Understanding Blackboard Roles

What do you do, as a faculty member, if you need to request a teaching assistant, SI leader or student tutor, grader, etc.? Perhaps you are working with fellow faculty members to review each other’s courses.

Have you been tasked with creating or managing an organization for your department or research project?

If you answered yes to any of these, then understanding roles determine what a user can and cannot do within Blackboard is important to you. After working with your instructional designer, you will decide what role is most appropriate of these for your needs. The following chart and infographic have been designed to explain the roles. Once you have decided on this role, your instructional designer will add the person to the course or organization for you.

(NOTE: Strike-throughs below signify that for the role listed, that ability is not included.)

Course	Organization
Instructional Designer
Education technology and Bb LMS expert Full access to all courses under their college
Organization Leader	N/A
full access to the organization regardless of availability can add, edit, and delete content complete control over the Grade Center can add other users to the organization can export or copy the content to another organization with the role	(There is no equivalent to this role)
Instructor OR Leader
full access to the organization regardless of availability can add, edit, and delete content complete control over the Grade Center cannot add or remove other users to the course can export or copy the content to another course with the role
Student OR Participant
limited access to the course ONLY when it becomes available can submit coursework and participate in discussions cannot create or grade items cannot export or copy course content
Teaching Assistant OR Assistant
full access regardless of availability can add, edit, and delete content complete control over the Grade Center cannot add or remove other users to the course can export or copy the content to another course with the role
Grader
assist the instructor in the creation, management, delivery, and grading of assessments delivered through Blackboard limited access to the course ONLY when it becomes available can view content, but they can NOT create or edit it cannot submit coursework and participate in discussions full access to the grade center cannot manage users within the course cannot export or copy course content
Course Builder or Organization Builder
limited access to regardless of availability can add, edit, and delete content cannot control over the Grade Center cannot add or remove other users to the course cannot export or copy the content to another course with the same role
Facilitator
limited access regardless of availability can add, edit, and delete content control over the Grade Center cannot add or remove other users to the course can export or copy the content to another course with the same role
SI Leader
works with faculty limited access regardless of availability see content that is "available" and "unavailable," and they can add, edit, or delete content with a content area cannot control over the Grade Center cannot add or remove other users to the course cannot export or copy the content to another course with the same role
Observer or Reviewer
can be used for Course Design Reviews or peer-observations limited access regardless of availability see content only when it is made available that is "available" and "unavailable," and they can add, edit, or delete content with a content area control over the Grade Center cannot add or remove other users to the course cannot export or copy the content to another course with the same role
Embedded Librarian
limited access regardless of availability can add, edit, and delete content cannot control over the Grade Center cannot add or remove other users to the course can export or copy the content to another course with the same role
Auditor	N/A
role is given to students who register as an auditor for the course in Banner automatically be added to the course will not have access to courses within the Blackboard mobile app cannot submit assignments and do not appear in the grade center.

Blackboard Roles Chart (click for larger view)

Infographic designed by Kaitlyn Pederson, SHSU Online