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Blackboard Course Management System Records

 Collection
Call Number: UA229

Scope and Contents

This collection contains course descriptions, syllabi, and assignment documents harvested from the Blackboard Course Management System at the time of its retirement in 2013.

Dates

  • Creation: 2000 -- 2011

Creator

Language of Materials

English

Access

University records are closed for 20 years from the date of their creation. Records older than 20 years that do not pertain to student education, staff and faculty employment and Board of Trustees records are open for research. This collection may require review before it is available for use. Please contact DCA for further details.

Conditions Governing Use

Some material in this collection may be protected by copyright and other rights. Please see “Reproductions and Use” on the Digital Collections and Archives website for more information about reproductions and permission to publish. Copyright to all materials created by Tufts University employees in the course of their work is held by the Trustees of Tufts University.

Biographical / Historical

Since 1955, Tufts University has continued to expand its horizons. In 1964, in one of Wessell's final acts as president, Tufts opened the Experimental College. The Ex-College, which allows students to take classes not normally found in the curriculum, has remained one of Tufts' most popular programs.

In 1977, Tufts established a five-year joint degree program with the New England Conservatory of Music. Soon after, in 1979, a similar program began with the School of the Museum of Fine Arts. Also in 1979, the Tufts Center for European Studies in Talloires, France, was established in an 11th Century priory. The Tufts European Center began operation soon after.

In late 1979, Tufts made another important addition. In October, the Tufts University School of Veterinary Medicine opened at its original Boston campus. In 1980, the Grafton campus, built on the site of a state mental hospital, officially opened its doors.

The last two major additions to Tufts University took place in 1980 and 1981. In 1980, the Sackler School of Graduate Biomedical Sciences, established with a large grant from the Sackler family, opened its doors on the Boston campus of the Tufts School of Medicine. In 1981, at the Medford Campus, Tufts celebrated the opening of the School of Nutrition Science and Policy. The school was the first of its kind in the nation.

Since Tufts College was officially established in 1852, it has continued to grow and expand in new directions. From its beginnings as a small liberal arts college through its expansion into a full-scale university, Tufts has maintained a strong academic tradition and a community feel.

Extent

4.15 Linear Feet (4 boxes)

1 Digital Object(s)

Arrangement

This collection is organized into five series: Academic course listings; Technology workshops; Tufts libraries; Tufts organizations; and Unprocessed accessions.

Custodial History

Digital Collections and Archives was approached by Informational Technology Services in April, 2013 regarding the upcoming retirement of the Blackboard Course Management System. DCA staff were granted a generic login and the staff explored options for retrieving course documents, such as syllabi and descriptions, from the system. Due to the proprietary nature of Blackboard, it proved prohibitively difficult to extract digital content from the system in a usable form. The staff determined that the most efficient method for extracting data would be to print the relevant documents out the system. Following the hierarchical tree of the system, DCA student workers reviewed each course and selected the syllabi, course descriptions, and assignment description documents, were available, for printing. All courses were then double-checked by a member of the DCA staff. When accessing pages and documents for printing, the Blackboard system would often impose the access date of the printing date on the document. Any dates on the documents from spring 2013 should be viewed as printing dates only.

Processing status

This collection is partially processed.

Repository Details

Part of the Tufts Archival Research Center Repository

Contact:
35 Professors Row
Tisch Library Building
Tufts University
Medford Massachusetts 02155 United States
617-627-3737