Why is this plugin needed? The standard Blackboard system allows instructors to perform these functions, but only if an instructor has system administrator rights. This means that an instructor can not only create, delete, import and copy their own courses, but any course in the system. The "My Faculty Tools" plugin allows an instructor to create, copy, import and delete only his/her own courses - without having access to any other course in the Blackboard system, and without giving the instructor any system administrator rights.

The "My Faculty Tools" Plugin relies to some extent on the configuration of your Student Information System's Integration with your Blackboard System. It may be necessary to modify this Plugin to work with your Student Information System data. This plugin is distributed as an open-source software program. The source code is distributed along with the compiled plugin so that you can modify the code for your purposes as necessary. The "My Faculty Tools" Plugin for Blackboard requires that you already have the Blackboard Course Management System version 5.5 level 3 (Enterprise) installed. This plugin uses the Blackboard Data Integration APIs that are only available with level 3 (Enterprise) installations of Blackboard 5.5. If you don't have level 3 of Blackboard, you will not be able to use this plugin.

This plugin is distributed as an open-source software program. The source code is distributed along with the compiled plugin so that you can modify the code for your purposes as necessary. This plugin has been developed and tested on Unix/Linux systems. In theory, it should also work with NT Blackboard systems, but has not been tested in this environment. If you are interested in running this plugin on a Bb NT system, please contact the developer for assistance if needed.