Staff guide: You can request a Blackboard Programme Course to hold programme-level information and communication.
About Programme Courses:
What is a Programme Course for?
A Blackboard Programme Course can support Programme Leaders to open a communication channel, develop an online community with students, and share programme-level content.
These courses are included as part of the CHEP Academic Transitions Support Toolkit.
See the CHEP Resouces Hub to view case studies and further guidance on how a Programme Course can be used.
- A Programme course helps to give your programme an identity and sense of community.
- Course Announcements & emails can be used for communication with the programme cohort.
- With our Blackboard/Teams integration tool you can create a Team directly from your Blackboard course and the Team enrolments will stay in sync.
- The course can be a place to gather the information that is otherwise repeated in module courses, on Faculty Hubs (programme specific), delivered via other arbitrary courses, or sent via email attachments.
- Some suggested content areas could include:
- Induction
- Careers/employability
- Staff Information
- Links to related societies and student reps
- Assessment information
- Sources of help and support
- Study skills
- Events
- Key dates
- A Programme course should not be used to deliver teaching or assessment. Please contact ServiceLine if you feel you need to set up a non-Banner course for teaching purposes.
How are students enrolled on a Programme Course?
- Students are auto-enrolled onto Programme Courses via their Banner programme codes.
- When you create a Programme Course you specify the course title and choose programme enrolment codes to associate with the course. Course set-up will suit your programme delivery and your definition of a “Programme”. In some areas, one course can be set up for all students in a department or school, or you could have separate courses for particular groups of programmes, year groups etc.
How do enrolments roll over from year to year?
- The course name and ID will not contain a year – the course content will not need to roll over each year.
- New students will be enrolled on the course via the programme enrolment feed from Banner & old enrolments will be dropped.
- If you have courses for separate years, students will move on a year on the 1st of August as Banner rolls records over to the next academic year.
- See this guide on how to prepare a Programme Course for the next academic year.
How will a Programme Course appear on the Blackboard Courses page?
- The course will appear a the top of the Courses page, under the term heading “Programme Information”.
- Course ID will start with PROG-.
- You can define the course name to suit the programme.
We already have an arbitrary course for programme information – can we set up an auto-enrolment & courses page listing?
Many areas already have an arbitrary Blackboard course set up to deliver Programme information.
- Request a Programme Course using the app in the next section. You will then be able to roll the content of your existing arbitrary course into the new Programme Course. Open a ServiceLine ticket if you would like to speak to Blackboard/Education Application Support about this first.
How to request a new Programme Course
- Select Create a Programme course.
- Type a Blackboard Programme Course title and ID.
- Select your faculty and school (and department) to display a list of programme codes associated with your school/department.
- Use the filter to sort codes by level and year group (part).
- Codes already included in a Programme Course will be shown by a blue link icon. (A code can be included in more than one Programme Course)
- Select the programme codes you would like to be included in the Blackboard course enrolments. Use the > arrow to move the selected codes to the Included column.
- Select Submit – this will send a ServiceLine ticket to iSoluitons/Education Application Support. We will be in touch with you via the ticket to let you know when your course has been created. If you have any questions or comments – add them to the ticket.