Reminder: Steps for Faculty to Set Up Spring 2017 Courses in Blackboard Learn

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – Courses are automatically created in Blackboard Learn each semester for courses listed in UAConnect, but faculty do need to take other steps to be sure classes are ready for students for Spring 2017.

Faculty can find their automatically created course shells for spring in Blackboard Learn. A course shell is the bare-bones framework for each course, apart from most faculty-added content. Faculty can then can add content and make the courses available to students.

Faculty who want to copy previous course content into spring courses can copy the content themselves or ask the Blackboard administrators to copy the content for them by submitting the Blackboard Learn Course Change Request Form. In either case, please remember to make the course available once the course content is copied and updated. Otherwise, by default, courses remain unavailable to students. Once made available, courses will become visible to students on Friday, Jan. 13.

Faculty who do not want to use Blackboard Learn need not take any action, other than notifying students that your course will not be listed in Blackboard Learn. Automatically created Blackboard courses will not be visible to students.

Blackboard Learn automatically combines cross-listed courses into a single course designated "COMBINED." If they choose, faculty may also ask the Blackboard Learn Team to combine multiple courses by submitting the Blackboard Learn Course Change Request Form. Please be aware that combining multiple courses may reduce the amount of student performance data transmitted to UASuccess.

Faculty will see all of the individual, "uncombined" courses, but can hide these courses, as well as other currently unwanted courses, to reduce screen clutter. Students will see only the name and ID for the course in which they are officially enrolled. 

Enrolled students with a UARK username and password are automatically added to the course in Blackboard Learn. Changes to the course roster are now updated hourly.

For assistance copying course content, to request sections be combined, or for any other Blackboard questions, contact Blackboard Learn Help Desk at 479-575-6804 or bbhelp@uark.edu.