Blackboard Course Lifecycle

Lifecycle for a Blackboard Course at HWS:

Course Creation

1. Courses are automatically created in Blackboard one week after the end of official registration, as stated in the Blackboard policy.

2. Faculty members create course contents and elements using Blackboard features. Design recommendations to improve reusability of a course are available.

Course Population

3. Blackboard courses are automatically updated for student enrollment until the end of the drop-add period.

4. Each faculty member makes his or her courses available for students in the course. (Instructions)

5. At the end of the drop-add period, students must be added manually by the course instructor. (Instructions)

Course Maintenance

6. Faculty members are recommended to make periodic backups of their courses, especially before and after major events, such as the completion of an online exam. One way to make a backup of course materials is to create and store an archived copy of the course. Note: This archiving process is not the same as the process used by IT Services in the Course Archival section below. (Instructions)

Course Closure

7. At the end of each academic semester courses are automatically made unavailable to students.

8. Faculty members are recommended to make another backup of their courses at the end of the semester, so that they maintain access to the course contents and student information. (Instructions) More information about archiving course materials and various options for saving materials is available.

9. Courses remain active on the Blackboard server for faculty access for a period of three years.

Course Archival

10. At the end of this three-year period, the courses are archived by IT Services, as stated in the Blackboard policy. Courses are retrievable by request. Note: This archive is not the same as an individual's backup of a course.

For example: At the end of the 2010-2011 school year, the fall 2006 and spring 2007 courses will be archived and removed from Blackboard. This process will occur at the end of each academic year.

Course Removal

11. After seven years, archived courses are deleted and cannot be restored, as stated in the Blackboard policy.