Blackboard acts as a central tool that can enable you to share content, communicate with your students, build community, and assess student learning, but there are a lot of other powerful tools that you may want to use to replace or augment the existing functionality in Blackboard. When you use an outside instructional technology, it may be possible to connect it to Blackboard using the Learning Tools Interoperability (LTI) standard, if the vendor has developed one.
The LTI standard allows Blackboard to pass data back and forth with the tool in a way that is safe and FERPA compliant, including student enrollments, email addresses, and grades. This also allows you to connect your Blackboard account with the tool so that you do not need to sign into the external tool each time. Students can continue to use your Blackboard course as a central hub.
Because there is sensitive data passing back and forth between Blackboard and the external tool, the process to add a new integration requires audits for security, accessibility, and long-term sustainability of funding and oversight. This process must be requested by an NIU faculty member, administrator, or staff member; it cannot be initiated by an outside vendor.
Please reach out to the Center for Innovative Teaching and Learning if you have any questions about how to navigate this process or complete these steps. We're happy to help! You can use the Ask a Question form or send us an email at citl@niu.edu
This is a review by DoIT Security to ensure that the vendor is following appropriate security procedures. It may help to ask the vendor for a copy of or link to their HECVAT form (most vendors who work with universities have this form available upon request).
You will receive an email when the assessment is complete with the Security team's findings.
If the tool will be retrieving or creating Gradebook information, such as sending grades to the Gradebook, you will need to request approval from the Registrar for the integration. Send an email to regrec@niu.edu with the name of the product, a description of the product, and what grade information the tool will be using or creating. If you have a copy or link to it, include the HECVAT security report. The Registrar will apply via email to indicate their approval.
As a public institution, it is essential that the tools that we adopt for teaching and learning are accessible to students with disabilities. Vendors working with universities will likely have a VPAT (Voluntary Product Accessibility Template) publicly available on their website, but you may have to request it or a comparable accessibility statement from the vendor.
We also recommend finding any information the vendor makes available for students who use assistive technology, such as a guide or tips on navigating their platform with a screen reader. You can provide a link to this information in your course as a convenience for students.
DoIT requires that they have a copy of the contract and terms of service on file along with the funding source. If the product does not require a license from the university (such as a free tool or one where students individually obtain a license), you will need a copy of the Terms of Service that users agree to when creating an account or accessing the tool.
The Privacy Policy should be publicly available on the vendor's website; locate it to submit along with the other documentation. As a best practice, we also recommend including the privacy policy as a link in your course so that students can easily access it.
Provide any information available from the vendor on the steps for the DoIT administrators to set up the LTI integration in Blackboard Ultra. Preferably, this will be a written guide, but it could also be the name and contact information for the vendor's integration team.
815-753-8100
servicedesk@niu.edu