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- How do I request a Blackboard shell for my new module?
- How do I request a Blackboard shell for my Programme/Course for the current academic session?
- What happens to my Blackboard module shell at the end of the academic session?
- How do I make my Blackboard module available/unavailable to my students?
- Why can’t my students see my Blackboard module?
- How do I remove old Blackboard Courses?
How do I request a Blackboard shell for my new module?
If when logging on to Blackboard you cannot view your new Blackboard module, you should make a request to the ITMS helpdesk. Although any member of academic staff can request a Blackboard module shell, such requests should come from the Module Leader of the module concerned.
The Module Leader (or any other Instructor on the module) can then enrol other teaching staff onto the module as required [tell me how].
If you are not the Module Leader, you must get their agreement for you to enrol other staff on the module. You will then need to do the following.
1. Email itmsservicedesk@dmu.ac.uk. Include the word “Blackboard” or “Bb” in the subject line of the email.
2. Give the following information:
a) The names of those staff you want to be enrolled as Instructors
b) The usernames of these staff (i.e. the name they use to login to Blackboard)
NOTE: your request cannot proceed without these – you can get the usernames by asking the staff concerned
c) Your Blackboard module code as it appears on SAP using the format: module code-academic year code-semester code. (For example, PHAR1001-1819-501 means that you want a shell for module PHAR1001 for the 2018-2019 session and that the module runs in semester 1). If you do not know the module code – ask your programme/course administrator.
3. You will receive an acknowledgement email with an Incident Number (include the Incident Number with any follow-up communication).
4. You will then receive an empty Blackboard shell with a default layout.
Module shells for new academic sessions are usually available for staff to access at the beginning of August. When you have got your new shell you can copy across any content you require from the old Blackboard shell [tell me how].
Note: by default, your new Blackboard module shell will be unavailable (i.e. invisible) to your students until you make it available to them [tell me how].
How do I request a Blackboard shell for my Programme/Course for the current academic session?
In July of each year staff will be enrolled onto their new Blackboard module and/or programme shells; these should be accessible when you login to Blackboard. Any teaching staff which were enrolled onto these modules will be carried over too. Please note that you will be still required to copy your course content over and make your course available (by default their unavailble). Blackboard Programme shells are available for all students who are enrolled on a particular Year/Level of a Programme/Course. So, for a Programme that runs for three (3) years, there will be three (3) Programme shells. To make these shells visible on the Blackboard system so that they can be actively used, at least one member of staff has to request “Instructor” status on them. If the Programme shell is not available in Blackboard such requests should come from the Programme/Course Leader; you will need to:
1. Email itmsservicedesk@dmu.ac.uk. Include the word “Blackboard” or “Bb” in the subject line of the email.
2. Give the following information:
a) Your name
b) Your username
c) Your Blackboard Programme code as it appears on SAP using the format: Programme Code-Level-Academic Year
For example: B23042-16_1819 refers to Year 3 (level 6) of the B23042 Programme for the 2018-2019 session – note the use of both a hyphen (-) and an underscore (_) in this code.
3. You will receive an acknowledgement email with an Incident Number. Include the Incident Number in any follow-up communication.
Blackboard Programme shells for all levels (years) are also available, note that these shells are not level dependent so all levels can view content and that these shells cannot be archived. You can request such Blackboard programme shells by:
1. Emailing itmsservicedesk@dmu.ac.uk. Include the word “Blackboard” or “Bb” in the subject line of the email.
If you do not know your Programme Code, contact the Faculty Office.
Note: if you want other members of the teaching team to have access to this programme shell you should include their Blackboard usernames when you make the original request. This cannot be done retrospectively.
What happens to my Blackboard module shell at the end of the academic session?
The intention is that your module shell for a particular academic session exists for as long as your students are at DMU. You cannot delete your old, “expired” Blackboard modules. If you do not want students to access your module when they have progressed to higher years/levels, make it unavailable to them [tell me how].
If you do not want to see your “expired” modules in your list of Courses when you login to Blackboard, you can hide them from yourself. Do this by logging into Blackboard and then on the Home page clicking the ‘Cog ‘icon on the top right-hand corner of the ‘My Modules’ panel. You can then check/uncheck boxes against your modules on the ‘Personalise My Modules’ page. Select Submit when you have finished. If you wish to “unhide” a particular module at a later date, you can do so by repeating this procedure.
How do I make my Blackboard module available/unavailable to my students?
Before you make your module available or unavailable to your students, it is good practice to inform the rest of the module team that you are about to do so (they may not have completed their own tasks on the module). To make the module available or unavailable to your students, login to your Blackboard module and with Edit Mode On:
1. From the Customisation menu click Properties
2. Set availability to Yes and click the Submit button
The module will now be available to students.
You can deactivate the module by setting availability to No
Why can’t my students see my Blackboard module?
The most likely reason is that you have not made your module available to your students yet (its default status is “unavailable”). If this is the case, it will be invisible to your students on their Blackboard Courses page, even though it is visible to you and to other Instructors (NOTE: it will say it is unavailable by your module link). You will need to make it available to your student users so that they can see it [tell me how].
Your students (as a group or as individuals) may not be able to see your Blackboard module because the have not been enrolled on it yet, so you need to check if this is the case [tell me how]. If they have not been enrolled on your module, contact the Faculty Office to check the student’s enrolment status on SAP.
Another reason why your students cannot see your module may be that no-one in your module team has requested the Blackboard shell for the module, so it doesn’t exist in the portfolio of modules available to Blackboard users. A member of the module team will need to request the Blackboard shell [tell me how].
Another reason for students claiming not to be able to see your module is that it is at the bottom of a long list of modules on their Blackboard Courses page and they haven’t realised that they need to scroll down the list!
How do I remove old Blackboard Courses?
You cannot remove old Blackboard courses, however you can hide them so that they won’t be available. To do this:
1. After you have logged into Blackboard, on your Home page, click the small ‘cog’ icon in the top right corner of the ‘My Modules’ panel
2. You will be presented with the ‘Personalise my modules’ page.
3. Find the course(s) that you wish to hide and’ un-check’ all the checkboxes for that course row.
4.Once you have completed this, click the Submit button.