The Troy University System Blackboard Policy and Procedures

I.          Introduction

This document is designed to set policy and detail the procedures for using the Troy University Learning Management System currently known as the Blackboard System. Given the frequently changing nature of the online learning environment, this Blackboard Policy and Procedures document may change often; therefore it is important that the revision date on the current online policy match the revision date of any printed documents.

II.         Purpose

The Blackboard Learning System is a web-based learning platform and should be used for purposes of enhancing the student learning experience at Troy University. The Troy University Blackboard System is integrated with the Troy University student information system currently known as Datatel. Blackboard users and courses are populated through the Blackboard snapshot tool. As users and courses are entered into Datatel, the snapshot tool transfers this information to the appropriate course or organization within the Troy University Blackboard System.

III.        Student Users

1. Only Troy University students who are enrolled within the current term/semester in courses using Blackboard will have access to the Blackboard System. Students who have taken courses using Blackboard in previous terms/semesters will not have access if not currently enrolled in a course using Blackboard. Once a student enrolls in at least one course marked for Blackboard the student will have access again using the same username and password as before.
2. Usernames for the Troy University Blackboard System will be the same as the user’s Trojan Web Express and Troy Email Account username in most cases. Initially, passwords will be the last four digits of the users Social Security Number.
3. Student enrollment is automated between the Datatel Student Information System and the Blackboard System. Once a student’s registration is processed in Datatel for courses using Blackboard, the snapshot tool will automatically populate the course shell with that student’s enrollment. The automated enrollment may take 24 hours to complete.
4. Students will not have access to their upcoming term/semester courses until the instructor has made the course available. Instructors are not required to make their course available to students until one day prior to the beginning of the term.
5. Students enrolled in Blackboard courses will only have access to those courses for three days following the last day of the term. Any information the student may need to retrieve from the course must be retrieved prior to the end of the third day after the term.
6. Students who receive an incomplete grade within a Blackboard course will have continued access to that course until the instructor issues a final grade or for nine weeks. All incomplete work must be completed and submitted within the nine week period following the previous term, or by the completion date set by the instructor of the course.
7. There may be exceptional circumstances where external users may request access to the Blackboard System. These requests should be submitted to the Associate Director of Learning Systems/Blackboard, and if approved these users will be granted Guest access to the Blackboard System.
8. All Troy University Blackboard System users must comply with the Blackboard System rules and regulations established by the Troy University eCampus Educational Technology Division.
9. Instructors may choose to post student work on the Blackboard course site. Students must be informed if their work will be retained in the course site beyond the duration of the term/semester if others will have access to it. No evaluative commentary or grade information from the instructor may be included with student work left on the Blackboard site, if the work includes information identifying its creator. Students retain rights to their work, including posted messages within the Communication area of the Blackboard System, but this work must be retrieved by the student from the Blackboard course before the end of the third day following the previous term.
10. Student access and movements within Blackboard can be tracked by the Associate Director of Learning Systems/Blackboard and the instructor of the course. Through statistical reports, information can be obtained upon request of the instructor, Academic Director or Dean.
    
    

IV.       Instructors/Staff Users

1. Only instructors listed as Troy University proficient in the Datatel System will be allowed to teach courses using the Blackboard System. Please see the Blackboard Teaching Online Proficiency (TOP) Training section listed within this manual for more information on becoming a proficient instructor.
2. Student enrollment is automated between the Datatel Student Information System and the Blackboard System. Once a student’s registration is processed in Datatel for courses using Blackboard, the snapshot will automatically populate the course shell with that student’s enrollment. Instructors should never enroll students into a Blackboard course section. Registration errors or omission problems involving student registrations should be dealt with through eCampus Student Services or the University campus/site registrar’s office.
3. All eCampus instructors must have their course available to students three days prior to the beginning of the term.
4. Student information within a course will disappear when a student drops the course or is removed from the Blackboard System for any other reason during a term.
5. Instructors requesting that other instructors have access to their course for mentoring purposes may contact the Associate Director of Learning Systems/Blackboard to have these instructors added to their course.
6. Instructors requesting that students have access to their course as guests for purposes such as auditing the class must contact the Associate Director of Learning Systems/Blackboard to have these students enrolled.
7. Instructors are solely responsible for retaining copies of the Blackboard course Grade Center, and all student related data prior to the course archive schedule in the event of future grade disputes.
8. Every instructor should keep a separate Grade Center outside of Blackboard during the duration of each course in case the Blackboard System experiences technical difficulties and Grade Center information becomes unavailable for an extended length of time.
9. Individual course archives preserving the course information, discussion board, Grade Center and assignments submitted through the digital drop box is the responsibility of the instructor.
10. It is important that instructors do not rely on the Blackboard System as a record keeping source for important student records and Grade Center information.
11. Instructors who create Blackboard course sites retain rights to those materials, including the right to request and receive an archived copy of the course. Use of the site and access to its materials and tools are controlled by the instructor, unless misconduct or inadequacies are determined at which time the instructor may be removed from the course with no prior notice.
12. Instructor access and movements within Blackboard can be tracked by the Associate Director of Learning Systems/Blackboard. Through statistical reports, information can be obtained upon request of the Academic Director or Dean.
13. Faculty and staff, who are not currently teaching a course through Blackboard, can still request an account by contacting the Associate Director of Learning Systems/Blackboard.
14. Three development shells are provided to each instructor within Blackboard. These development shells are for the instructor’s personal use and will remain on the system indefinitely.

V.        Blackboard Teaching Online Proficiecy (TOP) Training Course

1. Every instructor teaching online and/or or web-enhanced courses is required to go through the three week TOP online training course.
2. Once this TOP course is successfully completed, the instructor will be marked “proficient” and the instructor will be ready to teach courses using the Troy University Blackboard System.
3. Once proficient, eCampus instructors will be contacted with an invitation letter to teach once a course is scheduled. Instructors using Blackboard for web-enhanced courses will need to contact the person who enters courses for their area and ask them to mark their courses “BB” in Datatel. Once noted as a “BB” course in Datatel, Blackboard shells for the course section the instructor will be teaching will be automatically generated within Blackboard 45 days prior to the next term/semester.

VI.       Blackboard Courses

1. Courses shells within the Blackboard System will be generated automatically from course information input into the Datatel System. eCampus course shells for the upcoming term will be generated 45 days in advance of that term.
2. Students will be enrolled into Blackboard courses automatically according to registration information input into the Datatel System.
3. All eCampus instructors must make their course available to students three days prior to the beginning of the term.
4. Requests for additional course shells generated outside of the Datatel System must be submitted through the Associate Director of Learning Systems/Blackboard.
5. Instructors are responsible for the creation of course content and course management using the Content Management System (CMS).
6. Course copy is a tool used for the process of transferring course material from one course shell to another. This is done when the new course shell for the next term/semester is available. It is the responsibility of the instructor to copy over course material from one term/semester to the next.
7. To maintain consistency in the Blackboard Database, faculty and students will not be able to create new Blackboard courses or users.

VII.      Content Management System (CMS)

1. It is required that all instructors use the Content Management System (CMS) in their course development.
2. CMS training information is available by contacting the Associate Director of Learning System/Blackboard.
3. The current user quota within the CMS is set by default for 250MB. The instructor may request additional space by contacting the Associate Director of Learning System/Blackboard.

VIII.     Blackboard Administrator & Blackboard Support Staff

Blackboard Administrator & Blackboard Support Staff      

The Blackboard Administrator shall publish information regarding:

1. Blackboard System scheduled outages.
2. Will announce plans for Blackboard System Upgrades.
3. Will create and modify Blackboard training material.
4. Will plan and schedule Blackboard training courses.
5. Will create and update Blackboard Policy and Procedures.
6. Will assist Blackboard users with technical problems and issues.

IX.       The Blackboard System Information

1. The Blackboard System is maintained by the Associate Director of Learning Systems/Blackboard within the eCampus Educational Technology Department.
2. The Blackboard System will require periodic downtime in order to apply security updates, patches, system reconfigurations, system upgrades and other scheduled maintenance to the Blackboard System. Notice will be given in advance of any scheduled downtime. All Blackboard System routine maintenance is scheduled during the early morning hours.
3. The Blackboard System will be backed up in accordance with Blackboard Application Service Provider (ASP) Policy and Procedures. It is the instructor’s responsibility to maintain an archived file of all course material in the event of system failure.
4. 4. Requests for additional features/system enhancements should be addressed to the Associate Director of Learning Systems/Blackboard.

X.        Copyright Regulations

Copyright law and Fair Use Guidelines allow faculty to provide access to copyrighted materials using the Blackboard System. Persons using the Troy University Blackboard System are strongly encouraged to respect the property of others by obeying copyright law and requesting permission, when appropriate, before using the work of others. Troy University Copyright Policies may be found in the Faculty Handbook Section 1.6.11 and in the Technology Usage Policy, Section 805. The Blackboard software provides an easy-to-use interface for integrating links to other websites into course materials. Instructors are encouraged to link to other sites, rather than attempting to integrate the desired materials directly into the Blackboard course site. This alleviates copyright concerns and also retains the integrity of the materials in their original environment. It is the responsibility of the instructor to confirm that links from Blackboard to external sites are viable.

XI.       Harassment Prevention

Blackboard allows access to a number of tools, such as the discussion boards, which enable text-based communication.

1. Postings should not be offensive, inflammatory, racist/sexist or abusive in any other way.
2. Remember that textual interaction takes place without normal visual/verbal clues, which help to interpret meaning.
3. Your posts will be visible to all students registered within the course, as well as instructors and system administrators and will be eventually archived for future reference.
4. Your posts should be concerned with the topic of the discussion and the tone of the posts in accordance of the discussion. Excessive use of obscenities could be considered offensive and are strongly discouraged.
5. The laws of copyright apply so users should not copy other user’s posts/information without permission.
6. If Blackboard discussion board postings count towards a grade, precautions against plagiarism should be taken the same as with written material.

If you are offended by a posting, please consider the following before replying::

1. Will your post contribute positively to an academic discussion?
2. How would you respond if you were in a face-to-face situation?
3. Would this issue be best deal with by contacting your instructor rather than the individual concerned?
4. In the case of an offensive post, you may wish to contact your instructor privately rather than escalate the situation in an online and public environment.

 XII.      Section 508 Compliancy

Although the Blackboard System is compliant with Section 508 standards, not all of the content uploaded to the Blackboard System by users may be. Faculty and students are urged to consider ways to make their files and other course material accessible to users with disabilities. Troy University Section 508 Policy can be found in the Student Oracle.

XIII.     Family Educational Rights & Privacy Act (FERPA)

Troy University compiles and maintains information about students which facilitates educational development of the student and effective administration of the university. To better guarantee the rights of privacy and access as provided by the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act of 1974 (Buckley Amendment, 20 U.S.C. 1230, 1232). More information on the FERPA Guidelines that Troy University currently has in place can be found in the Student Oracle.


XIV.     Blackboard System Course Archive and Deletion

Beginning in August 2007, Troy University began a new process for archiving and removing old courses from the Blackboard System. This new process will not only reduce the large number of courses listed on the course tab, but will optimize Blackboard to ensure the best performance of the system.

The Blackboard System is not intended to serve as an archive system for previous course grade information. The Datatel Student Information System keeps records of all final grades. It is the responsibility of faculty members to maintain their own academic records of all individual student assignment grades. Faculty are urged to periodically print out or save copies of the course Grade Center to Excel as a record of all individual course grades in the event of system failure. It is important that these course records be stored outside of the Blackboard System for a period deemed appropriate by the instructor. Performing a course archive after your course has ended is an excellent way to store the course, “as is”, including discussion boards and assignments submitted by students. At the end of each term/semester, faculty members should perform a Course Archive in order to save their course material for circumstances regarding student grade disputes. Archiving a course creates a permanent record of the course including all content and interactions for the instructors use. These individual course archives are more easily accessible than the batch course archives performed by Blackboard.