On Lurking or Working and Being Invisible

By default when you’re online, students can use the Who’s Online tool to see if you’re online. By default, you’re visible and available. You can change the setting for the current session or you can change your default setting using these steps:

1. From the My Blackboard screen, select the My Settings link.
2. Next select the My Tool Options tab.
3. Scroll down to the Who’s Online area.
4. Next select the status you wish to be your default status (starting with the next time you log-in to Blackboard CE). Your options are:
   
   * If you want your name to appear on the list of online users and appear available to chat, select Visible/Available.
   * If you want your name to appear on the list of online users but do not want users to send chat invitations, select Visible/Unavailable.
   * If you do not want your name to appear on the list of online users, select Invisible.
5. Select the Save button.

If you want to change your “visibility” for only the current session in a specific course, you can:

1. Go to the Who’s Online tool,
2. Set the status on the top of the screen to the desired setting
3. Click the Update button.

This process only effects the course in which you change the setting.