Populate your Blackboard course with materials well before the first day of class. Design your course's look and feel to be user friendly and aesthetically pleasing. Frequently check the "student view" tab to make sure students see what you want them to see, and don't see what you don't. Using folders and/or learning modules, make your site's navigation clear so your students know when each file should be used and where each assignment should be submitted.
Include in your course design a variety of multimedia--both for your students to consume and create. According to English instructor Keri Bjorklund, "In an online learning environment, it is more important than ever to provide multimedia presentations." (see References 1) Further, such course work can appeal to the job and personal interests of an increasing number of digital students on college campuses. You can find a list of some free and inexpensive tools that students can use to view and create multimodal compositions at ELearn Magazine's website. (see References 1)
Use in-class time and out-of-class time wisely. In a freshmen English composition course, some tasks, like responding to sample essays, translate better to a virtual world than others, like teacher-student conferences. When planning your course, determine which tasks would be much more successful face to face, and plan your course around doing them in your class meetings. As you teach, take notes about what does and what does not work well online. Use these notes in next year's course planning.
Create a policy for handling technical problems and discuss it, in person, on the first day of class. On your syllabus, require students to back up their work and do the same using Blackboard's easy export to Excel feature. Point students to the campus technology resources, and ask them to try troubleshooting their issues here before becoming upset about possible lost work.