FERPA demands meticulous consideration of who should have access to student data not available on a public directory. For this reason, we have established permission levels for individuals in a course shell. 

Course sites are populated with user’s in the roles of an instructor or a student.

Other users such as Course Builders, Teaching Assistants, Graders, Co-instructors can be added to the course site by the instructor.

These are roles the permission levels in Blackboard:

• • Instructor – Instructors have full access to the course Control Panel. This role is generally assigned to the person developing, teaching, or facilitating the class. If a course is unavailable to students, users with the Instructor role may still access it. The instructor is included in the course description in the Course Catalog.
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• • Teaching Assistant – Users with the Teaching Assistant role have access to most of the course Control Panel. The teaching assistant is not included in the course description in the Course Catalog. Teaching assistants cannot remove an instructor from a course, export course content, and access the course until the course is available.
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• • Course Builder – The Course Builder role has access to most areas of the course or organization Control Panel. This role is appropriate for an assistant who should not have access to student grades. If the course is unavailable to students, a course builder can still access the course. The course builder cannot remove an instructor from a course. 
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• • Grader – The Grader role has limited access to the course Control Panel. Graders can assist an instructor adding manual entries to the Grade Center.  If a course is unavailable to students, user with the role of Grader cannot enter the course until the course is available.
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• • Student – Student is the default course user role. A user with the role of Student has no access to the course Control Panel. 

Please visit FERPA at UTSA to learn more.