Before the beginning of any new term, we always try to stress the importance of checking course content after it has been copied to make sure that all external links are still working correctly. Whenever you link to an external site, it is not uncommon for external links to break (websites shut down, authors take down articles, things get unpublished or moved, etc.). It is important to make sure these external resources are still working before your students get to them!
Did you know there is a function in Blackboard that you can use to more easily help you check if external links are still working links? There is! It is called the LINK CHECKER tool.
Where Is The Link Checker Tool?
In any course in Blackboard, you can go to Control Panel –> Course Tools –> Link Checker and use the Link Checker tool to check any external links that you’ve set up using the “web link” content option in Blackboard.
What If It Isn’t in Course Tools?
Some instructors may find that they don’t see a link for “Link Checker” on their Course Tools list. If this is the case, don’t panic! It is easy to get the tool turned on. Just go to Control Panel –> Customization –> Tool Availability.
On the Tool Availability page, scroll down through the alphabetical list of tools and look for “Link Checker”. Place a check mark beside the tool and click SUBMIT in the bottom right corner of the page.
Once you do this, check your Course Tools list again, and you should now see a link for the Link Checker!
Using the Link Checker Tool
When you first click on the Link Checker tool, you will see a blank white screen. This could potentially lead some to believe that the tool is broken or not working properly. Be patient with it! Depending on how many external links you have set up in the course, it might sit on that white screen for a little bit! The tool is working, you will need to give it time. Eventually, that white screen will load and it will display a list of all the recognized external web links set up for the course and indicate to you whether they are valid (working) or invalid (no longer working) links. Check the “Valid” column and look for any red “x” to find links that are no longer working.
This tool will tell you the title that was used for the link, and the URL of the link address, and the general content location of the link. You can use the “Hide” option on the right side of the link list to hide any invalid web links from the course (ie, hides them from student view). Place a check mark in the “hide” box to the right of the link and make sure to click SUBMIT to confirm the changes.
After the page reloads, you’ll be able to see that the links you selected are now marked as “Hidden.”
Ideally, you will eventually want to either (1) completely remove the hidden links from the course because if they are not working, they have no use being there or (2) find a replacement link that closely matches the reason for the original link and replace the link with a working link. While the tool doesn’t give the user an exact location in the course to find the link, it does give a general content area (in the examples above, you can see most of them are in Coursework). You will want to search that general course area and find where the links are at to remove or replace them. When you find them, you’ll notice that they’ll have the text “Availability: Item is not available” listed on them (which means the “hide” option on the tool did what it was supposed to do!).
Important Note!
The Link Checker tool is designed only to check links that were set up in courses using the WEB LINK option (ie, selecting Building Content –> Web Link).
If you are embedding external web links into the descriptions of different items in Blackboard (like announcements, discussion forum descriptions, assignment descriptions, etc) – these links will still need to be checked by you manually.
These links will not be included in the list of links that are shown by the link checker tool.
If you have any questions about the Link Checker tool, please feel free to reach out to anyone in OC Global and we’d be happy to help!