Blackboard Ultra (All Users) - Courses vs. Organizations

Courses

Courses in Blackboard Ultra are designed for academic teaching and learning. They provide a structured environment for instructors to deliver course content, facilitate discussions, and assess student learning. Course activity is determined by semester. For example, a Blackboard course might be used to store course content or facilitate an entire course during the fall, spring, or summer semester.

Students are automatically added via Banner feed to Blackboard course rosters, as long as: 

• They have registered for the class in CougarNet; and
• They have not been dropped nor have withdrawn from the class.

Courses are made unavailable to students by default; faculty must make courses available at the start of the semester. Courses are made unavailable by the SIUE's Blackboard Administrator 3-5 days after grades are due at the end of each semester. 

Neither ITS nor IDLT will make a course available without the instructor's written or verbal permission.

For help with setting up your Blackboard course, fill out a consultation request or visit the self-paced training.

Organizations

Organizations in Blackboard Ultra are designed for non-academic, administrative, departmental, or training purposes. They provide a collaborative space for members to communicate, share information, and manage activities.

Organization availability is controlled by the Organization Leader (the faculty or staff person responsible for the Organization). Organizations are unavailable upon creation, but remain available regardless of the academic calendar. Enrollments for Blackboard organizations can occur in several ways: 

• Organization Leaders can manually enroll individual users; or
• Blackboard administrators* can enroll users in batches. This method requires the Organization Leader to provide names and E-IDs of participants in an Excel file to Blackboard Administrators; or
• ITS can create a Banner feed that automatically enrolls specific users (ex: all student-athletes or all civil service staff – the indicators for these users must exist in Banner)

Organizations are made unavailable to participants by default; leaders must make them available. Organizations are not made unavailable automatically at the end of each semester; leaders decide when or if to make it unavailable again.

*Blackboard administrators can be reached at bbhelp@siue.edu

Key Differences Summarized:

• Purpose: Courses are for academic instruction; Organizations are for non-academic groups.
• Roster Management: Courses automatically populate rosters; Organizations require manual roster management.

Accessing Courses and Organizations

Both Courses and Organizations are accessed through the Blackboard Ultra Base Navigation. Log in to Blackboard, and you will find links to both Courses and Organizations in the left navigation panel. If you are enrolled in a Course or a member of an Organization, it will appear in the respective lists.

See Also:

• Blackboard Ultra (All Users) - Users: User Roles in a Blackboard Organization
• Blackboard Ultra (All Users) - Users: User Roles in a Blackboard Course
• Blackboard Ultra (All Users) - Request a Blackboard Organization

Need Additional Support?

This guide aims to provide useful information, but as technology changes, interfaces or steps might vary. Please use the Comment button to let us know if anything differs from your experience. Your feedback helps us keep this information accurate. Thank you!