The default Course Entry point (the first page you see after opening a course in Blackboard can be changed by the instructor or a course admin. This article discusses various ways that the course's entry point can be changed, and in case of an issue, how to reset it manually.
Changing The Entry Point Normally
Occasionally, when suppressing the Announcements, faculty may run into an issue where there are no more normal content areas in the course, and the next available content area is an externally-facing web link. If this happens, students and faculty entering the course are almost immediately redirected to the external site.
If this or something similar to this happens (where the course's left menu no longer appears), you can access it by clicking the menu icon at the upper left as shown.