Blackboard Course Management

Blackboard Course Management

The purpose of this page is to describe the process of Blackboard Course Management from the WebFAC Roster page. This page has 3 major functions.

• Adding/Removing BB Guests
• Turning courses on and off
• Making courses available to students

Adding Guests to a Course

Faculty members can add Guests to their courses at any time during the semester. Who can I Add as a Guest? The person must be have a valid Washington University email. Do not add Teaching Assistants, graders or students who are planning to enroll! People can only have a single role in a course and adding them as a guest will cause issues with the automatic enrollment process. If you aren’t sure what to do, contact the Teaching Center using the following form: http://www.jotformpro.com/form/42126512072948 or contact Blackboard Help via email: blackboardhelp@wustl.edu

What if the person doesn’t have a WU Email address? Send an email to blackboardhelp@wustl.edu to request access. They will need the following information, First and Last Name and email address. This process involves creating a WUSTL Key and may take a day or two to complete.

Which Guest Role should I select? The Guest Student role is the same as the Student role, except that they are not graded, nor do they have access to discussions. The Guest Faculty role is the most restrictive (a pureGuest role), and allows them to only access those menu items in the course that have Permit Guests selected for access (if the menu item down-chevron displays, Deny Guests, it is already set to permit them).

Step-by-step guide

1. Review the questions above to verify that you understand the requirements for adding a person.
2. Login to WebFAC: https://webstac.wustl.edu/webfac
3. Click Courses and Rosters in the left menu
4. Click the BB Management tab
5. Select the appropriate semester from the ‘Select a semester’ dropdown
6. Click the Add Guest icon next to the course. This will open a interface where the Faculty member can add the Guest information.
7. Verify course number is correct.
8. Enter Guest Email address (must be WUSTL email address). If the user is not found – check the WU Directory for the appropriate value)
9. Select type: Recommended: Guest Student
10. Click Add button.

This should show the listing of all people added as Guests for the given course. This enrollment will not load to Blackboard for approx. 2 hours, if done during 9am-9pm, otherwise it will load overnight.

Removing a Guest

Step-by-step guide

1. Login to WebFAC: https://webstac.wustl.edu/webfac
2. Click Courses and Rosters in the left menu
3. Click the BB Management tab
4. Select the appropriate semester from the ‘Select a semester’ dropdown
5. Click the Guest button next to the course. This should open a listing of all Guests who are enrolled in the course.
6. Click the Remove User button next to the appropriate person. This enrollment change will not load to Blackboard for approx. 2 hours, if done during 9am-9pm, otherwise it will load overnight.

Course Access

Blackboard courses are not stored in perpetuity. In order to maintain a high level of performance, it is necessary to turn off courses after two years. Blackboard Course Schedule of Access: Students-

• Year 1: Duration set to extend for one year from the last day of class. Courses are not made available by default. Instructors must take action to turn the course on.
• Driven by instructor or default end date.
• Availability is updated in real-time in Blackboard per instructor action. Note: This will not be adjustable after Year 1.

Instructors/TAs/BB Support and Administrators-

• Year 1-2: from the last day of grading
• Course On/Enabled – Content accessible to instructors
• A course can be turned off per instructor action within 2 hours.

Everyone-

• Year 3: from the last day of grading
• Course Off/Disabled – Content not accessible, must be turned on.
• A course can be turned on per instructor action within 2 hours.

Turn Course On/Off

After two years, the WU Blackboard Admin will turn off/disable all old courses. Instructors will be able to turn their courses back on if they need access to their content. However, no one will have access to the course during the time period that it is turned off. Restoring this access takes approximately 2 hours. Once a course is disabled, it will no longer be reflected in the My Courses listing.

Step-by-step guide

1. Review the questions above to verify that you understand the requirements for adding a person.
2. Login to WebFAC: https://webstac.wustl.edu/webfac
3. Click Courses and Rosters in the left menu
4. Click the BB Management tab
5. Select the appropriate semester from the ‘Select a semester’ dropdown
6. Click the toggle switch in the ‘Course Enabled’ column to enabled (green) or disabled (red).This status will not load to Blackboard for approx. 2 hours, if done during 9am-9pm, otherwise it will load overnight.

Make Course Available to Students

Step-by-step guide

1. Review the questions above to verify that you understand the requirements for adding a person.
2. Login to WebFAC: https://webstac.wustl.edu/webfac
3. Click Courses and Rosters in the left menu
4. Click the BB Management tab
5. Select the appropriate semester from the ‘Select a semester’ dropdown
6. Click the toggle switch in the Course Availability column to make course available (green) or disabled (red). This is a real-time change and will be reflected in Blackboard immediately. Check your course in Blackboard to make sure you want it to be available.