THE LOW-DOWN ON BANNER AND BLACKBOARD (re Barbara Klett, 4/06)

 

Many of the following questions are about registration. Remember, there are two "elements" involved in getting students into your online courses.
  1. Banner: Our Student Information System, which is the real brains and which is VITALLY important.
  2. Blackboard: Our Course Management System, which has no brains but provides you and your students with some great tools and a secure environment in which to work and communicate.

Please keep Banner and Blackboard issues separate from each other.

Here are the commonly asked questions:

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How are students added to my Blackboard course?
 

Beginning March 30, 2006, students who have registered or are on the waitlist for your class (based on data that is in Banner) are "populated" into your Blackboard course, through an import process from Banner into Blackboard. Blackboard doesn't have any "brains", remember, so Blackboard doesn't know if the student is a waitlisted student or not. Blackboard just sees the people who have been imported into your course as "Users".

Students that actually have "seats" in your course (not waitlisted students) are added to your course twice a day through the 2nd week of the term. Waitlisted students are only added to your course until approximately 2:30 PM on the Sunday before the start of the term.

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What about waitlisted students and Blackboard? 

At the beginning of the term, students that are on the waitlist for your course are given access to your Blackboard course beginning on March 30. These student WILL have passed the Orientation course.

Waitlisted students will be added to your course twice a day until approximately 2:30 PM on Sunday, April 2. Students who are on your waiting list are not really enrolled in your CRN (in Banner). After 2:30 PM on Sunday, April 2, if you want to allow a waitlisted student into your BLACKBOARD course, you will have to either:

a) Give the waitlisted student “capacity” override to enable him/her to register themselves in your CRN (using Banner Web). Once they are added to the class via Banner, they are given access to the Blackboard course (students are added twice a day through the 2nd week of the term).

OR

b) Add the waitlisted student to your Blackboard on your own. This is FINE to do, but this does NOT register them in your CRN (in Banner). See directions, below on how to give the student "capacity" override and "late registration approval" using Banner Web. Directions on how to add students by hand to a course in Blackboard are found at: http://web.cocc.edu/acs/enroll_user.htm (you'll need sound to hear the tutorial).

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How do I add students to my course (using Banner Web) without them having to come to campus?

If you want a wait-listed student to be registered in your class, you must give them a “capacity override”, and to be safe, give them the “Late Registration Approval” override as well once the term has started.  Until they are “RE” or “RW” on your roster (in Banner), they have paid no fees and are not really registered.

To add a student to your course in Banner from a wait list, complete the following steps, which allows a student to add a class online without a physical signature (using Banner).

  1. Log into Banner, and go to "Faculty Services" and then to "Advisor Menu"
  2. Click "ID Selection". Enter student's ID in the "Student or Advisee ID" box. Note: If you must search by name, for a more successful search, use only the first portion of each name and be sure to click "all" in the "Search Type" field.
  3. Click "Registration Overrides".
  4. From the drop down menu, select the type of override (instructor approval for courses which require instructor permission prior to registration; capacity override to move students from the wait list to the class; time overlap permits a student to register for a course that overlaps in time with another course, noting that instructors from BOTH courses must give permission).
  5. Under the Course drop down menu, select the appropriate CRN and click "Submit".
  6. Verify that your information is correct and click "Submit" again. If successful, the "The registration overrides you entered have been saved successfully" message will appear. If this message does not appear, scroll down to the "Registration Errors" section to verify the problem.
  7. Click "Student Information" at the bottom of the page to give approval to additional students.

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How do I enroll students into my course in Blackboard?

You don't need to enroll your students into Blackboard. Students who are registered in your course are populated into your Blackboard course twice a day through the first two weeks of the term.

HOWEVER, you may enroll students on your own, if you like. Directions for how to do this are available through a tutorial at: http://web.cocc.edu/acs/enroll_user.htm (you'll need the sound turned on).

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How do I remove students from Blackboard?

Though students are populated into your course through an import process using Banner, that you need not worry about, your students are NEVER removed by ITS. Only the instructor (or you can ask me to remove specific students for you) removes students from their Blackboard course.

Please realize that it does no good for you to remove a student from the course unless that student has been DROPPED from your course in Banner. For at the next import of students into Blackboard from Banner, the student(s) you drop will be added right back in. So, make sure the student has dropped the course and is not showing up in Banner any longer.

Directions on how to REMOVE students from your Blackboard course are provided through a tutorial found at: http://web.cocc.edu/acs/delete_user.htm (you'll need the sound turned on).

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How can students drop my course without having to come to campus?

During fall, winter and spring terms, students can drop full-term classes via the web during the first two weeks; short-term and summer classes must be dropped in person or over the phone because of the varied refund dates.

In all cases, students can call the Admissions & Records Office at 383.7500 to drop over the phone.

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What is an "attendance" requirement?

Students who take online classes are required to "attend" the class the very first day of the term. There isn't a physical place for them to "go", but each online instructor designs an "attendance" task for the student to complete that first day (or by the end of that first week) of classes.

The "Orientation for Online Classes at COCC" mini-course that students must complete before being able to register for online classes states:

It is CRITICALLY important that you "attend" your online class the FIRST DAY of the term! Your instructor has an "attendance" requirement that you must complete or you will be dropped from the online course! There are MANY students on the waitlists for online classes, so once you are dropped from the course, you are out and some lucky person will get your place. SO...make SURE you log into Blackboard and go to your online class the first day of classes of the term. Then, complete the "attendance" requirement.

ALSO, make sure to check your COCC email account, often. Your instructor MAY have written to you at that email address, so check it out!

If you are teaching a completely online course, please place your "attendance" requirement in an obvious location in Blackboard for your students to review and complete.

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