Best To Use Resource Boards or Set Up A Course?

Jennifer Miller

We are in the implementation phase with Blackbaud. We currently use Canvas as our LMS, but are shifting some items away from Canvas and to Blackbaud. The Resource Boards seems to work a bit differently than I'm used to.

In Canvas. for example, we currently have a “course” dedicated to our entire Lower School (families, students, faculty, staff). Within that course, there are modules and pages housing all of the information we want to share…. links, lunch menus, photo album, handbook,..).

I'm switching all of this information to Blackbaud. I'm wondering if setting up a Lower School course versus creating a Resource Board for each item is better? My concern is it might result in so many resource boards that it is overwhelming and difficult for parents to find the information they need. Would setting it up as a course give me more options or complicate it?

All feedback and tips are appreciated!

Traci Holinger

@Jennifer Miller You do have several choices ---- by making it a Resource Tile, every parent can view all resources. I would consider making it a Community Group or Activity Group . In both of these options, you will have a bit more flexibility: 1) decide who is added to the roster, 2) assign “anyone” to manage this group which would allow updating the information.

As a Community Group, you can build a smart roster based on criteria such as grade level (so as students are promoted, the roster will automatically refresh) content will remain intact with no annual rollover.

As an Activity Group, you can import the roster each year or keep the roster when doing the annual rollover as a new group must be created each year, selected content can be rolled over/or not.

Jennifer Miller

@Traci Holinger
Thank you, Traci. I think a Community Group is definitely the way to go. I've managed to get the group set up and I've rewatched the Blackbaud U video, and it seems I've followed the same steps. However, for some reason my group does not show up under Group Finder, and when I click the link that should take me to edit it, I do not have the edit button as shown in the video. Any idea where I might be going wrong?

Traci Holinger

@Jennifer Miller If you are missing the Enter Edit Mode button on the Bulletin Board, make sure you have the Community Group Manager role. Why you cannot find it in Group Finder might be a) confirm the academic year in your finder drop down, b) make sure the group is Active, c) Check Core> Settings > School Settings > 2023-24 > Community Groups…. d) Check the Group Page Access under Core> Security > Group Page Access > Communities. Those are my first thoughts.

Ben Taylor

@Jennifer Miller
We use a combination of detail pages, links, and community groups. The beauty of a group is that it has some built in telescoping content because you can make topic pages. You also don't HAVE to enroll people in the group to have it be accessible, having it linked from the resource board will take people in. Group membership gives access to things like announcement notifications and the like. But for passive access you don't need to enroll people.

We use detail pages for things like…collections of forms or documents, and community groups for things like…tech support resources since we can use topic pages to create sub-buckets of information. Happy to show you our resource board if you'd like!

Jennifer Miller

@Benjamin Taylor I would love to see your Resource Boards! That's an amazing offer. It's so helpful for me to see the different ways people are using different options. Appreciated!

Kristin Heard

@Jennifer Miller We didn't have the group functionality when we first implemented Core, as our first product was the school website. However, with Core, I was able to create Resource Boards. So, I created a tile for each of our school Levels, Lower, Middle and High. Everything they need is posted on those tiles. However, now that we do have groups, I will probably shift away from the tile and create the Community Groups. Either option works and will give the students and parents one place to look for school-level specific information.