Blackboard Teaching & Learning

This article explains the support services Blackboard provides for Blackboard Teaching & Learning products (SaaS and Self-Hosted). It covers which products are supported, what Blackboard Support helps with, how to contact Support, severity levels and target response times, how to report an issue, the differences between Full Support and Extended Support, database schema rules, and what is not covered by support.

Important: All support services are subject to the terms and conditions of your institution's software license agreement or support services agreement with Blackboard. If your contract differs from this article, your contract applies. Blackboard may update this policy; changes take effect five (5) days after the updated version is posted.

Blackboard (together with its subsidiaries and affiliates) provides Support Services for the following products. The level of support for each product version depends on its support category (see the next section).

Every Blackboard product version is assigned a support category. The category defines the level of support your institution receives. Blackboard may change a product's category based on the product roadmap.

Issues reported by phone or through support.blackboard.com for a No Longer Supported version of Blackboard LMS will not be worked and will be closed. The only exceptions are for Managed Hosting customers, who can still:

Any other request for a No Longer Supported version is reviewed and actioned at the sole discretion of Blackboard management.

Blackboard Customer Support responds to and works to resolve problems submitted by customers and channel partners that are directly related to administering and operating Blackboard Teaching & Learning products. Support makes reasonable efforts to respond to all requests and to fix documented, reproducible errors and defects that are submitted through an approved channel.

Blackboard Support will:

If Support determines that a problem is caused by improper or incorrect use of the software, the problem may not qualify for support and may require Blackboard Professional Consulting Services.

Blackboard Support is provided in English. Support in other languages may be available from time to time, depending on the language skills of available technical staff. You can ask to be assigned a Technical Support Manager who speaks your language, and Blackboard will try to provide this where possible. Finding a resource in your language may cause delays, so you can choose a faster response in English instead.

Your institution can designate up to two (2) people to receive support at any one time. You can change your designated contacts by giving Blackboard written notice. Designated contacts should have access to the Blackboard LMS administrator interface and have, or be able to easily get, SSH or VNC/Terminal Services access to the server where the product is installed.

Blackboard requires each customer to have a Primary System Administrator. This person is the main administrative point of contact for Blackboard at your institution, and Blackboard Support contacts them with support-related questions. The Primary System Administrator is typically active in the support portal, submits cases as needed, knows your institution's Blackboard implementation and usage well, and can answer questions and make decisions about how the product is supported.

All system administrators can submit cases, access knowledge articles and documentation, and edit contact information on support.blackboard.com. System administrators also have access to hotfixes, updates, and releases of supported products when they become generally available to licensed customers.

Blackboard Support assigns every support request one of four severity levels. Requests are handled based on severity, and the most severe cases have the fastest target response times. Blackboard Support may change a case's severity level so it matches the criteria below.

The only approved ways to submit a new support request are web-based self-service through support.blackboard.com and telephone. Blackboard Support is not responsible for responding to requests made by third parties, requests sent directly to individual Blackboard Support staff members, or requests sent by any other method.

Fill out the case form completely. Blackboard may not be able to act on a case until all reasonably requested information is received. On the case form, select the severity level that fits your problem; Severity Level 1 and Severity Level 2 cases receive priority. You must also keep the account(s) Blackboard Support needs to access your site active.

Follow the Customer Support Escalation Procedures available on support.blackboard.com.

Blackboard LMS SaaS customers receive Full Support. For release timing and product update details, see the Blackboard SaaS release schedule and release notes on Blackboard Help (help.blackboard.com).

Blackboard LMS Self-Hosting deployments receive Extended Support. This table compares Full Support and Extended Support.

How quickly Blackboard Support can resolve a Self-Hosted issue depends on getting enough access to your system. Support may ask for:

Blackboard Support staff must approve any alternative method of server access, such as VPN, in advance. Blackboard will make reasonable efforts to accommodate reasonable requests. However, when an alternative access method is used, the service level targets for initial response and status updates do not apply to that support request. In these cases, you may want to consider an on-site, separately priced professional services engagement.

No. If you report a problem on an unsupported configuration, Blackboard may, at its sole discretion, try to reproduce the issue in-house on a supported configuration. If Blackboard reproduces the problem, it may handle the request through standard support procedures. If Blackboard cannot reproduce it, you will be referred to Blackboard Professional Services for a separately priced engagement, and Blackboard will recommend that you move to a supported configuration.

Yes, with limits. Blackboard LMS database schema documentation describes the tables and columns in the Blackboard LMS database, including data types and sizes, nullability, indexes, sequences, keys, and constraints, with extra commentary for key tables and columns.

Blackboard LMS Support can help you access the schema documentation and understand which tables correspond to which Blackboard LMS features. Blackboard Support does not help with writing or interpreting queries and does not provide training on database concepts. The Blackboard developer community on Blackboard Community (community.blackboard.com) offers informal help.

Blackboard cannot support unauthorized database changes. If Blackboard finds that your institution made one, you will be informed. Your options are:

Blackboard support services apply only when the product is installed locally at your site or hosted by Blackboard on your behalf. Support does not cover the requests listed below. For each item, the table shows the alternative options available.

For Self-Hosted systems, Support also does not cover the following. Separately priced professional consulting services are available for each.

To learn more about separately priced professional consulting services, contact your Blackboard Account Executive.