For the first time in 14 years, Blackboard Learn is up for review.
In a presentation to faculty and university members gathered at the Faculty Senate meeting Wednesday evening, Dean of Libraries Deborah Carver detailed the progression of the most recent Learning Management System review — a process that began last winter and will likely conclude this summer.
About a year ago, Carver says, the University of Oregon began asking current faculty to submit reviews regarding what they like and dislike about the current Blackboard Learn system and features they would hope to see in an alternative online system. Last spring they interviewed potential product vendors and this fall they issued a request for proposals and received product bids from six separate vendors.
According to Carver, the first round of reviews has been submitted to vendors and “most of” the six vendors will be considered for further evaluation.
This winter the university will conduct faculty reviews of specific features across each platform — the grade book application, for example. Based on faculty review, one or two finalists will be selected and the committee will solicit faculty members to teach a class spring term with the selected platforms. Student and instructor review from the test runs will lead the committee to select a final product by this spring.
Should Blackboard be replaced, the 2014-2015 year will see two official campus learning management systems operating simultaneously as the old system is phased out.
Though faculty at Wednesday’s meeting raised some concern over student confusion with two official systems, Carver and the review committee consider the transition year the best option to implement a new system — something that can take significant effort according to schools like the University of Washington, the University of Texas at Austin and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. @@links checked@@
“We acknowledge (the possibility of confusion) and how we might mitigate that, but I can tell you right now that we’ve already got plenty of variation across campus,” Carver said on the phone, Thursday. “Unless we get a good platform that meets everyone’s needs, that variation might continue … we’re trying to get ahead of that.”
Carver says that the learning management systems under consideration are being reviewed based on their reliability, stability, functionality, interface (including mobile) and design.