Academic Continuity Planning
Your course doesn't have to stop just because Blackboard does.
In the event of a significant Blackboard service disruption, instructors can use other UND-supported tools and technologies to help maintain continuity of instruction until access is restored. This webpage outlines practical approaches instructors can use, especially during critical points in the semester such as midterms, finals, grading periods, and major assignment deadlines.
Use the guidance below to prepare your course for a Blackboard outage so that you can continue teaching and communicating with your students.
Continue Teaching During an Outage
If Blackboard becomes unavailable, one of the most important steps instructors should take is to communicate with students about how the outage affects the class activities, including due dates, exams, and how they should communicate with you. Instructors should use the UND email through Campus Connection Class Roster tool as the default way to communicate with students. This will allow the instructor to view enrolled students and send notifications to selected students or the full class roster. Students should be instructed to monitor their UND email for updates, instructions, and deadline changes.
Microsoft Teams can be used as a secondary method of communication between instructors, teaching assistants, and students.
If work must be collected outside Blackboard, instructors should provide clear submission instructions, including due dates, acceptable file types, file naming conventions, and where submissions should be sent or uploaded.
For Short Outages
The preferred approach is usually to extend deadlines, postpone quizzes or exams, and avoid rushed replacement processes unless absolutely necessary.
For Longer Outages
Faculty should rely on UND-supported alternative assessment approaches that can be implemented outside Blackboard, including:
- assignment submission through OneDrive or other approved file-sharing tools
- YuJa video submissions
- Zoom or Teams presentations, discussions, or oral assessments
- poster presentations
- portfolios
- case studies
- simulations
- debates
- role play
- problem-based learning tasks
If work must be collected outside Blackboard, instructors should provide clear submission instructions, including due dates, acceptable file types, file naming conventions, and where submissions should be sent or uploaded.
If a high-stakes exam is still necessary, instructors should consult UND’s existing guidance on alternative assessments and exam security options.
For midterm or final exams created in Blackboard, instructors should retain a backup copy by using Blackboard’s Print Exam option.
If a course needs to continue meeting live, faculty can use Zoom or Teams for class sessions, office hours, presentations, or discussions.
Where Zoom meetings or Teams sites have already been created for a course through Blackboard integrations, those resources should continue to exist outside Blackboard. Instructors can access those tools directly and share the appropriate meeting or site information with students during an outage.
Your ability to calculate or submit grades through Blackboard may be delayed until Blackboard access is restored. In the meantime, instructors should maintain grade records outside Blackboard.
Instructors are encouraged to periodically download a copy of their Blackboard gradebook and store that file in OneDrive or another approved location so it is available if additional disruptions occur.
Tools to Support Course Continuity
Several UND-supported tools can help you continue teaching and communicating with students if Blackboard is unavailable. The appropriate tool is determined by what you need students to access or complete.
| Need | Tool | Note |
|---|---|---|
| Communicate with Students | UND Email and Microsoft Teams |
Use UND email through the Campus Connection Class Roster as the primary method for course updates. Microsoft Teams can be used as a secondary communication option. |
| Share course files | OneDrive |
OneDrive is the default backup location for sharing files such as PDFs, Word documents, PowerPoints, study guides, and other course materials. |
| Access Syllabus Information | Simple Syllabus |
Students and instructors can still access course syllabi through the Simple Syllabus library outside Blackboard. |
| Share recorded lectures and videos | YuJa |
YuJa is the primary backup platform for recorded lectures and video. Course channels, media collections, and videos stored in YuJa remain available outside Blackboard. |
| Meet live with students | Zoom and Teams |
Use Zoom or Teams for class sessions, office hours, presentations, and discussions. |
Prepare Your Course for an Outage
Before an Outage
Faculty are encouraged to maintain a simple continuity kit for each course that includes:
- a reliable communication method outside Blackboard
- a recent exported/downloaded gradebook
- backup copies of critical files in OneDrive or locally
- backup copies of important assessment materials when possible
- important video content stored in YuJa when possible
- a brief syllabus statement telling students what to do if Blackboard is unavailable
- a simple backup plan for at least one week of instruction
Note: Faculty should periodically download a copy of their gradebook and review and refresh their continuity kit, especially before midterms and finals. Instructors may also wish to encourage students to maintain their own copies of important submitted work outside Blackboard.
During an Outage
If Blackboard is unavailable, instructors should:
- contact students as soon as possible
- tell students where temporary materials will be located
- indicate whether class will meet live via Zoom or Teams or continue asynchronously
- pause or adjust Blackboard-dependent deadlines until alternate instructions are provided
"Blackboard is temporarily unavailable. Until service is restored, please check your UND email for course instructions. Course materials will be shared through OneDrive, YuJa, and other supported systems as needed, and any live class meetings will take place in Zoom or Teams if needed. Deadlines may be adjusted as necessary. Please also check Simple Syllabus, if applicable, for course schedule and syllabus information.
Communications during a Blackboard outage should be coordinated through established institutional communication and incident response processes so that faculty, students, and staff receive consistent information."
Institutional Continuity Planning
If Blackboard becomes unavailable due to a security-related event, TTaDA will coordinate with CTS regarding any necessary actions involving LMS integrations and third-party tools. Depending on the scenario, mitigation involving LTIs, authentication connections, API keys, single sign-on connectors, or other integrations may also require coordination with Blackboard and with broader institutional cybersecurity response processes.
A key dependency in any Blackboard continuity plan is faculty access to class rosters and student contact information outside the LMS. Because most faculty rely on Blackboard’s built-in email and communication tools, UND should identify and document the practical process instructors should use in Campus Connection or another approved university system to retrieve roster and contact information and to communicate with students during an outage.
CTS performs daily automatic backups of live production Blackboard courses. These backups support recovery and retention processes, but they should not be interpreted as a simple alternate delivery environment for instruction during an outage. Externally retained archives are currently maintained for retention purposes.
At this time, restoring Blackboard production content into the staging environment is not considered a practical continuity option due to the technical effort, timing, and related system dependencies involved.
In parallel with instructional continuity planning, NDUS CTS is developing an approach to preserve key LMS records in the event of a catastrophic disruption to the Blackboard environment.
This work includes scheduled exports of selected Blackboard data elements in CSV format, such as:
- course records
- user enrollments and roles
- course rosters
- gradebook columns
- student grades
- attempt records
- submission records
The purpose of this effort is to help ensure institutional access to critical academic records even if Blackboard and related services are unavailable for an extended period.
UND may wish to maintain a continuity web page that could be published or activated during a Blackboard outage. This page could provide instructions for faculty and students, links to alternate systems such as Campus Connection, Simple Syllabus, Zoom, Teams, YuJa, and OneDrive, and guidance on where to get help and where to look for service updates.
Roles
Faculty
- communicate with students promptly
- shift course materials to alternate tools
- adjust deadlines and assessments
- maintain backup copies of important materials and grading records
TTaDA
- provide faculty guidance during an outage
- recommend backup instructional tools and workflows
- support YuJa, Teams, Zoom, OneDrive, Simple Syllabus, and alternative assessment options
NDUS CTS
- coordinate outage and restoration updates
- work with Anthology/Blackboard on resolution
- advise on security mitigation, backup/recovery, and records continuity efforts
- coordinate with institutional cybersecurity leadership on incident response actions