How do I allow guest access to my Original Blackboard course?
- Mariann Hawken
- William Schneider
- Former user (Deleted)
The Guest role is not supported at this time in the Ultra Course View. If you want someone to have minimal access to your Ultra course, you must add them to your Ultra course and use the Interpreter role.
If you would like an external guest to have access to your course, you must request a sponsored account.
Faculty can control whether or not the guest role has access to a course and what the content they can see. Guests in a course can include guest lecturers, potential students, or other users who aren't directly participating in your course. The guest role must be assigned to an existing user account in Blackboard.
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STEP 1: Change the course settings to allow Guest Access.
Change Edit Mode to ON.
On the Control Panel, expand the Customization section.
Select Guest and Observer Access.
Select Yes for Allow Guests.
STEP 2: Next, customize which content Guests can see in the course.
You control access to the individual features that UMBC has allowed guests to see. The features are visible (read-only), but not usable to guests when they're permitted in your course.
On the Control Panel, expand the Customization section.
Select Tool Availability.
Select or clear check boxes to control guest access.
Tools with the Unavailable icon in a column don't have availability settings in the system that you can change.
Guests can't view most items on the course menu until you allow access. You choose which course menu items guests can see, but some items, such as discussions, blogs, and journals, are not available at the system level.
Open the menu for an item to make a selection.
Select Permit Guests.
Repeat for each menu item.
After you allow access to an item, you can later deny access in the same menu.
If UMBC has disabled guest access to features or course menu items, you cannot override the setting.
STEP 3: Enroll users and assign the Guest role.
If you do not add a user with the Guest role, you must provide him/her with a direct URL or instructions for how to search the course catalog to find your course.
When you add a user with the Guest role and make certain content areas accessible to guests, those users can access course content, but not secure course areas like grades or assessments.
Some tools are not available to Guests. You can also customize the Tool Availability for other tools to remove access to Guests.
Related FAQ -> How do I add a teaching assistant (TA), second instructor, or guest to my Blackboard course?