Authorized Users, FTE and Storage are the three usage dimensions that the Blackboard Master Agreement uses to limit and price Blackboard Learn. The Learn terms state that a customer’s usage is limited by the number of Authorized Users, FTE, Bandwidth and Storage set out in the Order Form or the support terms.[1] Bandwidth is named in that sentence but, unlike the other three, is not defined in the Learn terms. This article explains each defined dimension, how the counting changed across versions and where the overage and credit consequences arise.
Authorized User
Section 15.4 of version 27.0 defines an Authorized User (also called a User or Active User) as any individual user of the platform, including students, teachers, parents of students or employees of the customer, including invited third parties, authorized to use the platform under the agreement.[1] The definition is not limited to students. Parents and invited third parties are named expressly.
The agreement counts Authorized Users in two steps. First, the sum of unique authenticated users on a monthly basis gives the “Monthly Active Users”. Second, for each annual contract period, the Authorized Users figure equals the average of the Monthly Active Users, and that calculated average is compared with the Authorized Users limit on the Order Form or in the support terms.[1]
Two properties follow from the wording. The test uses an average over the contract year, not a peak, so a month in which an institution runs a short course for many people raises the average only by one twelfth of the excess. On the wording, a person who never authenticates is not counted, and a person who authenticates in more than one month appears in each of those monthly counts. The agreement does not say how Blackboard measures unique authenticated users, for instance by account or by identity provider assertion, and a customer should confirm the method that applies to its contract.
Illustrative example: an institution with a limit of 10,000 Authorized Users has monthly counts of 9,000 in each of ten months and 14,000 in each of two months. The annual average is (10 x 9,000 + 2 x 14,000) / 12, which is 9,833, below the limit, although two months exceeded it. The same counts with 11,000 in ten months give 11,500, above the limit. The agreement states that figures below the limit do not roll over or get refunded, and that figures above the limit are subject to additional fees.[1]
FTE
The Master Agreement defines FTE as the number of full-time students plus half of the part-time students enrolled at the institution.[1] FTE appears in the Learn terms, in the Collaborate terms and in the Connect terms, where it is the denominator for a message threshold; see Ally, Adopt and other product licensing. In the 2019 version the FTE definition carries the qualifier “Unless otherwise specified in the Order Form”, and the 2015 licence schedule says that FTE may be further described in the Order Form and that the Order Form definition controls on conflict.[2][4]
Illustrative example: 8,000 full-time students and 3,000 part-time students give 9,500 FTE.
Non-traditional users
The 2015 licence schedule and the 2016 SaaS schedule address users who are not degree-seeking students. Where a customer wants faculty, staff, alumni, continuing education students or participants in community outreach or non-degree courses to use the software, their number is communicated to Blackboard and priced separately once the combined number exceeds ten percent of the FTE reported by the customer.[4] The 2019 and 2016 Master Agreements put the same ten percent as a cap on Authorized Users: non-traditional students count as Authorized Users, “not exceeding ten percent (10%) of the number of total FTEs specified in the Order Form”.[2][3] Version 27.0 does not repeat the ten percent rule in its Learn terms, and counts any authenticated user toward the Monthly Active Users average.
How the definitions changed
The three Master Agreement versions on Blackboard’s agreements site show a change in how Learn users are defined.
| Version | Authorized User for higher education | Counting method |
|---|---|---|
| 2016 | Students resident in a degree or certificate programme, prospective students, consortia students, employees for internal training, trustees, collaborating researchers; non-traditional users up to 10% of Order Form FTEs | Category test |
| 2/26/2019 | Same categories and 10% cap; separate K-12 and corporate or government definitions | Category test |
| 27.0 | Any individual user of the platform authorized by the customer, including parents and invited third parties | Average of Monthly Active Users over the annual contract period |
The 2016 and 2019 columns come from their user-category sections, and the version 27.0 column from section 15.4.[3][2][1] For K-12 customers the 2019 version defined an Authorized User as a student, teacher, parent or legal guardian of a student, or an employee using the software for internal training, and for corporate or government customers as an employee or a person enrolled in a course of the customer or its corporate affiliate.[2] A customer that has renewed across versions should confirm which definition its current Order Form incorporates, because version 27.0 states that prior agreements continue to apply to previously purchased products unless the Order Form says otherwise.[1]
Storage
Version 27.0 defines Storage as the highest amount of storage utilisation during the annual term of the customer’s uploaded and hosted files, including content files, media files and recordings, typically measured in gigabytes or terabytes. Storage is only sold in 1 TB allotments. The agreement’s own example is a customer contracted for 1 TB whose storage reaches 2 TB in the second month: it is charged for 2 TB for that annual term.[1] Because the measure is a peak, deleting files after a spike does not reduce the charge for that annual term.
The SaaS specifications state that the initial-term annual fee for each Learn SaaS solution includes 1 TB of storage unless the Order Form says otherwise, and that additional storage is separately charged in every tier.[5] Environment storage is separate: the test environment includes 20 GB, the staging environment 100 GB and Direct Data Access 700 GB.[5]
Active User Capacity in Managed Hosting
The legacy Managed Hosting plans measure “Active Users” as a capacity rather than as a monthly average. Gold, Platinum and Diamond 1 each include 8,000 Active Users unless the Order Form says otherwise, with additional Active User capacity separately charged.[6] The Managed Hosting terms also make service credits conditional on usage being within contracted Active User Capacity and storage.[6]
Overage, rollover and invoicing
Section 8.2 says that use of the Products and Services is restricted to the limits in the Order Form or support terms, and that use in excess is subject to additional fees and may be invoiced monthly by Blackboard. A failure to invoice on time does not waive the obligation to pay.[1] The 2019 version framed the same idea as overage fees for additional storage capacity, Authorized End Users and Active Users licences.[2] The Learn terms add that Authorized Users, FTE or Storage below the limit are not eligible for rollover or carryover to later terms, or refund, and that Blackboard may charge overages as they occur through the term.[1]
The Master Agreement does not publish an overage rate. Rates are in the Order Form or the Customer Support Services Guide that section 3 incorporates by reference.[1]
Links to service credits, audit and operations
Exceeding the limits has consequences beyond the invoice. The SaaS service-credit rules require the customer to be in compliance with contracted limits such as Active User Capacity and storage quota to be eligible for a credit.[5] Blackboard may audit use once per calendar year on reasonable notice to confirm compliance, and the customer’s signatory is stated to have authority to commit to payment of excess usage and storage fees.[1] The Learn terms also require the customer to notify Blackboard immediately when its primary mode of operations changes between in-classroom and fully virtual instruction, because the licence does not support such a transition and the customer must buy services suited to the new mode.[1] For a software asset manager, a change in institutional model is therefore a licence event, not only an enrolment event.
Reconciliation checklist
For each Order Form, record the Authorized Users limit, FTE, Storage allotment and the agreement version. Compare the average of Monthly Active Users for the annual contract period with the limit, using whatever user statistics the platform provides. Compare the peak storage reached during the annual term with the contracted terabytes. Compare current FTE with the figure on the Order Form, noting whether non-traditional users exceed ten percent of it on older paper. The Master Agreement does not say where Blackboard obtains its figures, so the customer’s own records should be kept for each month of the term.
Out of scope
This article does not give prices or overage rates, does not interpret Bandwidth, which the Learn terms name without defining, and does not cover the Collaborate, Connect and Student Support metrics, which are in the product lines article.