Blackboard Communities and Organizations

Blackboard Communities/Organizations are online environments for formal and informal organizations and clubs at the university. Organizations have the same features for presenting information and communicating with other users that are found in courses, and are also managed in a similar way.

• Requesting a Blackboard Organization
• Accessing Organizations
• Enrolling users
• Adding folders and/or documents
• Communication & Collaboration tools available to Organization members
• Changing availability settings
• Organization roles

Requesting a Blackboard Organization

Any NIU faculty or staff member can request a Blackboard Organization at it.niu.edu:

1. Log in at it.niu.edu with your NIU Account ID and password
2. Click the Request Services button in the top navigation bar
3. Click the Add/Remove Blackboard Org link in the Academic Technologies Support section
4. Select Add a New Blackboard Organization
5. Complete the form and click the Submit button at the top of the page

Accessing Organizations

To access your organizations, log into Blackboard by going to webcourses.niu.edu, using your NIU AccountID and password. Students use their Z-ID and password to log into Blackboard.

1. Click the Organizations tab in the left-hand navigation on the Institution Page
2. To enter an Organization, click the name of the Organization 

Enrolling Users

There are several ways for users to be added to an Organization.

Auto Enrollment Based on Major or Course Enrollment

Enrollment in an Organization can be tied to some records in MyNIU, such as a student's major, minor, or enrollment in a particular course. For example, this can be used to populate Organizations for disseminating information about degree requirements to everyone in a particular major, or to share information about college events to everyone majoring in any department in that college. It can also be used to facilitate collaboration between students in multiple courses or to provide an ongoing enrichment space outside of the Blackboard Course. Automated enrollments will both add and remove users, based on the criteria specified, so a student who changes major or drops the course would be removed from the Organization.

To request automated enrollments, describe who should be enrolled in the Additional Comments field on the form at it.niu.edu when requesting the Organization. When possible, specify the MyNIU major codes or the specific course number and section.

Self-Enrollment

Self-enrollment allows you to share a link to your Organization with anyone at NIU who might be interested in joining it. After clicking the link and enrolling, the individual is added to your Organization as a Member. 

Self-enroll is useful when you don't know who should be in the Organization or when participation is voluntary. This is great for training where you want to track completion in the Gradebook, but there isn't a defined window to start and end the training. 

Self-enroll is not useful when you have participants who are outside of NIU; reach out to CITL if you have questions about offering a course or collaborating outside of NIU. 

Bulk Enrollment

If you have an existing list of individuals who should be added to the Organization, DoIT can enroll them for you, as a bulk operation. This saves you time from individually enrolling users.

You can list the AccountIDs in the Other Information field on the form at it.niu.edu when requesting the Organization. For large lists, you can follow up with a spreadsheet of Account IDs once the Organization has been created.

Enrolling Users Manually

For small Organizations, or to add only a few people at a time, the easiest and quickest method is for you to enroll them manually. 

1. After accessing your Organization, from the Details & Actions panel on the right, click the Roster link 
2. Click the plus (+) icon in the upper right
3. In the panel, type a name in the Search field (Tip: you can use first and/or last name, but you will have better results searching with their A or Z-ID, if you know it)
4. Click the plus (+) icon next to the person you would like to enroll and choose a role from the drop down menu
5. Click the Save button

If you have multiple people to enroll, you can search for and select them all before clicking Save. 

Adding Folders or Documents

Folders and documents can be created and added to an Organization on the Content tab. Learn more about adding content.  

Communication & Collaboration Tools Available to Organizations

If you want to facilitate collaboration, you may want to consider creating a Microsoft Team instead of using a Blackboard Organization. However, there are several collaborative tools available for use within an Organization that can be created and deployed by an Organization Leader:

• Use the Announcements tab to send notifications to all of the participants in the Organization. You can configure whether you want to send the announcement immediately or delay it, and you can choose to send a copy via email. 
  
  
• Messages allow you to communicate with one or multiple participants in the Organization. Messages can be sent via email (click the checkbox when you create a message) but are also retained within the Organization. Messages sent to multiple people from the Messages tab will be sent as a CC, so all recipients will see the names of the other recipients, the message, and any replied to the message. You can also send Messages from the Gradebook based on assessment results (e.g., to send a reminder to anyone who hasn't completed a training module); Messages sent from the Gradebook are sent as BCC.
  
  
• The Discussion Board is a tool for that can be used for sharing thoughts and ideas within an Organization asynchronously (not at the same time). The Discussion Board is administered by the Organization's Leader(s) and is made up of forums that may be linked to anywhere within the content but is also centrally located in the toolbar at the top of the Organization.

Changing Availability Settings

Organizations, by default, are not available to participants until the Organization Leader decides to make it available. This is indicated on the Organizations page where you will see Closed displayed below the Organization's name and in the upper right corner of the Organization. You can make an Organization available from the Organization Settings by changing it from Closed to Open or by changing the start or end date for the Organization.

See here for instructions on how to make an Organization available.

Organization Roles

• Organization Builder— Has access to most areas within an Organization, including adding content, however no access to participant grades or the Gradebook.

• Grader— Has limited access to Organization controls, but can assist with the creation, management, delivery, and grading of assessments and surveys within an Organization.

• Leader— Has access to all areas within the Organization. This role is generally given to those developing, teaching, or facilitating the Organization and is comparable to the role of Instructor.

• Participant— Has no access to add content or change settings for the Organization, and is the default role within an Organization. This role can be compared to the role of Student in a Blackboard Course.

• Assistant— Has full access to the Control Panel, but is not listed in the Details & Actions panel as part of the Organization Faculty. Can also manage (add, change, delete) membership of the organization.

Frequently Asked Questions