Guests are defined by Blackboard, Inc. as users in a course who do not directly participate in its activities. By default, Guest Access is turned off. Once the instructor turns on guest settings at various levels within the course, guests will have the ability to access the course and those areas and files within the course that the instructor has enabled.
Enroll Guests
Note: Each guest must already have an Andrew account.
Follow the process to manually enroll a user. When able to select a role for the user, select “Guest”.
Enable Guest Access
To successfully enable guest access, three different configuration changes must be made:
Turn on guest access at the course level.
Make course areas visible to guests.
Provide guest access to download files.
Warning: Instructors should not open access to guests if the Blackboard course contains copyrighted material.
Turn on Guest Access at the Course Level
From the “Control Panel”, expand “Customizations” and click “Guest and Observer Access”.
Select “Yes” under “Allow Guest Access” to allow guest access to the course.
Make Course Areas Visible to Guests
From the “Control Panel”, expand “Customizations” and click “Tool Availability”.
Select the checkboxes under the “Visible to Guests” column that correspond to the tools and areas that should be available to guests.
Provide Guest Access to Download Files
Instructors can provide guest access to all course files or to individual files.
Guest Access to All Files
From the “Control Panel,” expand “Files” and click on the course title to enter the course files screen.
Click the double-down arrows next to the course title to expand the menu options.
Select “Permissions” from the menu. A “Manage Permissions” window will appear.
Add a “Guest” user type to the course files so that those individuals with the role of “Guest” can access the course files.
Click the “Add Course User List” button.
Select “Guest” located under “Select Roles” and then select the “Permissions” to be granted guests. The default is set to “Read” which will allow guests access to download files. This is the recommended setting. Then click “Submit”.
A confirmation message will appear at the top of the page. Note that there is now a “Guest” user type in the listing. Click “OK”. Guest users will now have access to download and view all course files.
Guest Access to Specific Files
From the “Control Panel,” expand “Files” and click on the course title to enter the course files screen.
Click the double-down arrows next to one of the course files to expand the menu options.
Select “Permissions” from the menu. A “Manage Permissions” window will appear.
Add a “Guest” user type so that those individuals with the role of “Guest” can access the file.
Click the “Add Course User List” button.
Select “Guest” located under “Select Roles” and then select the “Permissions” to be granted guests. The default is set to “Read” which will allow guests access to download files. This is the recommended setting. Then click “Submit”.
A confirmation message will appear at the top of the page. Note that there is now a “Guest” user type in the listing. Click “OK”. Guest users will now have access to download and view the individual course file once you post it in a content area that Guests can access.
