Blackboard: Support for Faculty

To undergo the review process, a variety of documents are needed.  The faculty should obtain these from the vendor before submitting the format request in order to expedite the implementation process.

• Technical contact name and email
• Written LMS integration setup guide - specifically for Blackboard Original/Classic and Blackboard Ultra, if possible
• Terms of Use (link or written document)
• Data Privacy policies (link or written document)
• Higher Education Community Vendor Assessment Toolkit (HECVAT) 
• Voluntary Product Accessibility Template (VPAT)

The formal review and implementation request is made by Academic Affair's Executive Point of Contact who is currently Vincent Cocozza. The faculty should work with their lead and/or chairperson to send all paperwork and information gathered about the vendor to Vincent, along with any implementation deadline. Vincent is familiar with this process. He will submit the "Equipment or Software Request" form at https://td.cscc.edu/TDClient/68/Portal/Requests/ServiceDet?ID=132 which will initiate the review process.

If all required documentation is submitted with the request, then the review moves forward.  The vendor may be contacted for additional documentation as needed.  Information Technology Asset Management, Information Security, and the legal department can all be involved in the review process. Typically, the review process occurs before the Blackboard administrators are brought in.

After the formal review is completed and the vendor and integration have been approved, the request passes on to the Blackboard administrators.  They will work with the vendor to set up the new integration in a Blackboard test instance. 

If the vendor is unable or unwilling to implement a test integration, then the administrators will skip to step 6. 

After the new integration is created in the Blackboard test instance, the administrators will provide login details to the requesting faculty so it may be tested.  Faculty should perform the following tests at a minimum:

• Create a proper link to the integration in a class
• Edit the link to the integration in a class
• Delete the link to the integration in a class
• Launch the link to the integration in a class
• If using deep linking, deploy additional integration links within the class
• If using grade transfer, deploy assessment links within the class
• If using grade transfer, push grades back into Blackboard

The faculty should work with their vendor contact for any necessary training.  The Blackboard administrators will not be able to train faculty on how to use the integration.

If any element of testing fails, then the faculty should alert the Blackboard administrators who will work with the vendor to resolve the issue. 

Once testing has completed successfully, the Blackboard administrators will schedule the installation of the new integration with the faculty.  The Blackboard administrators are required to undergo a Change Management process by which any changes to the Blackboard production platform undergo a review with the rest of Information Technology before they are implemented.  The review occurs on Wednesdays at 2:00 PM.  The Blackboard administrators will work with the faculty member to both adhere to the the Change Management process and implement the integration in a timely manner.

Once the new integration has been implemented on the Blackboard production instance, the faculty member will be notified and the original request submitted by the Executive Point of Contact will be closed.