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By default, Blackboard courses are visible only to the instructor until instructors choose to make the course available to students. Students will be added to course sites two weeks before the start of the semester.
There are two methods of opening a course up to students.
1. Courses can be made available through the Courses tab.
![Click Open course](https://help.uillinois.edu/TDPortal/Images/Viewer?fileName=a7959742-d2f7-4798-9851-a514fc7afe74.png)
To make a course available:
- Click the Courses tab in the left navigation bar.
- Find the course.
- Click the three horizontal dots on the right.
- Select Open Course
2. Courses can be made available inside of the Customization menu (this method only applies to Original Course View)
To make a course available to students:
![pic1 pic1](https://answers.uillinois.edu/images/group178/84633/pic1.jpg)
![pic2 pic2](https://answers.uillinois.edu/images/group178/84633/pic2.jpg)
Please note: even if you have made your course available, students may not be able to access the course if the availability dates of your course are incorrect. On the Properties page, ensure that the Start and End Dates under Set Course Duration are correct, or that the course duration is set to Continuous. If you want your students to see the course before the semester starts, please be sure to modify the dates as shown below.
![](https://help.uillinois.edu/TDPortal/Images/Viewer?fileName=402c31e8-c3b4-4d0b-a940-1a5e64bcc0cb.png)
Note: To make Ultra courses available past the term duration, please contact lts@uic.edu.