Educational Technology

Blackboard Learning System Use Policy

Purpose

Blackboard Learning System is a commercial course management system geared for e-learning in higher education. Since the fall of 2001, it has been implemented at Alvernia University to supplement traditional classroom learning and to deliver instruction entirely online.

As faculty and students are increasingly interested in utilizing the learning system in the learning process, it is necessary to standardize the processes of requesting, assessing alternatives, and training. The consistency of such processes will not only enable the Educational Technology Department to provide timely training and support but also assist faculty in planning ahead to ensure effective use and facilitate the system efficiency and prevent unnecessary cost.

This policy aims at providing guidelines for the system administrators, trainers, faculty members, and professional teaching staff in terms of efficient and effective use of the learning system.

Request Procedure

This procedure explains how and when the request for use will be made and processed.

I. Request Submission

At Alvernia University, the utilization of the Blackboard learning system is mandatory for all graduate and continuing education courses. These courses are automatically set up in Blackboard.

However, if you teach a regular semester-long undergraduate course and would like to integrate Blackboard into your teaching, you must send your requests via the online Blackboard Course Request Form at:

http://www.alvernia.edu/it/edtech/bbrequest.html

II. Timelines for Request Submission

Requests after the deadlines may experience a long delay. Faculty users are strongly encouraged to submit their requests as early as possible.

III. Request Processing

After a request is submitted, the Registrar's Office will mark your course as needing Blackboard. The Blackboard administrator then can retrieve the course and instructor data from the system. The process typically takes 48 hours or longer. Once your Blackboard course request is processed, the administrator will notify the instructor of the course set-up and other relevant information.

Consultation and Training

The Educational Technology Department offers Bb training in a variety of formats for faculty and teaching staff. The department conducts ongoing workshops and one-on-one consultation and training sessions as well as coordinates seminars for faculty to share their experience and ideas in integrating technology in their teaching. Additionally, to meet the needs of faculty members who prefer online learning, self-paced interactive tutorials are available online.

New users are strongly encouraged to request and attend Bb workshops. One-on-one training sessions are by appointment. Please contact Dr. Daonian Liu at 610-796-8398 to schedule such sessions.

Furthermore, online faculty user guides are available for your reference at:

CE 8 Faculty Guide (PDF)

User Logins

The first-time login conventions are as follows:

Both User name and Password are the same:

first 4 letters of your last name (all in lower case) + last 6 digits of your 9-digit Alvernia ID

e.g., If David Peterson's Alvernia ID is 000012345, his login is "pete012345".

Note: Your ID card may show 10 digits. In that case, exclude the last digit.

e.g., If Mary Smith 's student ID is 000001234, her login is "smit001234".

However, if your last name has fewer than 4 letters, then the login would take your entire last name plus the last 6 digits of your Alvernia ID.

e.g., John Doe, 000000562 --> doe000562

After your successful initial login, you will be required to change your password. It would be helpful if you also register your email address and a login hint so the system will send you a new password when you forget it.

Student User Management

With the increasing use of the Blackboard learning system, faculty assistance in managing student users has become important and necessary. At the beginning of a semester (i.e., add and drop period), instructors are responsible for removing the students who have dropped from their courses.

After an account has been created for a student in the Bb learning system, as an instructor, you can add or remove a student to and from your courses.

The steps are easy as follows:

Open a Blackboard CE 8 course of yours, then take the following steps to unenroll a student from the course:
1. Click on the Teach tab;
2. Click on Grade Book on the left-side menu;
3. Click on the Members tab;
4. Check the box for the student to be unenrolled;
5. Click on the Unenroll button at the bottom of the screen.

Back Up and Removal

In order to maintain system efficiency, Bb courses are backed up and then removed from the system approximately two weeks after the end of each semester. The backups can be uploaded into new courses upon request from the associated instructors.

Technical Support

There are two types of technical support. One is management support and the other is system support. Management support refers to the support for course and user management.

For Bb login and access issues, please contact Alvernia's 24/7 Technology Support Center
by sending an Online Request, or call 1-866-579-7420.

For additional assistance, call 610-796-5606 (Monday-Thursday: 7:30 am - 9 pm; Friday: 7:30am-4:30pm; Saturday: 8am-4:30pm), or send a request online.

However, if you have trouble logging on a campus computer or other campus network issues, please call 610-796-8411 (Monday-Friday: 8 am - 4:30 pm) for help with campus network access.

For setting up a Bb course, course design consultation, training, and other assistance, please call the Blackboard administrator Dr. Daonian Liu at 610-796-8398.

The Blackboard learning system support provides trouble-shooting when the system is running unusually slow or down. The contact department is the Information Technology Department. Call their Help Desk at 610-796-8411 for such support.