Blackboard common access problems

 Reviewed: 02/08/2022

Below is information on how different types of programme status can affect student access and the most common problems associated with them.

Programme status	Blackboard access	Notes	Common problems	Likely times	Solutions
Active	Full access		Student can’t see a course	Start of year	Student must be registered in CS for 1 working day before a course comes through onto their BB list
Student can’t see any courses	Start of year	Student must be registered in CS for 1 working day before a course comes through onto their BB list
Start of semester	Courses usually open 1 week before term start date (Sem 1 Sept; Sem 2 Jan). At the end of the academic year, the course moves to the Past years’ courses tab.
End of year	In portal (my.manchester.ac.uk) courses move from the “current” list into “ended” list as semester 2 ends.
Can’t get a copy of a piece of submitted work (dissertation/project, etc)	Course tutors may have hidden the submissions area to prevent student collusion.	Student should contact the unit co-ordinator. Failing this, there should be a backup of the work on the R Drive under eSubmissions.
RWA	Partial access	Student should take a copy of all notes from Bb as soon as they go on RWA. Students will see a version of next year’s course in Bb when it becomes available at the start of the semester; however, the content may have changed, thus affecting what they will be tested on. Students should not, therefore, download the new content unless expressly told to.	Where can the student get the course content?	Any	From resources they have downloaded themselves. The newly opened BB course for the unit.
What if the student can’t get hold of content via the other method?	Any	Talk to the unit co-ordinator and request notes directly.
Interrupt	No access to university systems	As the student is not officially ‘here’, they have no access to any systems or courses.	Student requires access to notes	Any	While the student is on interruption there is no access. The UC can email notes to the student but there is no ‘official’ solution.
Student/staff need access to a student’s submitted work on BB	Any	While the student is on interruption, they are removed from the BB system; therefore, there is no data that can be retrieved. For dissertations/projects there may be a backup of the student’s work, but this depends on when the backup was made.