In Chapter 6, Creating Users in Blackboard Learn, during our review of user creation policy, one of the questions we asked was, would our Blackboard Learn instance use our organization's authentication systems. By using an external authentication system, users will find that their Blackboard Learn login credentials are the same as those used to access e-mail or log in to their workstations. This also removes us and any support team members from dealing with password resets and allows the central authentication system to block user access within our Blackboard Learn environment.
Before we go into our Blackboard Learn instance and connect it to an external authentication provider, we should review the external authentication options that Blackboard Learn supports. Once we review what options can be used within Blackboard Learn, we can select what options to use within our organization.