Why can't I see my Blackboard course as an instructor?

Tell Me

There are many reasons why you might not see your course in Blackboard. Please review this list before opening a ticket.

Jump to:

Course Creation

Blackboard courses are auto-created and auto-enrolled from the Student Administration (SA) system containing all official registration and enrollment data. 

• Please review the course creation schedule to determine when your shell will be available in Blackboard. 
• Tip: Check How do I access my official class roster? to confirm you have access.
  
  

Course Assignments

In Blackboard, if you do not see your course and you are an instructor, please confirm that your Departmental Scheduling Coordinator has correctly entered your name in the schedule of classes.

• If you are an instructor, and your name is not associated with the course you are teaching in the SOC, please see your Departmental Scheduling Coordinator to resolve the issue. Once you are listed in the SOC, your Bb course shell will be created automatically. 
• If you and your Department Scheduling Coordinator believe you are correctly assigned as the instructor of record in the SOC and you do not see your course shell in Blackboard, please submit a Request Tracker (RT) ticket via my.umbc.edu/help.
• If you need a Bb shell for a research or independent study course, please submit a new course request.
  
  

New Instructors

• If you are not the instructor of record, make sure all steps have been followed in the new full- or part-time employee account creation process.
  • Blackboard course shells are not created for those courses who have STAFF listed as the instructor (see example below).
    
    
    
    

Independent Study or Research Courses

• If your course is categorized as independent study or research (see example below, or review this FAQ), then you must request a new shell. 
  • Only Bb System Administrators can manually create new courses. Please complete the Blackboard course shell request form located on http://my.umbc.edu/go/blackboardrequest.
    

Upcoming Courses

• If you are certain you are assigned to a course, please log into Blackboard and use the tools on the Courses page. A course that is not in an active term will not appear on the Current Courses page – that is, it will be classified by the system as "upcoming."
  
  
  • Browse by term. Move between past, current, and upcoming courses using system-defined terms. At the bottom of the list, you'll find a page selector to navigate through long lists.
  • Change the filter. Click on down arrow next to the Current Courses title to switch to another term. If you navigate to another page, all courses show again. 
  • Search your list. The search function finds courses on the current page that match your search term.
    
    Related FAQ → How do I organize my list of courses by term in Blackboard?
     

Hidden Courses

• Check for hidden courses on the Courses page in Blackboard.

1. Click on the down arrow next to the Current Courses title to use a filter.
2. Select Hidden from me.
3. When you find your course, point to its course card menu (...) on the far right.
4. Select Show course.
   
   Related FAQ -> How do I organize my list of courses by term in Blackboard? 

Missing Courses in myUMBC Dashboard

• If your doesn't show up in the Blackboard "Check My Activity (CMA)" module (see image below), it doesn't mean you are not enrolled or you don't have access. 
  • The CMA list is populated 24 hours after Blackboard is updated the previous day. For example, if it is Tuesday afternoon when you check CMA for your course, the information you see was populated from Monday night's data. 
    • Before you open a ticket, make sure you go to the full Blackboard site, https://blackboard.umbc.edu, to view your list of courses on the All Courses tab.
    • TIP: How do I organize my list of courses by term in Blackboard?
      
      

Other reasons you may not see your Blackboard course

• Make sure your pop-up blockers are off. Alternately, please allow security exceptions for *.umbc.edu and *.blackboard.com.

• Try accessing the page directly instead of going through myUMBC. Type the following into the address bar of your browser: https://blackboard.umbc.edu

Downtime or Service Disruption

Finally, in a rare situation, you could be trying to access your course on Blackboard when it is offline for maintenance or an unexpected service interruption. Check the splash graphics below and links to associated announcements: