Setting up Blackboard access for associate members of staff

Any member of staff can act as a sponsor to use A3M to request an A-Code for an associate member of staff, however only specific faculty and departmental staff can authorise the creation of an A-Code. Find your department’s authoriser in this list of A3M authorisers.

Please note that associate accounts should be requested at least a day before the account is required to ensure their account is ready.

Instructions

Request an associate account (A-Code) using A3M

1. Before you start you’ll need the associate’s full name, Date of Birth, a valid email address and their National Insurance number (unless they are not a UK national).

When you place a request for an associate account you act as a sponsor.

2. Login to A3M. A3M uses SSO (Single-Sign-On), if you are already logged into the Ulster portal you’ll arrive at the home page, otherwise login in with your university email and network password.

3. Once in the home page select Full Associate option.

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4. This takes you to the the Associate User Creation form

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• All fields with a red asterisk (star) must be completed.

• If an associate does not have a National Insurance number as they are not a UK National, a temporary number MUST be created, of the form:

  • TNddmmyyM - 'M' for male

  • TNddmmyyF - 'F' for female

  Where TN stands for temporary number and  ddmmyy is the date of birth

• Duplicate National Insurance numbers in A3M will result in the account not being approved until any issue is resolved.

• If you are requesting a Full Associate account and you know the user already has a staff account, you can complete the Previous E-Code field with the user’s staff number to start the initial rename process.

• When you have completed all the fields, double check the entries and select Submit.

• The request will then go to an authoriser to be approved. You can email authoriser to flag the request.

• Remember the default duration of an associate account is one year, after that the account will need renewed. As authoriser you will receive emails warning of the associate’s expiry date. If necessary, use the link in the email to extend the account duration or login to A3M and select users to change the expiry date.

5. Once the request has been approved and processed, you will receive an email notifying you of the creation of the associate member’s account. This email will contain the A-Code and new email address of the associate’s account.

6. Associates get an automated welcome email to their personal email address advising an Ulster University associate account has been set up for them, along with a link to set an initial password. However, it is the responsibility of the sponsor and/or authoriser to advise them of their Associate Account number (A-Code) and email before they can proceed in setting their password

7. Associates set their own passwords but the password chosen must follow the current password complexity standard and when typing the new password the associate will see complexity guidance.

Associate’s can follow this guide to logging into Blackboard for the first time.

Related articles

Useful links

• https://www.ulster.ac.uk/ds/services/identity-and-access/staff-and-associate-accounts/a3m

• https://www.ulster.ac.uk/ds/services/identity-and-access/staff-and-associate-accounts/a3m/a3m-authorisers

• Guide to using the A3M system

• A3M system