When to Use?
Learn about adding users of various access levels to Blackboard course sites.
Procedure
Topics of interest in this article:
Student enrollments are added to Blackboard courses three weeks prior to the beginning of a new semester; however, instructors determine the availability of Blackboard courses. Updates resulting from students dropping or adding courses are reflected in Blackboard within three hours of the change in Banner.
Blackboard student enrollments are received from Banner every three hours. Any student not registered for a course in Banner, but needs access to the site in Blackboard, must first receive permission from the Registrar’s Office. See Adding User to Course Sites from Banner below.
Instructors of record in Banner are uploaded to Blackboard every three hours. Only the instructor of record or course coordinator can request access to other users in their Blackboard course sites (such as teaching assistants or fellow instructors). To add any GVSU Faculty or Staff to a course site that is created from Banner, The Blackboard Course User Addition/Removal Request service should be used.
- Instructor - access to all areas of the course, can change privileges, access to grade center, receives emails from students who email “instructors” via the Messages tool. Profile picture shows in left course menu.
- TA - access to almost all parts of the control panel, access to grade center, and does not receive email to “instructors”
- Grader - access to the grade center and assessment part of the control panel, cannot edit course content except to make tests available.
- Course Builder - add/modify/delete content from the course site, access to the documents part of the control panel, cannot access grade center, can view Users & Groups, can create Grade Center columns with Batch Create Grade Columns tool.
- Student - no access to the control panel or grade center, access to student roster, and all available tools in the course
**Please ensure you are requesting the minimal amount of access that the individual needs to ensure student success in the course.
GVSU faculty/staff enrollment requests can happen without Registrar's Office's involvement or permission. To add a faculty or staff person to a course site that is created from Banner, The Blackboard Course User Addition/Removal Request service should be used.
Student enrollments in course sites they are not registered for in Banner are more complicated. GVSU Students or other types of users need Registrar's Office approval to be added to Banner course sites and should be requested through The Blackboard Course User Addition/Removal Request, those include:
- GVSU Student as Student
- Finishing an Incomplete
- Independent Study
- Auditing
- Tutor
- Captioner
- GVSU Student as Course Builder
- Outside Guest or Captioner
All requests for undergraduate student enrollments needing grading access (Instructor, TA or Grader) begin with a "Student FERPA Training Request" that must be completed by the instructor of the course. Please do not use the Blackboard Course User Addition/Removal Request form for these types of enrollments. Once the Registrar's Office confirms a student should have access to a course site elevated privileges, they will contact Blackboard Administrators directly.
The Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) protects the privacy of a student’s educational records. Personally identifiable information in a student's educational record is considered private and confidential. This information can be accessed by faculty and staff in order to perform their legitimate educational duties for business purposes. Being enrolled in a course that you are not assigned to as the official instructor of record provides you with access to student records which are protected under FERPA.
Learn more about FERPA at GVSU.