Troy University’s Blackboard Policies 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 every 12 hours.
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 12 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 required to make their course available to students by Thursday 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 3rd day after the term ends.
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, whichever comes first. 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.
Revision Date: August 2015
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 Educational Technology, and if
approved these users will be granted the appropriate 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 eTROY 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 within 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 Blackboard Administrator and
the instructor of the course. Through statistical reports, information can be obtained upon request from the
instructor, academic director or dean.
IV. Instructors/Staff Users
1) Only instructors listed as Blackboard 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 Blackboard proficient instructor.
2) Student enrollment is automated between the Datatel Student Database 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 eTROY Student Services or the University campus/site registrar’s
office.
3) All eTROY 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 or after a term.
5) Instructors requesting that other instructors have access to their course for any purpose must contact the
Blackboard Administrator to have these instructors added to and removed from their course.
6) Instructors requesting that students have access to their course for auditing and other purposes must
contact the Blackboard Administrator 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 in the event of future grade disputes. 8) Every instructor
should keep a separate spreadsheet of the Grade Center outside of Blackboard during the duration of each
course in the event the Blackboard system experiences technical problems and the Grade Center information
becomes unavailable for an extended length of time.
Revision Date: August 2015
9) Individual course archives preserving the course information including the discussion board, Grade Center,
and assignments is the responsibility of the instructor.
10) It is important that instructors not rely solely 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 that material, including the right to request
and receive an archived copy of the course before it is officially archived from the Blackboard System. Use of
the site and access to its material and features 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 Blackboard System
Administrator. Through statistical reports, information can be obtained upon request of the academic
director, department chair or dean.
13) Faculty and staff, who are not currently teaching a course through Blackboard, can request access to the
system by sending a request and justification to the Blackboard Administrator.
14) Three development shells are provided to each instructor officially enrolled within Blackboard. These
development shells are for the instructor’s personal use and will remain on the system indefinitely.
V. Blackboard Teaching Online Proficiency (TOP) Training Course
1) Every instructor teaching online and/or or web-enhanced courses is required to go through the TOP online
training course.
2) Once this TOP course is successfully completed, the instructor will be marked as proficient in the Datatel
System and the instructor will be ready to teach courses using the Troy University Blackboard System.
3) Once proficient, eTROY instructors will be contacted with an invitation letter to teach when they are placed
on the term schedule. Instructors using Blackboard for web-enhanced courses may need to check with the
Records Office to have their course marked “BB” in Datatel to receive a course shell. eTROY course shells will
appear 45 days prior to the next term.
VI. Blackboard Courses
1) Courses within the Blackboard System will be generated automatically from course information input into
the Datatel System. eTROY course shells for the upcoming term will be generated 45 days in advance of that
term. The University Registrar will determine the timeframe for making web-enhanced course shells
available.
2) Students will be enrolled into Blackboard courses automatically according to registration information input
into the Datatel System.
3) All eTROY and web-enhanced 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 Blackboard Administrator. If approved, the course will be setup and users enrolled by the eTROY
Educational Technology Team.
Revision Date: August 2015
5) Instructors are responsible for the creation of course content and course management using the Content
Management System (CMS). All course documents within a course are required to be linked to the CMS.
6) Course quotas are set on all courses to ensure the proper use of the CMS. Quotas may be increased if
additional space is needed and the course is set up correctly linking information to the CMS.
7) 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.
8) 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 Instructional Design Team trainers.
3) The current user quota within the CMS is set by default to 500MB. The instructor may request additional
space by contacting the Associate Director of Educational Technology.
VIII. Educational Technology Associate Director & Support Staff
The Educational Technology team will 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 create and update Blackboard Policy and Procedures.
5) Will assist Blackboard users with technical problems and issues.
IX. The Blackboard System Information
1) The Blackboard System is maintained by the Blackboard Administrator within the eTROY Educational
Technology Department.
2) The Blackboard System will require periodic downtime in order to apply security updates, patches, system
reconfigurations, system upgrades, course archives, and other scheduled maintenance to the Blackboard
System. Whenever possible, notice will be given in advance of any scheduled downtime. All Blackboard
System routine maintenance is scheduled during the early morning hours each Saturday.
3) The Blackboard System will be backed up in accordance with Blackboard 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) Requests for additional features/system enhancements should be requested through the Associate
Director of Educational Technology.
Revision Date: August 2015
X. Copyright Regulations
Copyright law and Fair Use Guidelines allow faculty to provide access to copyrighted materials using the
Blackboard System. Users posting material within 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 can be found in the Faculty
Handbook and in the Technology Usage Policy.
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 discussion boards, blogs and wikis which allow textbased 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 cues that normally 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.
4. Excessive use of obscenities could be considered offensive and are strongly discouraged.
5. The laws of copyright apply within these collaborative areas so users should not copy other user’s posts
without permission.
6. When posting in the discussion board, blogs and wikis areas of Blackboard, the same precautions against
plagiarism should be considered as with other written assignments.
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 it be best to deal with an issue by contacting your instructor rather than replying to the individual
who has offended you?
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 forum.
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
Revision Date: August 2015
and other course material accessible to users with disabilities. Troy University Section 508 Policy can be found
within the Student Oracle.
XIII. Family Educational Rights & Privacy Act (FERPA)
Troy University compiles and maintains information about students that facilitates educational development
and effective administration of the University. The University protects this information in order to guarantee
the rights of student privacy and access as provided by the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act of 1974
(Buckley Amendment, 20 U.S.C. 1230, 1232). Refer to the Student Oracle for more information on the FERPA
Guidelines that Troy University currently has in place.
XV. Blackboard System Course Archive and Deletion
Beginning August 2007, Troy University began a course archiving schedule for removing old courses from the
Blackboard System in order to ensure the best performance of the system.
The Blackboard System is not intended to serve as a storage system for previous student course material and
grade information. The Datatel Student Information System keeps records of all final grades. It is the
responsibility of faculty member 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 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 each academic area. Performing a
course archive after your course has ended is an excellent way to store the course, “as is”, including grades,
discussion boards and assignments submitted by students. The Blackboard System is a contracted vendor
solution that should not be relied on to maintain academic records. At the end of each term/semester, faculty
members should perform a Course Archive in order to save their course material in the event of student
grade disputes. Archiving a course creates a permanent record of the course including all content and
interactions for the instructor’s use. These individual course archives are more easily accessible than the
batch course archives performed by the University.
Beginning August 2007, only the previous two years of terms and semesters will remain available for access
on the Blackboard System.
Instructors will be given advance notice of the course archive and deletion dates via email and Blackboard
system announcements.
Revision Date: August 2015