Why Use Blackboard: Outside Participants Joining a Discussion Board Forum

Sometimes, with a lot of coordination and effort - and significant financial support - you can bring an author or outside expert to campus, and s/he can attend your class and respond to student questions about a text you are reading. Such events do occur on campuses, although usually as part of specially funded programs.

With much less expense and coordination needed, you can invite an author, outside expert, or others to participate in a Blackboard Discussion Forum; s/he would need only a computer with an Internet connection to connect to Blackboard and navigate to your course - once a guest account is created for him/her. The outside participant could respond to student questions, participate in the discussion of the work being read or the issue being considered, and provide reactions to the students' postings. If you wanted a synchronous (i.e., "chat" session), you could also use Blackboard's "Virtual Classroom" feature for a real-time "conversation" with the outside participant.

If you're interested in involving an outside participant in your course, you can get in touch with a Blackboard Administrator, who can create a Blackboard account for the outside participant and add him/her as a "student" enrolled in your course.

Written by Leslie Harris, originally for the Office of Instructional Technology at the University of Scranton. Revised with permission and adapted to the Bucknell University Blackboard environment. Last revised August 12, 2008.  Please send questions or comments to itec@bucknell.edu.