Acquired for on-campus installation and access during the Summer of 2002, the Blackboard product provides a Course Management Software (CMS) environment to the academic community. Consistent with the 01/02 Blackboard Users Group proposal, CNS does fulfill its obligations so identified. The proposal is available at http://www.muskingum.edu/home/cns/downloads/BbRollout.pdf. Complete documentation of the Blackboard system is kept on local files at http://courses.muskingum.edu/local/index.html

System availability

The server and software is made available on a 22 hour, 7 days a week basis. Starting at 3:00 a.m., system backups are taken on a nightly basis and the backup media is stored in a secure and safe manner. For clarity purposes, these system backups are not individual course backups, rather, they are backups taken for disaster, system and/or hardware recovery purposes. Reactive attention to system errors and problems are given high priority. The hardware is under a maintenance contract which guarantees a 4 hour response time.

User account management (NOTE: See separate Account Services section.)

Through the enrollment process, student Blackboard accounts are flagged for generation as soon as an applicant becomes a student or if a student registers for a course without going through the enrollment process. Faculty/instructor accounts are flagged for generation when the Registrar’s office assigns a course to that employee. All Blackboard account names are the same as the person’s email account name. The default password is either the Social Security Number or the Colleague ID Number, in that priority. Blackboard accounts are removed at the same time as email accounts are removed, either through graduation, withdrawal, or termination of employment.

Course creation

Either through the online or printed form, faculty submit requests for course creation prior to the beginning of the term needed. Typical turnaround between request and availability is 24 hours, however, because the course creation process does not load instructional content, it is recommended that course requests occur no later than the final exam period of the preceding term. It should also be understood that course creation is a manual process and is therefore processed on a first in, first out basis. Unless requested (to CNS) and approved (by the VPAA), all courses will retain the existing naming and numbering conventions as used by the Muskingum College Registrar. When courses are created, the person making the request is granted instructor status which enables the addition of content as well as the management of student enrollment into that course.

Should a previously developed course exist, and upon request, CNS will create a new course and will load the content and other course customizations from a previously developed course. The link to the online course request form is: http://www.muskingum.edu/~cns/blackboard/bb6.html

Course enrollment responsibility

The instructor of each course is responsible for enrolling the student participants. The Blackboard system provides several easy to use methods to accomplish this task. Please refer to Chapter 5 of the Blackboard Instructor Manual. Most faculty prefer to enable and use the student self enrollment option available under the instructor control panel. The version of Blackboard that the college utilizes does not provide a facility for mass course enrollment or integration with our student enrollment database.

Instructor training

As previously stated, full implementation of the Blackboard Implementation Proposal has yet to be achieved. In the absence of a robust set of training opportunities and expectations, instructor training is accomplished on a peer basis. Members of the original Blackboard User Group are available to assist new instructors in developing the basic skill set associated with Blackboard utilization. A new instructor may wish to start by reviewing the instructor’s manual. CNS will be glad to identify appropriate assistance, whether on-campus, on-line, or from an external source.

Student training

The level of student web and on-line knowledge is left to the instructor to determine. Should it be needed, each faculty is responsible for student training. The original proposal suggested that students would receive an introduction to basic Blackboard features in their First Year Seminar class. CNS and computer lab staff will assist with account, access, and basic feature mentoring, however anything in Blackboard that is course specific shall remain the instructor’s responsibility.

Preserving the “Academic Record”

While CNS does utilize the archive process to facilitate content re-use, it should be clearly understood that faculty are responsible for the archiving of academic materials, including but not limited to gradebooks, syllabi, course notes, and instructional content. Instructional content is considered to be the intellectual property and responsibility of the course creator. Due to a system limitation, content consisting of large media files may need to be managed separate from the integrated archive/restore process if the combined archive size exceeds 250MB.