Courses, by default, are not available to students until the faculty member decides to make them available. After the scheduled section is created and materials added to the course, faculty can make the course available by entering the course and going to:
Setting the availability is an immediate process (meaning the faculty member does not have to wait for the server to run in order for the command to be processed).
At the end of the semester, professors need to reverse this process and make courses unavailable so students do not continue to see all their old classes listed when they login. Additionally, copyrighted materials should not be available to students after the end of the term.
When a Blackboard course is available, it continues to appear on the course list for every student who was enrolled in the course. Many students complain that this is confusing, as their new course intermingle with old course titles. Additionally, any copyrighted materials need to be made unavailable to students at the completion of the term according to the rules of classroom fair use.
If your students can log into Blackboard but can't see your course, you may have forgotten to make the course "available". To make the course available, click on Control Panel > Course Options > Settings > Course Availability > YES > Submit. Without this step, students enrolled in your course cannot access the course.
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Last Updated: 09/26/2007