Shell - Frequently Asked Questions

Shells allow you to develop your course materials by adding content, creating activities, and building assessments well in advance for upcoming courses. Shells also allow faculty to retain course materials in Blackboard after Courses are deleted (generally after 13 months). Shells can not be made available to students, and student enrollments are not added to Shells. If a Shell is made available, it will revert to being unavailable the next day.

When you are ready to teach the course, you can request the Blackboard Course and copy your materials from the Shell to the Course. 

Watch a tutorial on requesting a Shell. 

A Shell allows you to develop your course by adding content, creating activities, and building assessments well in advance for upcoming courses. A Shell cannot be used for teaching students. Shells are never deleted from Blackboard.

A Course can be requested 45 days prior to the start of the course (e.g., in late May for courses that begin in August, mid-October for for courses that begin in January) and automatically includes students based on registrations in MyNIU. Courses can be made available (opened) to students. Courses are routinely deleted from Blackboard, generally 13 months after the course ends. You must request a new Blackboard Course each semester via the Blackboard Faculty Tools.

To differentiate between a Shell and a Course, look at the Course ID. The ID for a Shell will start with SHELL, whereas Courses will start with the year the course is taught.