Blackboard – Requesting staff access to Blackboard courses

Use the Thinglink staff access roadmap to easily navigate your staff access issue, or read the guide below.

Welcome

New staff

Complete this online form to request access to University systems.

This ensures new members of staff are set up on all systems including Banner, Gradebook and timetabling.

You will need your staff Username (e.g. abc1a22) and a list of the Blackboard modules/CRNs which you need access to. If you do not have a staff account yet, please await instructions via email, and ensure that you subscribe to activate your computing account.

How Blackboard enrolments work

Most instructors and students should be enrolled in Blackboard via the Banner information system.

Banner is the main information system at the University of Southampton and should always be kept-up-to-date. This system informs the data shown in many other related platforms, including Blackboard. The CQA team or Student Office can update staff and student allocation on modules in Banner.

Updates to Banner enrolments will show in Blackboard within 24 hours.

Sometimes it will be necessary for an Instructor to add another person to a course directly. In these cases, please see our guide on managing users in Blackboard.

Types of courses

Please see our guide for more info about Blackboard courses

• Banner course e.g BIOL1001-1234-22-23. This is the most common course type used for teaching
• Programme Course e.g. PROG-ARCH-Y1. This is used for student comms.
• Arbitrary course e.g. sites for events or staff training courses such as HEALTHANDSAFETY

Related systems

Blackboard is the University of Southampton’s primary Virtual Learning Environment (VLE). When you request access to Blackboard, you may expect access to other closely related systems.

If you are enrolled a module in Blackboard, you will automatically gain permissions for the associated platforms:

• Turnitin
• Panopto

You may need to take additional actions for access to:

• Eassignment
• Banner Gradebook
• ECS Intranet
• Microsoft Teams & Streams

Existing staff

Module Lead

Ask your CQA team to add you as teaching staff for the module in to Worktribe/Banner. Include CRN info, and why you need to be added to the course.

• Faculty of Arts and Humanities
• Faculty of Engineering and Physical Sciences
• Faculty of Environmental and Life Sciences
• Faculty of Medicine
• Faculty of Social Sciences

Programme Lead

Complete this online form to request access to University systems

This form allows you to request “Academic/Support Staff” level access to courses and you will be enrolled on Blackboard with a Teaching Assistant course role.

Do not complete this form if you need Instructor level access.

You will need your staff Username (e.g. abc1a22) and the list of Blackboard course IDs/CRNs you would like access to.

Auditing Staff

You should contact the Faculty Student Office or the person who has invited you to audit their course.

Following discussion with them, they may:

• add a member of staff manually to a Blackboard course
• ask you to complete a staff access request form to be added to the course as “Academic/Support Staff” staff for all current and future instances of the module
• raise a ServiceLine ticket to discuss best practice with the Blackboard team

Examiner

As a member of staff at University of Southampton you have been asked to access a Blackboard course that you do not directly teach on, and need only temporary view-only access.

You should contact the Faculty Student Office or the person who has invited you to examine their course. They can arrange for an Instructor of the Blackboard course to add a member of staff manually with the course role “External Examiner”.

PGR Student Demonstrator

Complete this online form to request access to University systems.

This ensures new members of staff are set up on all systems including Banner, Gradebook and timetabling.

You will need your staff Username (e.g. abc1a22). This should be issued to you via UniWorkForce. If you do not have a staff account yet, please check your email or follow up with UniWorkForce to enquire.

Don’t forget to subscribe to activate your staff computing account.

Teaching Assistant/Student Observer

Manual enrolment If you need access to a single, or a few, courses as a one-off the Faculty Student Office or Blackboard course Instructor can arrange this for you. They can arrange for an Instructor of the Blackboard course to add a member of staff manually with the course role “Teaching Assistant” or “Student”.

Request form If you need access to a large number of courses, for current and future years, you may be asked to complete this online form to request access to University systems.

Select “Academic/Support Staff” level access. This will ensure that you are added to the Blackboard courses as with a Teaching Assistant role.

You will need your staff Username (e.g. abc1a22) and a list of the Blackboard modules/CRNs which you need access to.

Support Staff (Library)

Certain members of staff have been given access to a beta tool called “Staff Course Enroller”. This can be accessed via Blackboard and allows staff members to self-enrol onto courses with a “Library Staff” role.

Please see our elearn help guides for more information on the Staff Enroller Tool. Speak to your line manager about access, or raise a ServiceLine ticket if you require any support.

External

NHS

NHS Staff can register for a University of Southampton computing account via the Medicine External User Service. Existing users can also reset their password.

Registration is open to anyone who is an employee of or contracted to an NHS Trust or other organisation involved in teaching our students.

Medicine External Users can access the following University systems:

• Blackboard
• eAssignment
• eFolio
• ERGO
• MedShare
• Medicine eLearning
• MEDUSA
• Student choices
• PGR Tracker
• Panopto
• Vevox

External Examiner

You should contact the Faculty Student Office or the person who has invited you to become an external examiner.

They will assist you in gaining access to Blackboard and the relevant assignment platforms.

Guest

New members of staff should wait for their computing account access to be activated once they have received their contacts. staff accounts.

Visitors who work regularly with the Univesrity can apply for a visitor account. This can take up to 3 months and your application for visitor status should be supported by a host Faculty/nominiated contact.

Guest Lecturers can be invited to participate in online lectures and webinars without being given access to Blackboard courses:

• How to invite a guest presenter to a Teams meeting
• How to join a Teams meeting as a guest
• How to invite guest presenters to a Blackboard Collaborate meeting

If you are recording a guest lecturer, make sure you ask them to sign a Guest Lecturer Agreement Form and send this to legal services.

Getting Help

Contact details can be found on the iSolutions – Getting help webpage. You can raise a support ticket by telephone, email or self-service.

Try to include:

• Why you need access to the Blackboard course
• The course name, ID or module number
• What level of access you require (Instructor, Teaching Assistant, Student)
• How long you require access (temporary, year-on-year)