| I. Blackboard Users |
| 1. All UMBC University students, staff, and faculty are granted user accounts on the Blackboard system while with the University. |
| 2. User names on Blackboard correspond to the user's myUMBC user name. If you can log into myUMBC, you have Blackboard access. |
| 3. It is the responsibility of the user to ensure that the email address in the user's Blackboard Personal Information file is accurate and up-to-date. The default email address will be the UMBC email address. The user can forward their email to another account by logging into myUMBC, clicking on the "Personal" tab and completing the procedures for "Creating a Forwarding Email Address". |
| 4. The UMBC Policy for Responsible Computing applies to all users of the UMBC Blackboard system. |
| 5. Guest accounts may be granted to users outside of the University through the UMBC Help Desk. Department Head or Program Director approval must be obtained prior to the creation of an account. |
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| II. Blackboard Courses |
| A. Course Creation |
| 1. All courses for the upcoming academic semester will be automatically created a minimum of three weeks prior to the start of the semester. Courses will be created based on the schedule of classes for that semester and will include the course name, title and semester. Example: BIOL 100 Concepts of Biology FA2009. The section will be included if the course represents multiple sections. |
| 2. New courses will be created using the appropriate semester course template. All courses will be created as "unavailable" and it is the responsibility of the primary instructor to make the course "available" to participants. |
| 3. A request for course creation not created during the automatic process must be submitted by using the appropriate form or through the OIT Remedy system. |
| 4. All courses will be created using the official course title that is included in the UMBC schedule of classes. The course title will include all sections if the course is to include multiple sections. If an alternate title is desired by the primary instructor the title can be changed under "Settings" in the course "Control Panel". |
| 5. All active courses for the current semester must have the current semester in their course id. Example: EDUC602_1.1123_FA2009. If the instructor wishes to reuse content from a previous semester they can copy it to the appropriate semester course shell. |
| 6. Instructors teaching more than one section of an undergraduate course have the option to create a course for each section or include all of the sections in one course (default). However, automatic student enrollment and the "disabling feature" will not work in these courses. Enrollment is the responsibility of the instructor after the initial batch enroll by the Blackboard administrator. Course content can be copied from course to course by the primary instructor if desired. |
| 7. All courses that are made "available" to students are required to have minimum content that will include the course syllabus and instructor contact information. |
| 8. Course duration will be set by default to make courses available to students two weeks before and four weeks after the current semester. NOTE: An exception to this would be a course that must remain active in order to satisfy student incompletes. In these cases, instructors can request to keep the course active or change the duration date themselves. |
| 9. Creation of course content is the responsibility of the instructor. The Blackboard administrator will assist in the uploading of content by providing technical assistance and training to instructors as necessary. |
| 10. Instructors must delete students from their courses once the course is completed. If the instructor wishes to maintain the student roster in the course the instructor can make the course "Unavailable". |
11. Only "available" courses for the current semester will be included in the online Blackboard course catalog. At the conclusion of each semester the Blackboard administrator will remove the "Course Categories" from courses older than the current or next semester. This does not delete the course or an enrolled user's link to it on the My Institution or My Courses tabs. |
| 12. No Blackboard course will be permanently deleted from the system without a request from the primary instructor. Instructors are encouraged to delete courses from prior semesters if they so desire. Requests for deleting courses can be submitted by completing the form at http://www.umbc.edu/oit/newmedia/blackboard/deletecoursereq.html. |
| 13. Development courses may be requested. Please note that at no time will any student be enrolled into a development course. Instructors can request other departmental faculty and staff be enrolled into the course. |
| 14. Copies of the electronic Gradebook and electronic student work are the sole responsibility of the instructor. The Blackboard administrator is not responsible for deleted grades or work. Instructors should always make copies of the Gradebook or download student work prior to removal of material from the course and prior to the archive process. See the Blackboard instructor's manual inside every course. |
| 15.
Course quotas are set at 1024 MB or 1 GB (the average Blackboard course at
UMBC is
20 MB). Increased quotas may be granted as necessary. The Blackboard administrator provides technical assistance to instructors concerning efficient file format delivery. |
| B. Student Enrollment |
| 1. Student enrollment in each Blackboard course corresponds with the official enrollment maintained by the University and is updated automatically until the end of the add/drop period. If there is an exception to the official enrollment, instructors may enroll students manually. |
| 2. If a student drops a course after they have been enrolled, the student will automatically be “disabled” in the course and not be able to see or participate in the course. |
| 3. Course instructors are responsible for maintaining the course roster after the initial enrollment including deleting students that drop the course. |
C. Course Deletion |
| 1. OIT will only delete a Bb course site upon request of the instructor of record. This request MUST be in the form of an OIT "ticket" that can be created by using the "Request to Delete a Course" form on the UMBC Blackboard Help tab. Alternately, instructors can email a request to blackboard@umbc.edu. |
| 2. All Blackboard course sites that have never been made available by instructors, do not contain any content and have no record or activity will be deleted without notification to the instructor of record at the start of the next semester after they were created (e.g., empty FA2005 sites will be deleted at start of SP2006). |
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| III. System Upgrades and Routine Maintenance |
| 1. All major system upgrades will be performed during the winter semester. |
| 2. When major upgrades are performed, the system administrator will set up an additional server as the production server. |
| 3. Routine maintenance such as system patches will be performed on Fridays prior to 7am and should take no longer then 1 hour. If a longer period of time is needed, Blackboard support will notify faculty at 7 days in advance. |
| 4. The Blackboard administrator will attempt to provide a 30-day notice of such upgrades and a 7-day notice of routine maintenance work. |
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| IV. Organizations (Communities) |
| 1. Groups with a common goal at UMBC may request a UMBC Blackboard Organization by submitting the request form that can be found at http://www.umbc.edu/oit/newmedia/blackboard/newcommunity.html. |
| 2. Enrollment in organizations is the responsibility of the organization manager(s). Batch enrollment of 10 or more participants can be performed by the Blackboard administrator upon request. |
| 3. Abuse of the UMBC Policy for Responsible Computing by any member of the Organization may result in the loss of access to the Organization for all members. It is the responsibility of the Organization managers to promote proper net-iquette among members. |
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| V. Course Archiving Policy |
| 1. Blackboard course sites that have been made "available" to students by instructors within one (1) academic year of the current semester's start of classes will remain on the production server during the current semester (e.g., FA 2005 courses remain available through FA2006). |
| 2. All "available" Bb course sites older than one academic year will be archived without notification to the instructor of record at the start of each semester: |
| a. The archive is permanently available to OIT system administrators and the instructor of record. |
| b. Faculty can archive any course at any time and keep a local copy for their own records, but only OIT Blackboard administrators can "restore" an archived course. |
| c. Restored courses may only be used to copy content into an empty, unavailable course shell, which OIT provides for every course every semester. |
| d. Faculty will not be able to enroll or un-enroll students from the archived courses. |
| e. OIT will only "auto-enroll" Bb course sites that contain a relevant course ID for the current semester (e.g., BIOL100_1.0123_FA2009). |
| f. Faculty are encouraged to "copy forward" the most current version of their courses, by copying into an empty course shell and then requesting to delete past versions of the course. |
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