Simply put, a "DEV shell" (short for "Development shell") is a course in Blackboard that will never have students loaded into it.
DEV shells act as "practice" areas where faculty can play around with different tools and experiment with new techniques without worrying about their students seeing anything.
DEV shells are often used as places where faculty members build their online courses ahead of time. Since live course shells (which are populated with students) are not generally made available until 45 days before the start of a semester, many faculty members like to build their course in a DEV shell. Once they receive their live shell, they can then easily copy all of their work from their DEV course into their live course and be ready to go in just a few minutes.
To request a DEV shell, you can go directly to the DEV Shell Request Form, or else you can access the link to the form from the Online Learning subsite on the Faculty area of the RCSJ Portal.