Course Preparation

Summer 2025 and Fall 2025 course shells are available to faculty in Blackboard. To view your course shells, click Courses on the left navigation menu. On the next screen, select Summer I 2025, Summer II 2025, Fall 2025, or All Terms from the Terms drop-down menu at the top.

Summer 2025 and Fall 2025 courses are marked “Closed” and will “Open” to students on the first day of classes at 12:00 am. Faculty may access and update summer and fall courses now.

If you do not see your courses under the selected term, check with your department to ensure that you have been officially assigned to the courses in Banner. Course assignments will update from Banner to Blackboard automatically within 3 to 4 hours.

 

Barnes and Noble Textbook Access

Digitally delivered materials will be available to students via Blackboard. Faculty must ensure that the Barnes and Noble College BNC Course Materials link is added to the course menu of each course so students can access their digital course materials. In addition, the Follett Discover course menu item should be removed from all courses.

Access the First Day® Complete Faculty Kickoff Guide or the Tutorial Video for instructions on adding the BNC Course Materials and removing Follett Discover. 

FAQs:   First Day Complete
Bookstore Contacts:
Willie Williams, Bookstore Manager – wlwilliams@ncat.edu
Alexis Lowe, Assistant Store Manager – aklowe2@ncat.edu

Fully Online Courses - Master Courses

Master courses are fully developed "consensus courses" managed by master course coordinators and academic programs. They help ensure essential program goals, course content, and curricular requirements are present in online courses. These courses typically require minimal, if any, changes made to the structure, content, and assessments to be ready for fully asynchronous online delivery. Master courses are managed by schools and programs. All master courses are created by faculty experts nominated by their chairs and deans. All sections of a course will use the master course as the general design but customization is possible. If you have questions about your department’s master courses, please contact the department chair and work with the Course Coordinator.

Access to Master Courses   

In spring 2021, a Master Course Portal was launched with master courses developed from spring 2020 and onward. Updates are made each semester. Use the Portal website to:

Access a database of completed master courses you can search for specific master courses.
Request to have a master course copied into your course shell.
Use our Master Course Readiness checklist to see if your master course is ready to go.

Access to Existing Online Course Content

Hundreds of online courses have been previously developed and taught at A&T. If you are scheduled to teach a completely online course for the semester and you are not using master course content, there is likely online course content that can be used for your course. Check with your department chair or the Extended Campus  to find out if the course has been previously developed for online delivery. If the course has been previously developed or taught online, you can request a master course copy into your course shell. Course copy requests may take 24-48 hours for completion, so please plan accordingly.  

If you desire content from a previously taught course shell, contact the instructor on record or the department chair to seek approval to use the content. Email that approval, the course ID for the source course, and the course ID for the course you are teaching (as it appears in Blackboard) to the ITTD team. 

Course copy requests can be sent to: 

David Whitehead (dfwhitehead@ncat.edu), Danielle Crosby (dacrosby@ncat.edu), Keia Pannell (kdpannell@ncat.edu), Dr. Bessie Nkonge (bessien@ncat.edu) or Dr. Tracie Lewis (tolewis@ncat.edu).
 

Access to Content from Previous Semesters 

Faculty who taught courses in previous semesters may wish to copy that content into course shells for future terms. Course copies can be performed following a few simple steps. Do NOT skip any steps.

  1. Access the source course in Blackboard. (This is the course that has the content you want to copy.)
  2. In the Control Panel, expand Packages and Utilities and click Course Copy. 
  3. Select Copy Course Materials into an Existing Course.
  4. In the Destination Course ID box, click Browse to select your destination course. (Locate and select the course into which the content will be copied.) 
  5. Select the course materials that you want to copy. Select All is recommended. (Be sure to deselect “Announcements” and choose “Include online the forums, with no starter posts” under Discussion Board.) 
  6. In the File Attachments section, select Copy links and copies of the content.
  7. Click Submit.

After the course copy has been completed, some menu items in the destination course may appear at the bottom of the menu. You may need to reorder the menu items in the destination course and remove any extra menu items. For a short video tutorial on copying courses, click here.

If you wish to use content taught by a colleague in a previous semester, contact that colleague for approval to use the content. (If the instructor is no longer available, contact the department chair.) Email that approval, the course ID for the source course, and your course ID (as it appears in Blackboard) to the ITTD team. The course will be copied within 24-48 hours of the request.

Course Templates   

All Blackboard course shells and materials should be organized using a logical, build-upon precept manner. Content folders or learning modules should be used to house related course materials (e.g. chapters, weeks, units, or modules). Course templates (located in Blackboard) can be used as a model and guide as you organize your hybrid courses. The Enhanced Course Template and the Flipped Course Template provide examples of how course materials can be organized, sample activities, instructor resources, and more. For access to a course template, please contact in ITTD team member. ITTD instructional designers can also assist with course design and development. 

More Resources   

To learn more about master courses, access the Online Faculty Commons in Blackboard. Select Distance Education from the course menu and visit the Designing a Course folder.

Student Accessibility
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Workshops and Resources