Course Site Availability
When are students added to course sites?
Making a course site available to students
When are course sites made unavailable to students?
Hiding old courses from My Blackboard homepage.
When are students added to course sites?
Students are automatically enrolled in Blackboard course sites when they register for the class with the Registrar and their information is entered into the management system, Jenzabar. It can take 24 hours for student enrollments to show up in Blackboard.
If you need to email students before they show up in your Blackboard course site, you can obtain student email addresses in your course list via My Cougar Connection.
Making a course site available to students
By default, Blackboard course sites are created as unavailable. As the instructor you will need to go in and make the course site available whenever you're ready for your students to view the course content. If you neglect to do this, students will be unable to see the course even though the semester has begun. So, if you're still tweaking your course, it's fine to leave the course unavailable, but as soon as you're ready for the students to view your course, make sure you go in and change the following settings.
- From the 'Control Panel' click on ‘Properties' located under 'Customization'.
- Section 3 Allows you to "Make Course Available".
- Select 'Yes' and click 'Submit' to make the course available to students.
The Registrar's office determines the length of the course. By default Bb courses can only be made available to students one week prior to the beginning of the course and one week following the end of the course. Were you to change the availability outside of that range it would be reset the following morning when Jenzabar runs the Snapshot (a daily "handshake" with Bb to keep information current). If you need to make the course available outside of the course dates, you need to contact the Registrar's office and have them change the dates. Bb does not control this.
When are course sites made unavailable to students?
Course sites will automatically become unavailable to students approximately 10 days after the semester ends. Please note that courses will only remain in Blackboard for one additional semester following the end of the course. It is the instructor's responsibility to back up or archive the course.
Hiding old courses from My Blackboard homepage.
- At the top right hand corner of the My Courses section there is a gear icon.
- Click on it.
- Uncheck the boxes under 'Display Course Name' and 'Display Course ID' next to those courses that you no longer want to show up on your homepage. It's recommended to hide all but current courses. This does not remove a course; it simply hides it. You can go back and unhide it at any time and continue to go into the course.
- Click ‘Submit' and ‘OK'.
