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Policies & Procedures
General | Acceptable Use | Copyright & Intellectual Property | Course Sites | Organization Sites| Privacy | Technical Administration | Emergency Preparedness
General
- What is Blackboard?
- Blackboard is a Learning Management System (LMS) which is used by UND students, faculty, and staff for academic and research purposes.
- It is web-based, which means you can access it anywhere there is internet access.
- It is cross platform for MAC and Windows users.
- UND is currently using
- Blackboard version 9.1 Service Pack 9
- Building Blocks (Blackboard Add-Ins)
- Campus Pack (Wikis, Blogs & Podcasting)
- Wimba (Live Classroom, Voice Authoring Tools, Podcasting)
- Blackboard IM
- SafeAssign (plagiarism software)
- Link Checker
- TurningPoint clicker registration
- The administrators of Blackboard will make every effort to:
- Safeguard the privacy of individuals using the system
- Ensure backup and recovery procedures are current and functional
- Follow established procedures for upgrades and maintenance
Acceptable Use
NDUS Computer and Network Usage Policy 1901.2
Copyright & Intellectual Property
- All materials placed on the Blackboard servers by faculty and students are governed by the University of North Dakota’s general intellectual property policy, aligned with the NDUS policy.
- The Blackboard system is intended solely for support for teaching and learning at UND.
- No use will be made of any materials posted by faculty and students on these servers other than those intended by the faculty member teaching the course.
- The faculty member teaching the course is responsible for informing students about the use he or she will make of materials that students post on the system.
- Mediated Courseware (Section 611.2.5)
- Self-initiated Mediated Courseware. When employees develop Mediated Courseware without specific direction by the Institution, unless otherwise agreed, the ownership of the courseware shall remain with the employee. Normally, no royalty, rent or other consideration shall be paid to the employee when that Mediated Courseware is used for instruction at the Institution and such Mediated Courseware shall not be used or modified without the consent of the employee. While the Creator is under Institutional employment, the Mediated Courseware shall not be sold, leased, rented or otherwise used in a manner that competes in a substantial way with the for-credit offering of the employee's own Institution unless that transaction has received the approval of the chief academic officer of the Institution. The Institution shall have a perpetual, non-exclusive royalty-free right to use such courseware for archival research purposes. Should approval be granted to offer the course outside of the Institution, the provisions of section 4b of this policy shall apply.
- Institution-directed Mediated Courseware. When the Institution directs in an employment contract the creation of a specific Mediated Courseware, the resulting Mediated Courseware belongs to the Institution and the Institution shall have the right to revise it and decide who will utilize the Mediated Courseware in instruction. The Institution may specifically agree to share revenues and control rights with the employee.
- Institutions shall develop procedures for reporting the development of Institution-directed Mediated Courseware to the appropriate administrator at the Institution.
- Links to more information:
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Course Sites
Course Access
General access to Blackboard system: Blackboard (Bb) policy is aligned with FERPA requirements, NDUS SBHE computer and network use policies, and reviewed and approved by the Registrar’s office in collaboration with General Counsel. Bb course sites are created based on information verified in ConnectND, including Subject, Catalog Numbers, and Class Number. Course sites are populated with users based on information verified in ConnectND: Instructor and Students. Other users added to course sites are received through requests by the instructor of the course. These additional requests normally include Graduate Teaching Assistants and Co-Instructors. Graduate Teaching Assistants (TA) are verified by the Graduate School. Co-instructors are verified in ConnectND. All other users must have a documented “educational purpose” for their enrollment into the Bb course site. Enrollment of other users must be approved by the instructor of the course. The only users enrolled in the course who have access to making changes in the gradebook should be the instructor and, if appropriate, TA (as assigned by the graduate school). An exception to this guideline may be made to assist the instructor with technical issues in the gradebook on a short term basis and must include a statement regarding their education purpose for inclusion, permission from the instructor and approval by the Registrar’s office.
Course Roles
- Instructor – provides access to all areas of the course including the control panel for posting content, making users available/unavailable, posting grades, and making the course available/unavailable.
- TA = provides access to everything included with the instructor role, except changing a users availabilty.
- Course Builder – provides access to everything included with the instructor role, except changing roles of users, and Grade Center.
- Grader – provides access to the course Grade Center to post grades.
- Student – provides access to all areas of the course, excluding the control panel.
- Guest – provides access to areas in the course designated by the instructor, excluding the control panel, and is unable to view student interactions or post to blogs, wikis, or discussion board.
Add or Remove User
The ability of Instructors and Leaders of Blackboard sites to add and remove users from course/organization sites has been disabled effective January 2011. This change has been made to ensure that the UND Blackboard system complies with the university enrollment policy developed and approved by the office of General Counsel, Registrar and Provost (see above). Blackboard course site enrollments and withdrawals are completed two times a day during the first three weeks of a semester and one time daily for the remainder of the semester using data from Campus Connection.
The Blackboard role of Leader in organizations is the same as that of Instructor in courses. The unintended consequence of disabling this option is that Leaders of organization sites in Blackboard are not able to add or remove users from their sites. Leaders of organizations will need to submit the add/remove user form when they wish to add/remove users. An enhancement request has been submitted to Blackboard to separate the options used by Instructors and Leaders, and has been added to the list of many other enhancement requests. However, it is not expected that Blackboard will make a change in the near future.
An Add User or Remove User online form is available for Instructors and Leaders of Blackboard sites to request that users be added or removed from sites. Turnaround time is generally not more than one business day. If there is a critical need to add/remove a user, please click the LiveHelp button in Blackboard, contact UND Tech Support at UND.techsupport@email.UND.edu or call 701-777-6305; and staff will help you immediately.
Leaders and Instructors continue to have the ability to change a user’s availability in the course to NO, which prevents them from seeing and logging into the course. This process is under Control Panel > Users and Groups > Users > Change User’s Availability in Course.
If you have questions regarding the Add/Remove User forms or making a student unavailable in the course/organization site, please contact UND Tech Support at 701-777-6305, UND.techsupport@email.UND.edu, or click the LiveHelp button in Blackboard. If you have questions about the university Blackboard user policy, please contact Lori Swinney, CILT Director at lori.swinney@UND.edu.
Course Management
- Course Creation – Courses are batch created approximately two months prior to the start of each semester and are available for instructors to work in at that time. If an instructor would like to combine sections of their course or would like an under development site, they would need to submit a Course Request.
- Course Availability – All courses are created as unavailable by default. Instructors have the capability of making courses available and unavailable as they need to. Courses are made unavailable by CILT at the end of the semester, one week after grades are due. When a course is “unavailable” students will not be able to access the course. Instructors can access their courses whether they are available or unavailable. To make a course available, go to Control Panel>Customization>Properties>Set Availability, change to Yes and Submit.
- Course Archiving – CILT archives (a complete copy of the course, including student interactions) all semester-based courses at the end of the semester, the day after grades are due. Instructors can also create an archive of their course and save it for record retention. Instructions are available in the Blackboard manual and in the Faculty Resource Site>Blackboard>Course Tips>Semester Checklists>End of Semester Checklist.
- Course Removal – CILT removes courses from the Blackboard system one year and one semester after the course was taught. E-mail notices are sent to instructor advising of the date for course removal, including the option for the instructor to retain the course for a longer period. An example of the process is courses taught during fall 2010 will be removed during spring 2012. If instructors choose to keep their course(s) on the Bb system longer, they can e-mail blackboard@email.und.edu with their information.
- Course Retention – CILT retains the archive copy of courses in accordance with UND records management guidelines.
- Course Size limitations – currently there are no size limitations on Blackboard course sites. Best practice guidelines recommend storing larger file types, such as audio and video files on the Helix multimedia server with a link to the Blackboard course site. For information on posting to the Helix multimedia server, please contact CILT at 701-777-6305 or UND.techsupport@email.UND.edu
- Course Title and ID conventions – Blackboard course sites are created using the official title of the course from Campus Connection. The course ID includes the following information: Semester – Subject Catalog# - Class #(s). Example: 093-ACCT200-21732
- Course Population (Student enrollment and withdrawals): Students are enrolled into the Blackboard system on a daily basis starting one week prior to each semester. Data regarding enrollments is pulled from the Campus Connection Peoplesoft Query environment, which is 24 hours old. If a student adds a course it may take up to two days to be enrolled into the Blackboard course site. Withdrawals/holds/drops are processed on a daily basis. Users that drop or withdraw from a course are disabled in the course - this means that their enrollment is not deleted, but the student will not be able to see the course in their list and instructors will not be able access the student data in the course. All student work is preserved and can be accessed by request from the instructor to the Blackboard system administrators. If the student adds the same course again, the population process does not make the student available in the course. Students should contact the instructor of the course, or CILT Support (701-777-6305, UND.techsupport@email.UND.edu or LiveHelp) to change their course status to available.
Organization Sites
Organization Site Request
Instructors, students, and staff can request organization sites for committees, groups and organizations
Organization Access
Roles
- Leader - provides access to all areas of the organization including the control panel for posting content, making users available/unavailable and making the organization available/unavailable. This role is limited to current university faculty or staff employees. Graduate, Undergraduate and other Students employees cannot have this role.
- Assistant - provides access to everything included with the Leader role, except changing a users availabilty.
- Organization Builder - provides access to everything included with the Leader role, except changing roles of users, and Grade Center.
- Grader - provides access to the organization Grade Center to post grades.
- Participant - provides access to all areas of the organization, excluding the control panel.
- Guest - provides access to areas in the organization designated by the instructor, excluding the control panel, and is unable to view student interactions or post to blogs, wikis, or discussion board.
Add or Remove User
The ability of Instructors and Leaders of Blackboard sites to add and remove users from course/organization sites has been disabled effective January 2011. This change has been made to ensure that the UND Blackboard system complies with the university enrollment policy developed and approved by the office of General Counsel, Registrar and Provost (http://und.edu/academics/cilt/blackboard/policies-procedures.cfm#course). Blackboard course site enrollments and withdrawals are completed three times a day using data from Campus Connection.
The Blackboard role of Leader in organizations is the same as that of Instructor in courses. The unintended consequence of disabling this option is that Leaders of organization sites in Blackboard are not able to add or remove users from their sites. Leaders of organizations will need to submit the add/remove user form when they wish to add/remove users. An enhancement request has been submitted to Blackboard to separate the options used by Instructors and Leaders, and has been added to the list of many other enhancement requests. However, it is not expected that Blackboard will make a change in the near future.
An Add User or Remove User online form is available for Instructors and Leaders of Blackboard sites to request that users be added or removed from sites. Turnaround time is not more than one business day. If there is a critical need to add/remove a user, please click the LiveHelp button in Blackboard, contact CILT support at UND.techsupport@email.UND.edu or call 777-6305; and staff will help you immediately.
Leaders and Instructors continue to have the ability to change a user’s availability in the course to NO, which prevents them from seeing and logging into the course. This process is under Control Panel > Users and Groups > Users > Change User’s Availability in Course.
If you have questions regarding the Add/Remove User forms or making a student unavailable in the course/organization site, please contact UND Tech Support at 701-777-6305, UND.techsupport@email.UND.edu, or click the LiveHelp button in Blackboard. If you have questions about the university Blackboard user policy, please contact Lori Swinney, CILT Director at lori.swinney@email.UND.edu.
Privacy - University and Blackboard - specific policies are relevant to Blackboard users because they address:
- Possible abuse of the system that could affect privacy and access.
- Rights of the authors of materials placed on Blackboard.
- Retention and safeguarding of information placed on the system.
- System Administration
- The administrators of Blackboard (Center for Instructional & Learning Technologies (CILT) make every effort to minimize the amount of personal information about students and instructor that resides on the system. Information used to create user accounts includes the student ID and instructor/staff Emplid, first, middle and last name, and e-mail address. Users are strongly encouraged to change passwords when they log in for the first time.
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Student Privacy (FERPA)
- Instructor, students, and staff should become familiar with the FERPA guidelines regarding education records. Instructor should consider student privacy issues when making choices regarding access to areas in their Blackboard courses for users not enrolled in the courses. Areas of concern include gradebook, discussions, blogs, wikis, student homepages, and class roster.
- System Administration
Technical Administration
- System Administrators – CILT is responsible for complete system administration and has three employees with system access; primary server/system administration, secondary server/system administration and primary application administration; and backup server/system administration and application administration.
- Backup & Recovery – The Blackboard database is backed up every three hours and the complete Blackboard system is backed up nightly at 2 am. The purpose of the backups is for disaster recovery. Backups are made solely for the purpose of restoring the system in the event of a failure. They are not to be relied upon for restoration of course material.
- Routine Maintenance schedule – days and times for routine system maintenance are posted on the Blackboard login page. Scheduled System Maintenance hours are: Tuesday 4-7AM, Thursday 4-7AM and Saturday 5-8AM. All times are CST.
- Planned upgrades and advanced maintenance – planned upgrades and advanced maintenance will be posted on the Blackboard login page. These upgrades normally occur after the semester has been completed and grades have been posted to avoid any access issue.
Emergency Preparedness
- The Blackboard servers are housed in the main campus data center and follow UND's emergency plan.
- The Blackboard administrators maintain off site system backups to assist in the recovery process.