Blackboard Afterlives

As a rapidly increasing number of faculty and students make use of Blackboard’s course management systems features, we need to standardize our operational practices around six (6) key policy areas[*]. (The operational practices listed below do not supersede CSUEB Copyright and Patent Policies 94-95 CR1/FAC7 and 94-95 CR2/FAC8, respectively.)

1. How long does a class site remain a living/active site within Blackboard before it becomes frozen as a record of the class?

· The Blackboard course shell/site is created for the class when registration for the quarter begins, and remains an active site for one (1) week beyond the end of the quarter.

2. Who has access to the active class site?

· Unless explicitly approved by the assigned faculty, access to the active class site is restricted to the assigned instructor(s) and enrolled students.

· Assigned faculty have access to the active class site as soon as it is created, or within at least one (1) business day after being assigned as instructor(s) for the class within SIS+.

· Assigned faculty can approve access to the class site for supporting librarians, auditors, guests and the like, while the class site is active.

· Enrolled students have access to the class site at least one (1) business day before the quarter begins, and (at the discretion of the assigned faculty) may be given access as soon as the class site is created.

· Students in good standing retain access to the active class site for one (1) week beyond the end of the quarter.

· Students who drop the class lose access to the active class site within one (1) business day.

· Students who take incompletes may (with approval of the instructor) retain access to the class site for one (1) year beyond the end of the quarter.

· Blackboard system administrators may view selected class sites while performing certain problem resolution and/or system maintenance processes.

3. When does a class site become frozen as the record of the class within Blackboard?

· Students should make their own copies of class site material before prior to the course being made unavailable. Uses might include as reference material for more advanced classes that build on the class in question, preparation for qualifying or comprehensive exams, etc.

4. What is included in the record of the class that is stored within Blackboard?

· The record of the class within Blackboard includes:

i. Faculty-created material (e.g., syllabus, lecture notes, reading lists, audio or video recordings of lectures, etc.);

ii. Student-created material (e.g., homework assignments, term papers, class projects, etc.);

iii. Commingled student and faculty material (e.g., discussion lists involving students, faculty and perhaps others, audio or video records of in-class discussions, etc.);

iv. Other miscellaneous CSUEB generated materials (e.g., class rosters, literature guides created by librarians, documentation created by other specialists, etc.);

v. Externally owned material (e.g., copyrighted material like journal or newspaper articles, film or video segments, excepts from books, etc.); and

vi. Management data (e.g., data generated by the interactions of students, faculty and others with the Blackboard system, access and usage logs, etc.).

5. How long is the class site record kept?

· The course site record is kept online within Blackboard for five(5) quarters after grades are submitted.

· Five(5) quarters after grades are submitted, the course is disabled. This means instructors no longer have direct access to course. The course is retained on the system and may be –re-enabled at any time.

· Eight quarters after grades are submitted, the course is removed from the system. The course may be imported into the system from a Blackboard archive file.

· After grades are submitted at the end of the quarter, each course will be archived and stored for future retrieval.

· Faculty instructors should make their own copies of class site material before the class site record is purged (and archived) from Blackboard.

· After ten (10) years, an archived copy of the class site record will be returned to the appropriate college for further disposition in accordance with local/college-based policies or prior practices.

6. Who has access to the class site record, and under what circumstances?

· Assigned faculty who taught the class have access to the online class site record (stored within Blackboard) for four(4) quarters after grades are submitted.

· Requests from other faculty assigned to teach the same (or similar class) for access to the online class site record must be handled in accordance with local/college-based policies or prior practices governing such access.

· College and/or academic department access to the online class site record must be handled in accordance with local/college-based policies or prior practices governing such access.

· Class site records that have been purged from Blackboard will be returned to the appropriate college for further disposition. Requests from faculty, students and others, for access to these purged-and-returned class site records must be handled in accordance with local/college-based policies or prior practices governing such access.

· At the present time, it is not technically feasible to provide locally/off-line readable copies of Blackboard class sites that have been purged and archived. The archived copy must be restored to the Blackboard server in order to be viewed.

· Examples of college or departmental uses of the class site record include:

i. To preserve syllabi, course catalogs, and grade records;

ii. As documentation of student achievements;

iii. As documentation for various program reviews, accreditations, etc; and

iv. As a resource for other faculty in preparing to offer the same (or a similar class) in the future. Local/college-base policies or prior practices govern such use.

· Examples of faculty uses of the class site record include:

i. As documentation of the quality of his or her teaching (e.g., part of the file for consideration in tenure and promotion, etc.);

ii. To defend his or her grading actions in response to challenges (e.g., grade appeals from students, etc.);

iii. As a resource in preparing to offer the same (or a similar class) in the future; and

iv. As a resource for librarians planning electronic reserves or reading lists for similar classes.

· Examples of student uses of the class site record include:

i. When technically feasible, as part of an electronic portfolio of his or her academic work; and

ii. To appeal his or her grade for the class in question.

· No changes (correcting errors, updating references, tidying up politically incorrect statements, or other revisions) should be made to the class site record after the class has ended.