Publisher Building Blocks (B2s) Evaluation Process

Building block evaluation is a multi-step and detailed oriented process—often taking 2-3 months to fully evaluate, test, and integrate. Although publisher representatives (salespeople) may describe the process as simply making a Building block “available.” Final Blackboard implementation integration is dependent on the complexity of the building block itself security and thorough testing, and includes intermittent and to-be-determined Blackboard downtime.

To request that a Building block is considered for integration, please submit your request to the Support Center.

1. Research including potential issues with Blackboard version compatibility, evaluating potential security and FERPA violations, and determining value/relevancy to UHCL as a formal 4-year institution
2. The Course Development team coordinates with the university’s Information Security Officer (ISO) to ensure that the publisher has met the UH System’s and our campus standard’s for student data security (grades, identifying information) and financial security (since most publisher B2s enable students to purchase access to publisher contents through the B2).
3. Because Blackboard installation varies among institutions, our team is dedicated to thorough and diligent testing on and off campus and coordinating with publisher representatives.
4. Issues, if present, are documented and submitted either to a publisher or Blackboard for resolution
5. Once the building block functions as expected, it is tested in a “live” environment and multiple test courses
6. If the building block functions as expected without any issues above, a formal recommendation to our LTAs for deployment in the live (Production, or blackboard.uhcl.edu) environment, is typically available for the next semester.

Although our intention is to provide quick assistance, our team must be diligent in avoiding and/or minimizing any negative impact which affects the core functionality of our system.  If you experience issues with your building block once deployed, it is important you contact your publisher rep, as our staff is trained to test and install but not associated or connected to the actual publisher. If believed to be a Blackboard problem, the issue will be evaluated as Blackboard-related or not. In other words, once it is tested to work, further information, troubleshooting and training are the requestor’s responsibility.

Because of the detailed test and install protocol established by the Course Development Team, UHCL typically cannot troubleshoot building block errors related to publisher or other 3^rd party plugins.