University of Sheffield external courses

Find out how to sign up for, and access University of Sheffield courses that facilitate non-enrolled students, such as pre-enrolment tasks or admissions tests.

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About University of Sheffield External Courses

The University of Sheffield is able to grant non-University members access to certain Blackboard courses. This may be to undertake a short course at the university or to complete a pre-enrolment task such as an admissions test.

If you have a regular University of Sheffield account, your External Courses account is separate and is only needed where a tutor has advised you to sign up for one.

If you are a member of staff at the University would like to provide a course to external users, please contact the Digital Learning team to discuss it with us: digital.learning@sheffield.ac.uk

University of Sheffield External Courses was recently upgraded to a new version, which looks slightly different. If you signed up to the old version, you can still sign in using your existing username and password.

Sign up for External Courses

First access University of Sheffield External Courses to sign up for an account.

University of Sheffield External Courses

  1. Select Sign Up in the top right to set up your account

    The External courses homepage with the Sign Up button highlighted

  2. Add in your email address, first and last name, and create a password for your account in the boxes indicated with an asterisk (*).  Make sure it has:

    • one lower case character

    • one upper case character

    • one number

    • one special character which can be any of !@#$%^&*

    You will need to create your account using your personal email address if you have an @sheffield.ac.uk email account. Signing up to an external course with an @sheffield.ac.uk email account can cause an error which prevents you from enrolling or starting a course.   

  3. Leave the additional boxes in the Address information and General information blank.

  4. Tick the box to indicate you agree with the terms and conditions.

  5. Select Save in the bottom right corner

    The Create Account page on External courses, with fields for Email, name, password, terms and conditions, and the save button.

  6. You will be sent a token to your email address that you have chosen for your account. Add the token into the box provided and select Validate to finish creating your account.

  7. You will then be able to sign in to Blackboard with your email address and password and access the courses.

Enrol on courses 

Once you have logged in you will be able to see all courses on offer by the University of Sheffield. 

  1. First, select Catalogue on the right hand menu once you are logged in.

    The external courses homepage version 2, with the Catalogue link highlighted in the left menu

  2. Select the thumbnail of the course you need to enrol on (your tutor should have advised you which one).

    The Catalogue page on external courses version 2, with an offering highlighted in the body of the page

  3. Select the purple Enrol Now button to be added to the course.

    Within an offering on the second version of External courses, the Enrol Now button is highlighted

  4. Confirm you wish to enrol, and you will then be added to the course.

  5. It will then be added to your Dashboard in your Active Courses and you can start the course from your Dashboard.

Help and support

For more information about how to use Blackboard, read the user guide below.

Blackboard: Getting started guide

If you experience any issues whilst using Blackboard, have trouble logging in, or have forgotten your password, contact digital.learning@sheffield.ac.uk