Blackboard Policies & Procedures

COMPUTER POLICY/USAGE:

DATA WITHIN BLACKBOARD

• All users, courses, faculty assignments, and student enrollments are automatically setup and are pulled from Banner, Lawrence Technological University’s Student Information System.

USERS:

• User accounts within Blackboard are available for all current Lawrence Tech students, faculty, and staff.
• Usernames are in the format of your first initial of your first and last name followed by your nine-digit BannerId number. Example: John Doe, 000012345. Username would be JD000012345.

COURSES:

• All courses officially offered through the Registrar’s Office each semester have a blackboard site automatically setup.
• Course Availability:
• Up to one full year of courses are available to instructors to begin building their course content.
• Courses will be available to instructors as soon as the data is available within Banner.
• Courses will be available to students 28 days (4 weeks) before the course start date.
• Courses will no longer be available to students 42 days (6 weeks) after the course end date.
• Courses will no longer be available to instructors 56 days (8 weeks) after the course end date.
• Within the 56 day (8 week) timeframe after your course ends, please preserve your course content by copying or exporting your course. Please see Course Material Section below for more details.
• Multi Section Courses

If within the same term an instructor is teaching two or more sections of the same course and would like one site created opposed to the automatic separate sites, please send a request to vitrc@ltu.edu with the following information:

• Your name and nine digit Banner Id
• Courses Information (CourseId, Course Name, CRN Number, Term)

Please note: This is only applicable for courses within the same term that an instructor would like linked entirely as one site opposed to multiple sites. Please feel free to contact VITRC for further details.

• Development course sites may be requested. Please note that at no time will any student be enrolled into a development course. Instructors can request other active departmental faculty and staff be enrolled into the course. Developmental courses are given a six-month duration.

COURSE MATERIAL:

• Creation of course content is the responsibility of the instructor. The Veraldi Instructional Technology Resource Center Staff assists in providing training and assistance to instructors.
• Copies of the electronic gradebook, electronic student work, and other content placed within Blackboard are the sole responsibility of the instructor. The Blackboard administrator is not responsible for deleted grades or work. Instructors should always have copies of the gradebook and other content placed on Blackboard.
• Course quotas are set at *** MB (the average Blackboard course at Lawrence Technological University is *** MB). Increased quotas may be granted as necessary. The Blackboard administrator provides technical assistance to instructors concerning efficient file format delivery.
• To preserve your course material, you will want to use the Blackboard delivered functions available to you: copying, exporting, and recycling.  Please contact VITRC for further detailed instructions on how to use each function.

Copying: This function would be used when you have a course in the current term that you want copied to a course that you are teaching in the next academic term.

Exporting: This function would be used if you wanted a copy of the course content for your records as well as for a future course that may not fall within the one-year time frame.

Recycling: This function would be used if you wanted to delete portions of your course before you use the copy function and copy it to the next semester.

Instructors wishing to re-use course content from a previous term not within the year time frame may request the content be copied by the Blackboard administrator by sending a request to vitrc@ltu.edu with the following information:

• Your name and nine digit Banner Id
• Destination Course Information (CourseId, Course Name, CRN Number, Term)
• Attach previous term Blackboard ZIP file

ENROLLMENTS:

• Student enrollment in each Blackboard course corresponds with the official enrollment maintained by the University and is updated automatically. Instructors are unable to add students into the course. If there is an exception to the official enrollment, instructors may request that the Blackboard administrator enroll an existing Blackboard user into the course with permission of the instructor's department head or program chair.

Enrollment Exceptions:

Faculty

If you are the instructor of a course or a program director of course and would like another faculty member added to the course that you are teaching, please send a request to vitrc@ltu.edu with the following information:

• Your name and nine digit Banner Id
• Course Information (CourseId, Course Name, CRN Number, Term)
• Information of Faculty to be added as TA (Full Name, BannerId Number)

Students

If you have a student who you believe needs to be added to a site due to special circumstances such as making up work for an incomplete grade, a request must come from your dean or department chair of the course with the following information:

• Your name and nine digit Banner Id
• Course Information (CourseId, Course Name, CRN Number, Term)
• Information of Student to be added as exception (Full Name, BannerId Number)

ORGANIZATIONS (ANY NON-OFFICIAL ACADEMIC COURSES)

• Groups with a common goal at Lawrence Technological University may request a Blackboard Organization to be setup. Enrollment in organizations is coordinated through the Blackboard administrator by the Organization manager(s).
• Abuse of Lawrence Technological University's Policies 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 ensure proper communication and content appropriate to Lawrence Technological University’s policies as well as to ensure proper net-iquette among members.

Upgrades and Maintenance

• Occasionally upgrades and standard maintenance to the Blackboard system are required. The Blackboard administrator provides notice of such upgrades and maintenance work. If unforeseen disruption of service occurs on the Blackboard system, the Blackboard administrator provides notice to all instructors as to the circumstances causing the disruption and to the length of the disruption.

Policies and Procedures may change at any time at the discretion of the Veraldi Instructional Technology Resource Center.