Blackboard: Make Course Available
SSW Faculty can make your Blackboard course available whenever you are ready! However, if you don't, the IDEA Team will make courses available to students on the first day of classes. It is best for you to post an announcement/send an email to all students at least one week prior to the start of the semester with info on when your course will be available, textbook/readings for the first class, and time/date/location of your first class, as well as weekly expectations for time. Before you do, please double check:
course content/materials folders - are they all available to students? Should they be? Using folders for each week, you can keep them unavailable and open them one week at a time.
assignments/exams - did you edit these items to update the due date, check the # of points, rubrics, and other settings?
Concourse syllabus - did you copy in from an old syllabus and edit the days/times/zoom link as needed? NOTE: if your course is made available and the link to Concourse Syllabus is shown (not hidden) to students, they have access to your syllabus. Because it is an LTI authentication link, the Concourse Syllabus link will NOT WORK in Student Preview mode, so that is not a way to check it.
Grade Center - go to Manage > Column Organization to delete and/or hide unused columns, drag and drop to re-order them, and make sure your columns are all correct and either hidden or not from student view according to your needs.
Left navigation - hide or remove any unused/unneeded links. Use the + sign to add links to other tools you may need in your course.
Review the Pre-Semester Bb Course Check
With Ultra Base Navigation - there is now a new (and easier) way to make your course available to students (open course) or unavailable to students (lock). After logging in you will see your courses on the Courses Tab on the left. (Also note: we recommend using the Star icon to favorite the courses you want to display at the top of your Courses Screen. And note that you can Hide courses you don't want to see on your courses screen, too!)
Using the 3 dots to the right of any course for which you are instructor, you can change the Private setting by toggling to "Open Course" :
Likewise, when you want to make a course private, use the3 dots to choose: Make Course Private:
Another way you can do this is when you are inside your course already, if you have entered from Ultra Base Navigation (and not from My Courses Plus). If so you will see a padlock icon in the far upper right next to the Edit on/off toggle. This padlock icon allows you to easily make the course available (unlock) or unavailable (locked) to students:
Now, if that doesn't work (you don't see that option) or you happen to be using the old school interface, using My Courses Plus, etc...:
To make your Blackboard course site available to students:
Enter your course.
In the menu on the left side of the page scroll down to find the Control Panel.
Click Customization, then Properties.
Scroll down to Set Availability : Make Course Available
Select Yes. Scroll to the bottom and click Submit.
The image below shows all places where you need to click in blue boxes:
