How To Make Your Section Available to Students Outside of Regular Term Dates

By default, Bb Vista courses are available to students only between the official Banner start date and the official Banner end date. These dates are assigned to the sections as they are created in Bb Vista and can only be modified by members of the Online Learning Team. However, Vista 4 gives Section Designers and Instructors the ability to make their sections available to students before and/or after the Banner-designated start & end dates. To change this availability:

1. Go into your section(s)
2. From the Build or Teach tab, click on Manage Course
3. Click Settings
4. Under Administration on the far right, click Learning Context
5. Use the drop-down menu next to "Course availability for Students" to select an appropriate value.
   • To open your course early we recommend choosing "Not available after term ends"
6. The full list of values for student availability is:
   1. Use term setting – availability is governed by the start & end dates of the term to which it’s assigned
   2. Always available – both start & end dates of the section and term are overridden and all users will be able to access the section as long as it exists in the database.
   3. Never available – the section is effectively closed to all Students at all times
   4. Not available before term starts – section remains available after its designated term ends; the term's end date is ignored, but the start date is enforced
   5. Not available before section start – section remains available after its designated end date; the section's end date is ignored, but the start date is enforced
   6. Not available after term ends – section is available before its designated term ends; the term's start date is ignored, but the end date is enforced
   7. Not available after section ends – section is available before its designated start date; the term's start date is ignored, but the end date is enforced
   8. Not available before term starts/after term ends – basically the same as "Use term setting" (by default, the Banner-generated start & end dates for the term)
   9. Not available before section starts/after section ends – availability is controlled by the section’s start & end dates (by default, the Banner-generated start & end dates for the term)
7. Click Save Values

• Vista 4 Overview Video
• Archived Workshop Videos
• Vista 4 Highlights

Login to Bb Vista:

Username:

Password:

Choose your institution Cabrini College Cumberland University Drexel University ELAM Medaille College Neumann College St Charles Borromeo Sem.

Having trouble?
Report a Problem