The Blackboard Exemplary Course Program began in 2000 with the goal of identifying and disseminating best practices for designing engaging online courses. Using an established rubric for online course quality, faculty and course designers can evaluate how well their course conforms to proven online teaching best practices for Course Design, Interaction and Collaboration, Assessment, and Learner Support. During this online session offered 12/17/13, we explored suggested best practices included in the Blackboard Exemplary Course Program Rubric for designing engaging online courses. Practical tips for building a course in Blackboard that meets the established quality benchmarks and links to sample award-winning course tours were provided. We also covered the steps and associated deadlines for faculty interested in submitting their course for consideration as a Blackboard Exemplary Course. This workshop was geared toward an audience already familiar with the basic online teaching tools available in Blackboard. The workshop archive may be viewed at http://youtu.be/NtzyexqwG14