Managing "Unavailable Guests"

When a student officially drops a class (through EKU Direct), that student's enrollment in the related Blackboard site is automatically changed from the "Student" role to that of an "unavailable Guest." We began using this strategy in January 2006, to give instructors more clues about their students' registration status and to prevent unregistered students from continuing to have access to Blackboard.

To see if you have any "unavailable Guests" in your Blackboard site, open the Control Panel and click List/Modify Users. Leave the search box empty and click the Search button. On the results window, look for any entries that have a "knockout" icon and the grayed-out word Guest. Such entries indicate that the student's registration status changed from Registered to dropped or withdrawn, etc.

This status (1) prevents the student from entering the course site, (2) hides the student's address from course email, and (3) hides the student's name from the Gradebook. Thus, it is very useful for instructors who want to preserve a "dropped" student's records in Blackboard, while continuing to send email and post grades (etc.) only for active students in the course.

Directions for Instructors

1. For the most part, instructors need to do nothing about Unavailable Guests. They cannot enter your course and they will not appear in your email lists or in the Gradebook. If you find their presence on your List of Users annoying, use the Remove Users link from the Control Panel to delete them entirely. When you do so, remember that you cannot recover any records of their activity in your course.
2. The interface between EKU Direct and Blackboard is not "reversible." If you discover that someone who is marked as an Unavailable Guest is actually registered in your class, you should restore "available student" access or contact onlinelearning@eku.edu to help you. (For example, if Mary drops from your class, even accidentally, her status might be switched to Unavailable Guest. When she gets (re-)registered for the class, her status in Blackboard will not automatically change back to that of available Student, but you can fix this for Mary.)
3. You can change a student's role in Blackboard easily. From the Control Panel, open List/Modify Users and locate the student's entry. At the far right, click Properties, and then scroll to the bottom of the Properties window. For ordinary access as a Student, click that radio button and also be sure the Available property is set to "Yes." To deny access, click the Guest radio button and also set the Available property to "No." If you make any changes be sure to click the Submit button.
4. If a student stops attending class but does not officially drop, you have the freedom in Blackboard to change that student's role into an unavailable Guest. Doing so is more efficient than "removing" the student, because as long as the student remains registered (in EKU Direct), he/she will continue to get enrolled into your Blackboard site. To change the student's role in Blackboard, see the directions in number 3 above.
5. For instructors with "Common Materials" sites: because your enrollments are not handled automatically, your List of Users will NOT reflect any changes in registration status. You are still free to use the "Unavailable Guest" role settings as you desire, or to Remove any students who stop attending your class. Note: the enrollments in your Common Materials site were copied from the individual section sites, and if there were any "unavailable Guests" in the individual sections at the time of the copying, these would have carried through to the Common Materials site. In some cases of students' "section-switching," the copying of their enrollments resulted in individuals being denied access to the Common Materials site. If a duly registered student cannot access your Common Materials site, please check the student's entry in the List of Users.
6. For further information and help, contact onlinelearning@eku.edu.