Make a Course Available to Students in Blackboard

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Two factors affect users' access to classes in Blackboard:

The user's role in the specific course (Instructor, Student, etc.)
And on the specific course's availability ('Open' or 'Closed').

Students:

Can see all of the courses where they are enrolled. Note: course enrollment changes made in Campus Connection may take a few days to transfer to Blackboard.
Can only access courses that have been opened by their instructors, or have been made available automatically at the start of the semester.
Blackboard courses automatically become available to students approximately one week before the first day of class, but instructors may allow or restrict access at any time by manually adjusting the course availability settings.

Instructors:

Can access all of the courses where they are an Instructor, even if the course is closed (not yet available to students).
They can also open/close their own classes, as needed, or wait for the system to do it automatically. The manual open/close feature is useful when a course site is under construction, or if the class ends before the scheduled semester end date. All instructors can access this setting in two places:
- On the main Courses page: Blackboard > Courses page > hover over desired course's thumbnail > click on the '...' menu / button > 'Course settings' > on the next page, you can select 'Open' or Closed'.
- Inside of the specific Course: Blackboard > Courses page > open desired course > in top-right, click 'Course settings' > on the next page, you can select 'Open' or Closed'.

Please see the instructions below for more information about using each method to manage your course's availability.

**Set Availability from the 'Courses' Menu**

The Courses menu provides an easy way to change multiple classes' availability in one place. To access it, log in to Blackboard and click on the Courses link in the menu on the left side of the page.

On the Courses page, you can:

Check a course's current status: On the Courses page, locate the class that you would like to change.
- A padlock icon will appear on courses that are currently set to 'Closed'. Students will see the link to the course, but they won't be able to open it, or access the course's content.
- No padlock means that the course is 'Open'. Students can see the course in their list, and can click on the link to access the course content.
Change a course's status: On the Courses page > find desired course and hover over its thumbnail image > click the '...' button, and from the drop-down menu, select 'Course settings'. Then, on the next page, you can select 'Open' or 'Closed'.

Important Notes:

Confirm that the course was Opened or Closed: After you change the course's availability, you may need to refresh the webpage to reflect the change. Click on the circle/arrow button that is visible in your Browser's top menu bar, usually to the left of the address box — or on your keyboard, press Ctrl+R (PC) or Command+R (Mac). The page will refresh, and any changes will be reflected (ie: with a lock icon for a specific course).
Hide a course from your own view: Instructors can also select 'Hide course' to (reversibly) remove a course from their personal active course list (shown above). This only affects your own view (not students') and may be helpful if your list includes many courses that you no longer need to access regularly. Activity and updates for hidden courses won't appear on the global pages about all of your courses (like Grades). Courses can always be un-hidden using the course filter at the top of the page.

**Set Availability from the 'Course Management' Menu**

You can also change the course availability from within the course. Both the above and the below methods will produce the same result; changing the course between Open and Closed settings.

Inside of the desired course:

In the top-right corner, the course status will be listed as 'OPEN' or 'CLOSED'. To change this setting, click 'Course Settings'.
This will open a course configuration page. Under 'Course Access' > 'Close Course' > use the slider next to 'Course content will be unavailable to students' to toggle the course's availability off or on. IMPORTANT: Do not change the 'Complete Course' setting at this time. After you have changed the setting, you can use the 'x' in the top-left corner of the page to close this menu.
Back on your course home page, you will see that the availability setting has changed. If the setting did not update, you may need to refresh the page manually using the circle/arrow icon near your browser's address bar — or on your keyboard, press Ctrl+R (PC) or Command+R (Mac).