Baseline Course Standards (BCS)
The Baseline Course Standards (BCS) is a set of good practices in Blackboard course design, co-created with students and staff at the University of Bristol.
It provides a shared foundation to ensure an accessible, consistent, and comprehensive learning experience for students across all units and programmes. It is complimentary to Blackboard templates, which support consistency of structure in Blackboard courses.
Development
The standards will be developed with students and staff through a series of co-creation workshops, and supported by good practices from the sector, relevant legislation and frameworks such as The Public Sector Bodies (Websites and Mobile Applications) (No. 2) Accessibility Regulations 2018, Universal Design for Learning and Anthology Exemplary Course Program Rubric.
Use
The Baseline Course Standards will be used in the digital education training and induction activities to guide the implementation of good practices across courses. Staff will be able to use the framework to reflect on the design and quality of their course. The standards can also be used collaboratively to ensure a consistent approach across programmes.
This project is planned to be completed by the end of summer 2026.