When do courses get added or removed in Blackboard?

Courses in Blackboard are usually created several weeks before the courses are scheduled to begin, so that the instructors may begin building the course sites. Students are added to the courses in Blackboard immediately after regular registration ends at the beginning of each semester.

Old course sections are removed soon after the next semester begins. Enough time is given so that instructors can complete any unfinished tasks within their course sites and backup their courses before removal.

Courses and Faculty Enrollments

For every course section that is in our registration system, a Blackboard course site is created as follows:

- Traditional courses -- empty course sites are created in Blackboard and available to faculty up to 120 days prior to the start of the course, depending on when the course section is added to the registration system.

- Nontraditional courses -- course sites containing necessary course materials are created in Blackboard and available to faculty up to 30 days prior to the start of the course, depending on when the course section is added to the registration system.

All new course sections added to the registration system each day (within the time frames described above) are created overnight in Blackboard.

New faculty assignments, or changes to faculty assignments, are updated in Blackboard at noon and at 6pm Monday through Friday, and at noon on Saturday and Sunday.

Faculty have access to Blackboard course sites until 13 months after the end of the course.

Student Enrollments

Students who are enrolled in a course in our registration system are automatically enrolled in the Blackboard course site up to 29 days prior to the start of the course, depending on when the student is enrolled.

Blackboard course sites are unavailable to students until 7 days prior to the start of the course (students are enrolled in the course site and visible to instructors 29 days in advance, but the course site is not visible to students until 7 days in advance).

Student adds and drops are automatically updated in Blackboard at noon and at 6pm Monday through Friday, and at noon on Saturday and Sunday.

Students have access to Blackboard course sites until 3 weeks after the end of the course.

Students with an I (incomplete) grade in a course have access to the Blackboard course site until the student's grade is no longer an I, or until the time period for grade changes has expired.

If a faculty member wants to grant students access to a course site outside the time frames described above, the availability setting may be changed as follows.  In the course Control Panel, click Settings, click Course Duration, select Continuous, and click Submit.