Blackboard policies

This page lists all the policies associated with Blackboard.

For more information or advice, or if the policy you need is not here, or you find inaccurate or dated information, please contact us.

Policy list

  1. Acceptable use
  2. Accessibility
  3. Archive and recycle
  4. Help response time
  5. Copyright
  6. Data protection
  7. Accidental deletion of files
  8. External user accounts
  9. Student enrolment
  10. Service downtime
  11. Unenrolling
  12. Use and user details
  13. Content takedown

1. Acceptable use

Any use of Blackboard must comply with the following:

It is the responsibility of the course instructor(s) or organisation leader(s) to ensure that any use of Blackboard corresponds with these regulations and to immediately withdraw access to users who fail to comply with these policies.

2. Accessibility

The University's Web Accessibility Policy requires that all new web content conforms to Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1, Conformance Level "AA" for Blackboard Original, and WCAG 2.2 AA for Blackboard Ultra, and that existing Web content be gradually brought into line as it is periodically updated.

The Blackboard Accessibility Policy is that course instructors and organisation leaders are responsible for making their material accessible for their students on their Blackboard courses, or colleagues on their organisations. They should make reasonable adjustments to meet accessibility needs.

3. Archive and recycle

It is the responsibility of course owners to ensure they have saved a copy of their course, or any content that they wish to retain, including assessments, at the end of the academic year, or relevant teaching period, for use in case of appeals or the accidental deletion of data. It is also the responsibility of course owners to ensure they have removed old course content, such as out-of-date announcements, presentations, or past students that were manually enrolled. In line with the University’s Retention Schedule (TEA.1.6), Blackboard sites will be archived one year after the associated programme has ended. This means that Blackboard unit courses will remain available while the students on them are still studying at the University, and for a year afterwards; after that, they will be archived. To comply with the Retention Schedule for assessed student work (TEA 2.2), the archived courses will be retained until nine years after the end of the course’s academic year, after which the entire course will be deleted. .

4. Help response time

Any request to digital-education@bristol.ac.uk for information or assistance will be responded to within three working days.

5. Copyright

Staff should exercise caution before adding copyrighted material to Blackboard. Please check with the Library for up-to-date information regarding the use of copyrighted material for teaching. It is the responsibility of the course instructor(s) or organisation leader(s) to ensure that all materials posted on their course or organisation complies with copyright legislation.

6. Data protection

Blackboard draws information directly from central University records, eg SITS. More information on the University's data protection policies is available from the Secretary's Office.

7. Accidental deletion of files

The files uploaded onto your course or organisation are your responsibility. If files are deleted from Blackboard by you or a colleague and you do not have a backup, then you can email digital-education@bristol.ac.uk with the course ID and the time the deletion took place. Regular backups of Blackboard courses are made, in line with current institutional best practice. However, the recovery of the file(s) will be considered a low priority and the work will be fitted in with the available resource. In some cases, it may not be possible to recover the files at all.

8. External user accounts

The University is entitled as part of the Blackboard licence to have a number of people using Blackboard who are not registered at the University.

Each account is associated with a University sponsor. It is the responsibility of the University sponsor to ensure that the individual is aware of, and abides by, the regulations governing the use of Blackboard. For information on how to request external accounts, please see Accessing Blackboard.

9. Student enrolment

Students are enrolled onto their unit courses automatically, based on their registrations in SITS. Enrolments for Organisations are the owner’s responsibility. If you need to enrol a large number of students, then please contact us to discuss your requirements.

10. Service downtime

Blackboard is now made available as ‘Software as a Service’ (SaaS), in the cloud, meaning there is no need for downtime to apply updates.

11. Unenrolling

To unenrol from a Blackboard course you need to contact the person, in most cases the unit lecturer, who runs the course, and request that they remove you from it.

12. Use and user details

By accessing Blackboard, you accept and agree to bound by all the policies associated with it. If you do not agree to any of these policies, you should not access Blackboard. You must keep your user details confidential, in line with IT Services' Code of conduct for the use of computing facilities. You are responsible for any Blackboard use undertaken using your username and password.

13. Content takedown

Items will be removed from the Blackboard once proof of copyright violation has been forwarded to the Digital Education Office.

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