Guidelines for General Use :

University and Blackboard-specific policies are relevant to Blackboard users because they speak to:

• Possible abuse of the system that could affect privacy and access.
• Rights of the authors of materials placed on Blackboard.
• Retention and safeguarding of information placed on the system.

General Policy		Course Access Priviledges
Backup and Recovery		Blackboard Sponsored Accounts Guidelines

General Policy:

No user or administrator of the Blackboard system should use it in any way that a reasonable person would interpret as:

• Doing damage to normal access to, materials placed on, or the performance of the system
• Infringing on the privacy of any user of the system
• Infringing on the ownership and intellectual property rights of anyone who has placed materials on the system

• safeguard the privacy of individuals using the system
• limit access to materials placed on the system to the individuals specified by faculty who request course sites

There will be no unauthorized reuse, copying, or modification (i.e., removal from the system) of materials posted by either faculty or students on Blackboard unless those materials are part of a policy violation (e.g., intellectual property violation or violation of general Carnegie Mellon policies).

Note: If violation of policy has occurred, then notification will occur before materials are removed.

Course Backup and Recovery:

Although routine backups of Blackboard will be made, we cannot absolutely guarantee that any of the information placed on Blackboard will not be lost. For this reason, faculty and students are responsible for retaining their own copies of all pieces of information placed on the Blackboard system if loss of that information would prove damaging.

We emphasize to faculty that the grade book feature of Blackboard is intended for publication of grades for students and not as a secure, reliable repository of grade records.

Warning: Faculty are responsible for their own course back-ups. Also, keep a backup of the gradebook after every grading change.

• How to Backup Your Course
• How to Backup Your Gradebook

Course Access Priviledges:

Only faculty of record for a course can request that access be given to their course materials to anyone other than a student officially enrolled in the class (or provide access privileges through the administrative tools for their Blackboard course). The faculty making these requests or providing access privileges should be aware that they are thereby limiting our ability to prevent unauthorized access to materials and loss of critical materials from the system.

Warning: Be advised to limit "instructor" or "TA" access as much as possible to those individuals who are completely competent in using the system.