Student Access Dates

This semester, at faculty request, we enabled student access to all Blackboard course shells on the first day of the semester (unless the instructor requested otherwise through the Help Desk). As a result courses starting on the first day of the semester did not show on the students' My Blackboard screen until the first day of the semester. This caused students who had already enrolled to think they were not enrolled and they called Admissions or contacted their instructor.

We’ll update the online student letter to be clearer about when courses show on the My Blackboard screen. Further, we’ve submitted a feature enhancement indicating the course should appear on the My Blackboard screen (after enrollment) as either an inactive link or (preferably) as an active link that when selected indicates class access starts on a specified date (e.g. the first day of the semester or the date set administratively at your request).