignment and embed their video into the assignment's text box.
Video Assignment Submission
PowerPoint Files That Include Narration
If you’re attempting to upload a PowerPoint file that includes narration, you should export the narrated presentation as a video, then use the above instructions to share that video via YuJa.
Export Your Narrated PowerPoint Presentation as a Video
Large PowerPoint Files Without Narration
PowerPoint files that include a lot of slides with high resolution pictures may also become too large to upload. Fortunately, PowerPoint includes a Compress Pictures option that lets you reduce the size of all the pictures in your presentation in a single step.
Compress All Pictures in a PowerPoint Presentation
Upload files to OneDrive and Link to Blackboard
If none of the above work, you can always load your large file (or large zip of files) to OneDrive, then provide your students with a link to that file via Blackboard.
Upload and Share a File via OneDrive