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Blackboard Development Program

The Blackboard Develpoment Program enables Academic Staff to request upgrades and improvements to Blackboard as fits their teaching requirements. The eLearning Helpdesk collects and reviews all requests two times a year and selects, evaluates and implements requested functionality according to the policy and procedure.

You can view examples of the types of Blackboard building blocks that have been developed.

I. Procedure

  1. Requests and suggestions are collected in February and June each year
  2. All suggestions and requests are then published with a request for further expressions of interest via:
      1. This webpage (see below) with notification on the eLearning News and Activities page.
      2. The twice yearly Application to Activate email (before beginning semesters 1 and 2).
      3. As an agenda item for the Learning and Teaching Associates.
      4. As an agenda item for the ITSC.
        5.  
  3. Options for each request will be demonstrated to interested parties via a lunchtime show and tell session
  4. Selection of preferred option based on feedback from interested parties
  5. Determination of proposed funding source and institution of working party to develop funding application where necessary
    1. Development of grant application/s by interested parties
  6. Installation and testing of software in test environment
  7. Development of user resources
  8. Implementation of software to production environment

II. Policy Conditions

  1. Any tools created under this program must be developed as Blackboard building blocks or plug-ins
  2. We have very limited Office of Learning and Teaching in Economics and Business funding to provide additional Blackboard functionality.
    Requests for Office of Learning and Teaching in Economics and Business funding will be evaluated on the following criteria:
    1. Must meet a significant identified multi-disciplinary need
    2. Total estimated cost must not exceed AU$2000

Requests that do not meet the above criteria must be funded from other sources.
Where this is the case the Office of Learning and Teaching in Economics and Business will NOT take primary responsibility for writing funding applications, but will provide assistance where necessary, and will otherwise manage the product development process in the same way as Office of Learning and Teaching in Economics and Business funded projects.

III. Requests Currently Under Evaluation

If you are interested in using any of the currently requested functions and wish to be kept informed of the evaluation process, please contact the eLearning Helpdesk with your name, contact details and the name of the project you're interested in.

Submit a new request.

eLearning Helpdesk logo
Telephone: (02) 903 66433
Email: elearning@econ.usyd.edu.au
Consultation: Business hours (9am-5pm, Monday-Friday), Room 276 Merewether

 

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