Blackboard Start of Term Setup

Announcement

UMass Lowell has announced that Canvas will be our new Learning Management System (LMS). You can read the announcement here.

For Fall 2025, Manning School of Business, Zuckerberg College of Health Sciences, and Fine Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences (FAHSS) courses will be using Canvas instead of Blackboard. Our transition from Blackboard to Canvas website has more information, including timelines for other schools, training and FAQs.

GPS will be holding a few Virtual Drop-In Sessions in August, around the start of the Fall 2025 semester.

The week-to-week calendars for Summer 2025 and Fall 2025 are down below ⬇️

Copy Course Materials Into Your Blackboard Site or Start from Scratch

Summer and Fall 2025 Blackboard course sites will be available for faculty on week of April 7, 2025. All online, CSCE, and Graduate instructors will have the following options for adding materials to Blackboard:

  1. Copy an entire Blackboard course into the new course (Most online instructors will want this option)
  2. Start from scratch with a blank Blackboard site

Instructors are able to copy a previous term's materials, including an entire course, into your new course site right from Blackboard*. It only takes a few clicks and minutes, and if you run into issues then we can assist. If you need support with this step, please contact onlinelearning@uml.edu and someone will be able to assist.

*Important Exception: if you are teaching a course using existing content and the original author of the content is teaching a section of the same course, your content will be copied automatically once the original course author updates their section. Alena Woods will be in touch about this.

Here are some additional set-up guides that may be useful as you start building your course:

Blackboard Access and Support

YOUR BLACKBOARD COURSE - If you are teaching during Summer or Fall 2025, your Blackboard course site(s) will be available for you week of April 7, 2025. If you don't see your course site in Blackboard, please email onlinelearning@uml.edu and someone will reply to assist you.

LOGIN PROBLEMS – You can login to Blackboard using your UML username and password. Retrieve your UML password or set your password retrieval security questions at the UMass Lowell MyPassword website.

STUDENT ACCESS TO BLACKBOARD - Students will still be given access to Blackboard courses on the first day of the term for GPS courses (all Online, Graduate, and CSCE courses). As an instructor, you will see students in your Blackboard roster from the moment you have access to it, but they will be coded as unavailable, and unable to access the course until the first day of the term.

TA, GRADER, and OBSERVER ACCESS to BLACKBOARD - Faculty can request TA, Grader, or Observer access to their Blackboard course site by filling out the Registrar's form. Once requested TAs and Graders are added to the course roster in SIS, they will have access to Blackboard 15 minutes later. If you need assistance with this, please email onlinelearning@uml.edu.

MERGE COURSES - We will automatically merge all cross-listed courses in Blackboard based on what is in SIS. Faculty can manually merge sections (excluding online sections) by logging into the the Course Management Website. Email onlinelearning@uml.edu if you need assistance.

DIRECTED STUDIES, PRACTICUMS, AND DISSERTATIONS - If a Blackboard shell is needed for this type of course, faculty can make it available by logging into the the Course Management Website. Email onlinelearning@uml.edu if you need assistance.

Weekly Course Dates for Fall 2025

Weekly Course Dates for Fall 2025 ~ Faculty should refer to the Academic Calendar and Class Dates for semester start/end dates, holidays, and final exam days. Please make sure your course follows the GPS term start and end dates:

8-Week, 10-week, full-term  Dates (Monday – Sunday) 
Week 1  Sept 3 - 7 (Fall semester begins on Wednesday, Sept 3) 
Week 2  Sept 8 - 14
Week 3  Sept 15 - 21 
Week 4  Sept 22 - 28 
Week 5  Sept 29 - Oct 5
Week 6  Oct 6 - 12 
Week 7 Oct 13 - 19
Week 8 Oct 20 - 26 (8-week session I ends on Oct 26) 
Week 9 Oct 27 - Nov 2 (8-week session II begins on Oct 27) 
Week 10  Nov 3 - 9 (10-week session ends on Nov 9) 
Week 11 Nov 10 - 16 
Week 12  Nov 17 - 23
Week 13  Nov 24 - Nov 30 
Week 14  Dec 1 - Dec 7
Week 15   Dec 8 - 14 
*  Dec 15 - 19 Final exam period (full-term and 8-week session II courses end on Dec 20)  

* Online instructors can decide how to use these extra days.   

For final grade submission dates and instructions, please visit GPS Grading and Exam Information 

Weekly Course Dates for Summer 2025

Weekly Course Dates for Summer 2025 ~ Please make sure your course follows the GPS term start and end dates:   

6-week sessions   8-week, 10-week, full-term    Dates (Monday-Sunday)   
Week 1    Week 1    May 19 – 25 (Summer Start I begins on May 19)  
Week 2    Week 2    May 26 – June 1  
Week 3    Week 3    June 2 - 8  
Week 4    Week 4    June 9 – 15 
Week 5    Week 5    June 16 - 22  
Week 6    Week 6    June 23 - 29 
----   Week 7    June 30 – July 6 (6-week session I ends on Weds, July 2*)  
Week 1  Week 8   July 7 – 13 (Summer Start II begins on July 7)    (8-week session ends on July 13)  
Week 2   Week 9    July 14 – 20  
Week 3   Week 10    July 21 - 27 (10-week session ends on July 27)  
Week 4   Week 11   July 28 – August 3 
Week 5   Week 12    August 4 - 10 (Full-Term session ends on August 10)  
Week 6   ----   August 11 – 15 (6-week session II ends on Fri, Aug 15)  

* The 6-week I term ends on Wednesday, July 2nd this year because of two holidays during the term – Memorial Day and June 19th. On campus courses need to make these classes up. Online instructors can decide how to use these extra days.   

For final grade submission dates and instructions, please visit GPS Grading and Exam Information  

Technical Support