NOTE: East Central University only uses Blackboard as its Learning Management System (LMS). Shells for online and blended courses are automatically generated inside Blackboard each semester in order for each professor to load materials into those shells.
Required meeting times for online and blended courses must be listed on the official course schedule. Asynchronous classes may not require synchronous meetings unless they are listed on the official course schedule at registration.
The principal mode of communication for East Central University (ECU) is through ECU email. All persons are expected to regularly check their ECU email for messages. ECU email should be the platform used to communicate information to any ECU personnel including instructors and administrative office staff within the bounds of the university’s acceptable email use and privacy policies.
Some students have experienced difficulty in communicating with faculty through email. In an effort to help students successfully communicate, we have provided the following statement that explains to students that replying to faculty should be done from within their ECU email Outlook 365 account. Using any other email account to reply or reach out to a faculty member will not reach the faculty member.
The principal mode of communication for East Central University (ECU) is through ECU email. All persons are expected to regularly check their ECU email for messages. ECU email should be the platform used to communicate information to any ECU personnel including instructors and administrative office staff within the bounds of the university’s acceptable email use and privacy policies. Note: If you choose to have your ECU email messages forwarded to your personal email account (I.e., Gmail, Yahoo, etc.), you will want to reply to your professor in the ECU email Outlook 365 account. Replies sent from your personal account will not reach your professor.
Any requests to add third-party Blackboard integrations, such as Learning Tool Interoperability (LTI) and an application programming interface that conforms to the constraints of representational state transfer (REST API), must be submitted to the ECU Help Desk for evaluation and approval by the ECU Blackboard Team with security checks completed by the IT Director. Once approved, the third-party tool will be added to the Blackboard system, and the request user will be notified.
Third-party tools are used to connect external learning tools into the Blackboard LMS in order to add or give faculty, students, and administrators access to supplemental information or functionality for teaching, learning, and assessment. These tools can allow a user who is already logged into Blackboard access to third-party content without needing a separate username and password or having to login separately to the third party’s system. An LTI tool can be enabled campus-wide or for specific users (i.e., isolated and available to only valid licensed users in a department). REST API provisions gradable items and/or gradebook columns in Blackboard.
To help make the process go smoothly, please submit your requests for LTI integrations at least three months before the start of each semester.