Course Availability - Frequently Asked Questions

How do I make my scheduled section available to my students?Updated

Courses, by default, are not available to students until the faculty member decides to make them available or until the first day of the semester, if you selected Auto-Availability when requesting the course. After the scheduled section is created and materials added to the course, you can make the course available by accessing the Course Availability Settings in one of three locations:

  • From the Tools tab on the base navigation, click Course Availability Settings
  • In Original Course View, in the Control Panel, click Course Tools and then click Course Availability Settings
  • In Ultra Course View, in the Details & Actions panel, click View Course & Institutional Tools and then click Course Availability Settings

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, faculty do not need to reverse this process, as all NIU courses are automatically set to be "unavailable" 10 days before the beginning of the next semester. Once a course is made unavailable, students lose all access to the course and are unable to see the course in their list of courses.

Why can't I leave my course available after the semester is over?

Courses are made unavailable to students automatically, 10 days before the start of the next term. There are multiple benefits to this. 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 intermingles 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.

Once a course has been made unavailable automatically, you can reopen it, at which point it will remain open indefinitely.

I can see records of students in my scheduled Blackboard course roster, but students say they can't access my course. What's wrong?Updated

If your students can log into Blackboard but can't see your course, the course may not be fully available to students. You can check the availability from the Course Availability Settings, which you access in three ways:

  • From the Tools tab on the base navigation, click Course Availability Settings
  • In Original Course View, in the Control Panel, click Course Tools and then click Course Availability Settings
  • In Ultra Course View, in the Details & Actions panel, click View Course & Institutional Tools and then click Course Availability Settings

For a course to be open to students, it must be set to Open and either today must fall between the start and end dates or the availability type must be set to Continuous.

I made my course available yesterday, but now it is unavailable again. Why won't it stay available?

Courses in Blackboard only need to be made available once. After the course is available, it will remain available until approximately 10 days after the end of the semester. If your course reverts to unavailable sooner than that, it is likely that it is a Shell and not a Course.

Shells are designed for development purposes only, so they do not remain available for more than a day. Students are not enrolled in a Shell, either. Check the Course ID - if it starts with SHELL, then it is indeed a Shell and not a Course.

To request a Course for teaching purposes, follow the steps on the Getting Started Quick Guide (PDF). Then, copy the materials and settings from the Shell to the Course by completing a Course Copy.

How long are courses retained in Blackboard?New

Courses are retained in Blackboard for 5 years. You can access your previous courses on the Courses page by using the Current Courses drop down menu to select a specific semester, or by using the arrow in the upper left to page through previous seemsters.

After 5 years, courses are deleted from Blackboard. The Division of IT will send a notification to anyone with the Instructor role in a course that will be deleted. This provides time for you to export the course for your records.

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