Blackboard 6.3 Help: Course Options

Make a Course Available or Unavailable to Students

Creating a course in Blackboard does not make it immediately available to students. The Blackboard default setting is "Not Available," which limits the view only to the instructor. This feature allows the instructor to develop the course and then can make it available to students.

Log onto Blackboard and open your course.

Open the course Control Panel.

Go to Course Options and select Settings.

Select Course Availablity to open the availability options.

Set the desired option and click Submit.

Course availability refers to student access to the course. The instructor will always see a link to an existing course. Students will not see the course on their course list until you make it available.

Note: Blackboard also allows you to make specific course content available or not in the specific area where the content is added.

Export a Course

If you wish to update your course, please use the Copy a Course feature in My Faculty Tools. Go to Copy a Course in Blackboard Help for more information. If you wish to keep a historical record of the course, including all student activities and record information, then you must Archive a course. Go to Archive a Course for more information.

Exporting a course does not remove the course from Blackboard, but it does allow you to maintain a local copy (on a disk) for use later. Exporting is done to backup course material for future use. You can load the exported files back into an existing Blackboard course by using the import feature. Go to Import a Course in Blackboard Help for more instructions.

To Export a Course:

Log into Blackboard at http://blackboard.vcu.edu

Go to My Courses and open the course you wish to export.

Click on the Control Panel.

Go to Course Options and click on Export Course.

Select Course Materials to export.

Click Submit to Export the course.

Click on "Click the right mouse button and select Save As" to download the course files to your computer.

Save the exported zip file to a folder on your computer. You will need to locate this file, if you wish to import the course back into Blackboard in the future.

Click OK to return to the course Control Panel.

Archive a Course

If you wish to update your course, please use the Copy a Course feature in My Faculty Tools. Go to Copy a Course in Blackboard Help for more information. If you wish to maintain a local copy or your course content, then you must Export a course. Go to Export a Course in Blackboard Help for more information.

Archiving a course does not remove the course from Blackboard, but it does allow you to save the course to maintain a local copy (on a disk or your computer). Archiving a course provides a historial record of the course, documenting all student activities and roster information. The archived course must be restored by a Blackboard System Administrator. Contact the Help Desk by clicking on Help Desk Trouble Ticket to submit a trouble call or call 828-2227.

To Archive a Course:

Log into Blackboard at  http://blackboard.vcu.edu

Go to My Courses and open the course you wish to archive.

Click on the Control Panel.

Go to Course Options and click on Archive Course.

Click Submit to Archive the course.

Click on "Click the right mouse button and select Save As" to download the archived course files to your computer.

Save the archived zip file to a folder on your computer. You will need to locate this file if you wish to have this course imported by the Blackboard Administrator.

Click OK to return to the course Control Panel.

Import a Course

An exported course saved to your computer or a disk can be imported into an existing Blackboard course. All or a portion of the exported content can be imported into an existing Blackboard course.

To Import an Exported Blackboard course:

Login to Blackboard at http://blackboard.vcu.edu

Go to My Courses and open the course you wish to import the information.

Go to Control Panel and click on Course Options. Select Import Course Cartridge to import your course into Blackboard.

Browse your computer or disk to find the archived zip file.

Archive file example: ExportFile_MISC-003-001-2003Fall.zip

Select the Course Materials you wise to import.

Click Submit to import the course content into your existing course.

To view your course, click on the My Blackboard tab at the top of the screen and open the course under My Courses.