Explore the Courses Tab in Blackboard Ultra Base Navigation (Students)

The following support article provides information for students on navigating the Courses tab of Ultra Base Navigation to find and organize courses including marking courses as Favorites and what Private courses mean.

Mark Courses as Favorites

Marking a course as a favorite in the Courses tab will move it to the top of the course list under a section labeled Favorites. This makes courses from the current semester easier to find or courses that are frequently opened more accessible.

NOTE: It is recommended that at the start of a new semester, students un-favorite all of the courses from the previous semester and favorite the new courses.

Courses can be marked as favorites from either the list or tile view of the course by clicking the star icon. If a course is marked as a favorite, this icon will be purple.

The Courses tab in Ultra Base Navigation with the Favorites section of courses highlighted with a blue circle and an arrow pointing to the purple star icon within a course to indicate that the course has been marked as a favorite.

By clicking the star icon a second time, the course will be unmarked as a favorite and will move down into the list their assigned term and in alphabetical order:

Two course tiles with arrows pointing to the empty star icons that indicate that the courses have not been marked as favorites.

Private Courses

If a course is marked with a lock icon and labelled “Private,” students will not be able to access the course. When a private course is clicked by a student, they will receive an error message stating that “You can’t access this course right now. Your instructor will allow access when the course is ready. Please try again later.” If you cannot access a course you believe you should have access to, please contact your instructor.

A screenshot of a course marked as private in Blackboard that displays the unavailable message the student receives when clicking on a locked course.

Here are the three common reasons why “Private” courses may be displaying in the Courses tab:

The semester for the course has not started yet.
- If the semester has not started yet, students will not have access to the course. If the semester has started and the course is still not available, please contact the instructor of the course.
The instructor is updating or working on the course.
- An instructor can mark a course as unavailable temporarily if content in the course needs to be updated without affecting work being submitted in the course. If the course has become unavailable without communication from the instructor, please contact the instructor of the course.
The semester for the course is over.
- Courses remain available to students for a limited time after a semester has been completed. If a course from a previous semester is marked as Private, it is because it is no longer available to students.

View Courses Assigned to a Term

Courses are assigned to terms on a regular basis to organize them with the correct year and course type.

NOTE: Courses from the last three years are retained in Blackboard, with the oldest year of courses being archived and removed from Blackboard each summer.

From the Courses tab, users have the option to search for a specific course, use a filter for courses, or view the list of available terms in the Terms list
Clicking the drop-down arrow in the Terms box will display a list of the terms that courses the user is enrolled in have been assigned to
Selecting a term from this list will limit the visible courses to those that have only been assigned to the selected term

A screenshot of the Courses tab in Blackboard Ultra Base Navigation with a blue arrow pointing to the Terms filter list.

Frequently Asked Questions

Why can’t I find a course I attended in Blackboard from more than three years ago?

Answer: CSU Pueblo only retains the last three years of courses in Blackboard to save storage space for the next next academic year's courses. Courses older than three years are archived to storage devices and removed from Blackboard every summer. If you need access to a deleted course, please reach out to the course instructor.

Why do I still see courses from semesters in my Others course list?

Answer: If courses from a specific semester are visible in the Others course list, it is because they have not yet been assigned to a Term. You can let us know that a course has not been assigned to a term by submitting a support ticket. Please use the Favorite option to keep current courses at the top of your course list in Blackboard.

Helpful Links

Blackboard Support - Find Your Courses (Student): https://help.blackboard.com/Learn/Student/Ultra/Getting_Started/Find_Your_Courses

Blackboard Support – Course Terms on Learn SaaS: https://help.blackboard.com/Learn/Administrator/SaaS/Courses/Manage_Courses/Course_Terms