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Blackboard System Policy & Procedure

Blackboard is a learning management system that can enhance the teaching and learning process. The following policies clarify some specifics about the use and administration of the system at Butler.

The Butler University Computer Usage Policy subsumes these policies.

User IDs and Passwords

The Butler Blackboard system is for use by the students, staff, faculty, and affiliates of Butler University ONLY.

The Blackboard system's user names and passwords are drawn directly from Butler's centralized password management system. To change your password or reset a forgotten password, visit http://password.butler.edu.

All passwords are confidential information. Do not share passwords for any reason. Users found sharing passwords (students, staff, or faculty) will have their Blackboard accounts revoked for the remainder of the term and be brought to the attention of the student judiciary board and/or dean or department head.

Pursuant to the Electronic and Communications Privacy Act of 1989, Title 18, United States Code, Sections 2510 and following, notice is hereby given that there are no facilities provided by the University that guarantee the confidentiality of files. The computing system administrator, and his or her designates, may have the ability to view all messages and files of any user. However, it is not the routine policy of the administrator to view others' files, and the intention is to keep files private, even though such privacy cannot be guaranteed.

System Availability

The Blackboard system is available on campus via the Butler network and off campus via the public Internet.

System backups are performed each morning from 4 a.m. to 6 a.m.; the system may be unavailable during this time. System maintenance is performed Sunday mornings from 8 a.m. to 12 noon. The system may be unavailable during this time.

Browser Requirements

To access the Blackboard system, you should use Internet Explorer version 7.0 or higher browser, or use Safari version 3.2 or higher browser for the Mac.

Course Creation

Courses are automatically created based on enrollment information from the Office of Registration and Records. Course creation occurs approximately two weeks before the beginning of a new semester. Subsequently, enrollment data for Blackboard courses is updated at least once a day through the drop/add period to synchronize Blackboard with enrollment changes in Registration and Records.

New courses are automatically created with an "unavailable" status. Instructors must manually set their course status to be "available" when they are ready for students to access the course.

Blackboard courses may be customized to provide some conveniences for faculty. The instructor of record (as designated by the Office of Registration and Records) for a course can request a customization to that course. If a request regarding a course comes from someone other than the instructor, then Instructional Technology consults the instructor of record for approval of the change. Allowing 5 to 10 days for completion, course instructors may request the following customizations through itrequest.butler.edu:

• Umbrella courses that combine multiple sections into one Blackboard course may be requested.
• Special enrollments for course support individuals or other faculty may also be requested through my.Butler as described on the Blackboard Special Enrolls page. Students cannot be added to a class as special enrollment requests; student enrollments must be made through the Office of Registration and Records.
• Copy of course materials from Blackboard course sections for earlier terms may be requested. In general, the Blackboard copy process brings all materials from the earlier section; it is not possible to copy individual items. Course information dating back at least 2 academic years is available.
• Special handling for incomplete grades: Faculty may request that students who have earned an incomplete in a previous class be added into a current Blackboard course.

Completed Courses

Approximately two weeks after a semester has completed, Blackboard courses for that term will be made unavailable. Making courses unavailable keeps all course materials and data intact and available to instructors but removes direct access for students. Courses will be maintained on Blackboard for a period of at least two academic years.

Instructors have the ability to select the courses they wish to display on their course lists in Blackboard.

Organization Creation

Administrative offices, student groups and other organizations officially recognized by Butler may request a Blackboard organization for use by members of the Butler community only. For student groups, the organization must have a faculty or staff sponsor.

Instructional Technology creates organizations upon submission of a request form and verification of the requirements listed above. Currently, enrollment in the organization must also be handled by Instructional Technology based on submission of an enrollment list of university IDs and may only be updated once a semester. As Blackboard academic uses must take priority, requests for organizations may take up to 10 days. Requests should be made through itrequest.butler.edu.

Organizations are not subject to the archival process described for courses. If an organization leader no longer uses the site, request for modification should be submitted through itrequest.butler.edu to have the site removed. Organizations will be reviewed periodically to determine if they are still active. If no longer in use, an organization may be deleted from the Blackboard system.

Tracking and Usage

The Blackboard system will track all logins and access within the system.

Faculty may check the access statistics for any course and any user enrolled in a course for which they have instructor permissions.

Faculty may not check access statistics for users enrolled in courses for which they have no instructor permissions.

The Instructional Technology staff may check usage statistics for any course and user. The individual user access statistics will not be shared outside of Instructional Technology, and individual course statistics will only be shared with the course instructor.

Copyright and Course Ownership

It is the policy of the University to abide by all applicable laws governing computer software use, privacy, copyright, and recognition of intellectual property. Questions about copyright can be answered by utilizing the resources available at Butler's Copyright Center: http://www.butler.edu/library/copyright-center.

All materials associated with a course are the responsibility of the designated course instructor. Information Technology and the Instructional Technology staff take no ownership of any course material loaded into the Butler Blackboard system.

Revised: June 9, 2010