networkedinfoWhilst the majority of Blackboard courses are automatically set up and integrated with Banner there are some occasions where colleagues wish to use Blackboard for a purpose for which there is no corresponding module in Banner.  Such purposes could be providing extra study resources, employability support, administrative information, intra-subject resources and so on.  We call such non-Banner courses “Arbitrary Courses” since they are set up per ad-hoc request.

Over time we have worked with colleagues who wanted to use these courses at a large scale, and who wished to have students automatically enrolled onto these Blackboard courses.  We are now able to add staff or students onto such courses according to the following criteria:

  • Department code
  • Faculty code
  • Staff or Student role
  • Enrolment or instructorship on a specific module, or wildcard of module code / course number e.g.
    • ENGL1*** modules
    • ****2*** modules
  • Combinations of the above


The above type of criteria can be set up quickly, whilst more detailed requirements may require a formal feature request for work to be done via our integrations team.

Additionally, our colleagues in the Banner Technical Team can map modules in Banner for Blackboard purposes.  For example where a module is taught both to a third year cohort and postgraduate cohort, and the materials are the same for both cohorts, the students can be mapped to a single Blackboard course to avoid duplication.

Here are some examples of current auto enrolments we have set up for colleagues using arbitrary Blackboard courses.

Year Abroad courses for Spanish, Portuguese, German, and French.

Students who are studying Spanish, Portuguese, German, or French are automatically added to a “Year Abroad” course.  Students currently on their study year abroad can blog about and discuss their experiences, and access important admin resources.  Students who have completed their year abroad can share tips and strategies, and students who will experience their year abroad in the next year/s can ask questions and find out about the experience from their peers.

Law Student Representatives Site

All law students are automatically added to this Blackboard course which provides discussion forums and resources.

Faculty of Engineering and Environment Health and Safety

All members of the Faculty of Engineering and Environment are automatically added to a Health and Safety Blackboard course containing important information about risk assessments and more.

Research Skills for Postgraduate Researchers Resources

All PGR students from across the University are automatically added to this Blackboard course which contains training resources to support such students through specific aspects of doctoral research.

Independent Learning Advice for Health Sciences Students

All Health Sciences students are automatically added to this Blackboard course containing independent learning advice and support.

Faculty of Engineering and Environment Student Employability

All students in FEE are automatically added to this Blackboard course which provides many resources regarding employability.

Medicine and Health Sciences Inter-Professional Education Resources

All students in Medicine and Health Sciences and all Staff in Health Sciences are automatically added to this Blackboard course, which was developed by a group of Practitioners, Academics, Service Users and fellow students.  The course is for students to use to complement their degree programmes.

Careers Advice for Health Sciences

All students in the Faculty of Health Sciences are automatically added to this Blackboard course which provides careers advice and links into a large efolio site.

Psychology Employability and Personal Development

All students in Psychology are automatically added to this Blackboard course, which is a central reference point for careers information, slides, and recordings which were previously circulated via email.  Psychology have uploaded a range of different materials for undergraduate students, MSc students, and PhD research students.

Southampton Business School Forum

All staff within Management are automatically added to this Blackboard course for sharing staff information.

Mathematics Resources

All staff and students within Mathematical Sciences are automatically added to this Blackboard course which contains useful Mathematical resources.

Sustainability

All staff and students are added to a Sustainability eLearning module in Blackboard which highlights how we can minimise the environmental impacts that arise as we work to achieve our vision.

Graduand Marshalling Online Training

All staff in Student Services are automatically added to this Blackboard course, which provides training for Graduand Marshalls.

Ocean and Earth Sciences Self-Study Information Portal

Something that comes up frequently in student feedback is an occasional need for self-study resources, for instance when students are about to start a research project requiring statistics but have not previously studied any courses related to statistics, nor are there any upcoming courses they can take. This Blackboard course site offers help in this sort of situation. Here is pooled the best advice from the teaching staff in SOES.  All Ocean and Earth Sciences students are added automatically to this Blackboard course.

Academic Writing for Social Sciences

All students in Social Sciences are automatically added to this Blackboard course, which contains teaching materials and videos that complement academic writing workshops they attend.

Music Department Resources

All staff and students in Music are automatically added to this Blackboard course, which contains recordings from departmental performance projects.

Senior Academic Tutor Support

All staff and students in Faculty of Health Sciences are automatically added to this blackboard course which shares academic support resources.

Economics Teaching Resources

All staff who teach Economics modules are automatically added to this blackboard course, which contains teaching resources.

Chemistry Safety Information

All Chemistry staff and students are automatically added to this Blackboard course, which is a repository for chemistry safety information. As well as holding forms and documents it will also host training material.

MA in ELT: Online

All students who study LING6018 are automatically added to this course, which provides easy access to Panopto videos for the MA in ELT programme.

HPC Training

All users who have access to the High Performance Computing cluster are automatically added to a course with training resources for its usage.

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