JSU Distance Learning - Blackboard Semester End Procedures

Blackboard Semester End Procedures for Instructors

Blackboard courses should be made unavailable at the end of each semester. Please review the following checklist before making the course unavailable:

The semester has ended.
Finals are over.
Your students have completed all course work for your course.
Your students have had a chance to review their grades.
Your students no longer need access to the course for any reason.

If the above is all true, please make the course unavailable by completing the steps below under "Making Courses Unavailable".

If you have one or more students that will need to continue to have access to the course (for example to complete work related to an "I" grade), DO NOT perform the "Making Courses Unavailable" steps at this time, but rather complete the steps further below under "Alternate Incomplete Grades Procedure").

Making Courses Unavailable:

Go to the course "Control Panel" of the course.
Choose "Settings" under "Course Options".
Choose "Course Availability".
Select "No".
Click "Submit".

Notes:

You should also Archive the course after completing the steps above. Term-specific course shells, created by default by Blackboard for each section represented on the registration system, will remain on the Blackboard system for an undetermined period of time (probably 1 to 2 years) as a matter of reference, and will not be re-used for future semesters. However, after they are removed from the system, any data or content associated with those term-specific courses will no longer be available unless you have saved, exported and/or archived that data onto your computer.
Performing the steps above will not affect the course in any way, and will not remove students. It will only make the course unavailable to students. DO NOT remove students from these courses.
For the period in which they remain on the Blackboard system, these courses may be used as a source course for copying content into course shells for future semesters.

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Alternate Incomplete Grades Procedure:

If there are one or more students needing continued access to the course, you will not make the course itself unavailable, but rather you will make access unavailable individually for each of the students that no longer needs access to the course. For each student in the course that no longer needs access once the term has ended, do the following:

Go to the course "Control Panel".
Choose "List/Modify Users" under "User Management".
Click the "Search" button to reveal all students in the course.
Choose "Properties" to the far right of a student no longer needing access.
Scroll down until you see "Role and Availability".
Under "Available (this course only)", choose "No" using the drop-down box.
Click "Submit".
Repeat for each student who no longer needs access to the course.
Once all students have completed all course work for the course, reviewed grades and no longer need access to the course for any reason, please make the course unavailable by completing the steps above under "Making Courses Unavailable".

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