I have been wanting to create a blackboard application for my college that just manipulates the courses and assignments and stuff like that. I have been researching the topic with minimal results. I created a Blackboard Developer account and have generated my public and private keys. I went to look at sample code and saw that the API call is being made from localhost:9877 found here. Does this mean the call is being made from a server on my machine? I also found some software I would have to download so I think it is. Is this all really necessary? I don't want to have to run an entire server just to make some simple API calls. How is this done? Or is it not supposed to be for single developers and is meant to be used for college system administrators only?
In this example, yes, the call is being made to a server on your machine. That doesn't have to be the case. cURL can query outside addresses or local ones.
If you're wanting to create an application that the entire college is using, I would definitely, 100% get the system admins to be a part of the process. If this is something you are just going to tool around with a bit and maybe use for a class or two, using something like XAMPP and connecting to localhost should be sufficient.
I would definitely get familiar with cURL before undertaking this seriously.