This guide will demonstrate how to change a user's course role in Blackboard.
Open the Control Panel
Log into your Blackboard course and go to the Control Panel.
- Click on Users and Groups.
- Select Users.
Changing a User's Course Role, Part 1
You will now see a list of users who are enrolled in your Blackboard Learn course.
- Locate the user whose role you wish to change, hover over the username and click on the chevron that appears.
- Click on Change User's Role in Course to change the user's role.
Changing a User's Course Role, Part 2
You will now see a screen similar to the one above labeled Change User's Role in Course. Under Role and Availability, use the radio buttons to select the desired role for the individual. When finished, click the Submit button to update the user's role.
Explanation of User Course Roles
| Role | Description |
|---|---|
| Course Mentor | The Course Mentor role has limited access to a course or organization under Course Management in the Original Course View. Course Mentor can only view grade details in Grade Center. If the course is unavailable to students, a course mentor can still access the course. A course mentor can't remove or adjust any other role settings in the course. |
| SDS Course Builder | Used when adding another person to a course who will be updating closed captioning for Collaborate or Echo360. |
| Student | Student is the default course user role. A user with the role of Student submits coursework and participates in discussions. Students can't create or grade course items. Students see private courses in their course lists, but they can't access them. |
| Instructor | Instructors have full access to the course. This role is generally assigned to the person developing, teaching, or facilitating the class. If a course is unavailable to students, users with the Instructor role may still access it. The instructor is included in the course description in the Course Catalog. The instructor role can control tool availability. |
| Teaching Assistant | Users with the Teaching Assistant role have access to most of the course. If the course is unavailable to students, teaching assistants may still access the course. The teaching assistant isn't included in the course description in the Course Catalog. Teaching assistants can't remove an instructor from a course. |
| Course Builder | The Course Builder role has access to most areas of the course. This role is appropriate for an assistant who shouldn't have access to student grades. If the course is unavailable to students, a course builder can still access the course. The course builder can't remove an instructor from a course. |
| Grader | The Grader role has limited access to the Control Panel in the Original Course View. Graders can assist an instructor in the creation, management, delivery, and grading of assessments and surveys. A grader may also assist an instructor with adding manual entries. If a course is unavailable to students, the course appears in the My Courses module and in the course list for a user with the role of Grader. However, a grader can't enter the course until the course is available. As part of the delegation grading workflow, instructors can assign the ability to reconcile grades to graders. |
| Guest | The Guest role allows prospective students, alumni, and parents to explore Blackboard Learn without making any changes to users, courses, or content. Users with the role of Guest are unauthenticated users. In the Ultra experience, guests can access original courses in the course catalog. If an administrator has enabled guest access, instructors can make areas within a course accessible to unauthenticated users. Guest users don't have access to the course or organization Control Panel in the Original Course View. |
| Facilitator | The Facilitator role has default privileges related to course materials, gradebook, calendar, announcements, discussions, and groups to assist instructors in the progress of a course. Many institutions use Subject Matter Experts to create content for large, multi-section courses that are facilitated by multiple faculty. These institutions or courses may also require more than one person to help keep the curriculum moving forward. Additionally, institution administrators can grant some or all grading, curriculum set up, and communication permissions to trusted facilitators to help ease these responsibilities in larger courses. |
| LEC Tutor | Learning Enhancement Center tutor role. |
| SI Leader | Supplemental Instruction leader role. |
| WC Consult | Writing Center consult |
| Peer Mentor | Blackboard Peer Mentor |
Manually adding a student to your Blackboard course does not officially register the student for the course. In order to receive credit for a course, students must register for the course in myUT, at which time they will be automatically enrolled in the Blackboard course within 2 business days. The only circumstance in which an instructor should manually add a Student user is to make up an incomplete for a previously registered semester or for guest access,not as a registration override in the current semester.
If you have a student-athlete in your course, you will receive a notification that the student's athletic advisor has been added as an Observer, which will include full instructions of any steps needed, including setting permissions for Observer access. Most commonly, this is already done for you by a member of UToledo Online to save you the extra steps.
The Guest role provides limited access to the course and requires an additional setting to allow Guest access. If you want an individual to have "read" access to your course, assign the Student role to that individual instead.