Thousands of faculty, instructional designers and system administrators demonstrate their Blackboard Learn expertise every day, but only one can be named the winner of BbWorld 2012 Jeopardy (Blackboard Learn edition). Say What?? That’s right! This year, we’re hosting a live version of Jeopardy at BbWorld (think lots of Blackboard Learn questions and answers sans Alex Trebek…although we may have a pretty decent look-a-like) on Tuesday, July 10^th from 6:30 – 6:40PM, and we’re looking for 3 contestants to compete in it and show off their Blackboard Learn expertise. The first place winner of Jeopardy will walk away with a brand new spankin’ iPad! Here’s How You Become a BbWorld 2012 Jeopardy Contestant

1. The first step is easy! Simply submit this form and enter to become a BbWorld 2012 Jeopardy contestant.
2. Next, decide whether you want to record and upload a video to YouTube and tell us in 1 minute or less “Why You’re a Blackboard Learn Expert” OR upload an image that visually depicts “Why You’re a Blackboard Learn Expert” to your Facebook page.
3. Then you’ll want to tweet about the contest and why you believe you’re a Blackboard Learn expert to @Blackboard using the BbWorld 2012 hash tag- #BbW12. Email community@blackboard.com to confirm your entry was received.

For the past year, I’ve had the pleasure of supporting the Blackboard User Group (or BUG) program and assisting a number of User Group Leaders to launch or support their groups. So I can confidently say that if you’re not an active member of a Blackboard User Group – unlike the more than 1600 of your peers that are – you’re missing out on a great opportunity to positively impact teaching and learning at your institution. So, what’s so special about Blackboard User Groups? They’re client-run groups that give you- its members- the opportunity to network, stay up to date on the latest trends and information, collectively give feedback to Blackboard management, engage with subject matter experts and share best practices with a community of peers. More importantly, it’s this new community of peers – dare I even say friends – that are leveraging technologies as you and have faced similar challenges or decisions, peers that you can now turn to for advice and ideas to help you successfully advance your institution’s e-learning programs.

One thing is for certain – today’s students are adopting new technologies at a faster rate than ever before. The demand for these new technologies shows no signs of decreasing. So, how do you meet the ever-evolving needs of today’s students, as well as the faculty and administrators that support them? This question led us to select Technology Adoption as a key theme of BbWorld 2012. It is also the reason I encourage you to make attending BbWorld a priority for this year. As a former educator, I know how important it is for you to stay up to date on how your peers are leveraging new technologies on their campuses in addition to the strategies used to successfully encourage their use. So, in the words of jazz great Wynton Marsalis, “See you N’Awlins, ya’ll!” TECHNOLOGY ADOPTION: Top 5 Session Playlist

After 10 years of using Blackboard Inc. applications, Kingston University experienced tremendous growth, usage and adoption. In fact, over 95% of students and more than 80% of academic staff use Blackboard Learn™ as their virtual learning environment (VLE). As the years passed and adoption grew, the time came for Kingston to re-evaluate their learning technologies. In consultation with faculty and students across all disciplines, the evaluation committee engaged in a year-long review which included a functional assessment of Blackboard Learn, ™ 9.1 and other open source alternatives. The evaluation was prompted by a variety of reasons but alignment to the University’s new Learning, Teaching and Assessment Strategy was especially important. To learn more about Kingston’s evaluation experience, we spoke with Dr. Tim Linsey, the Director of e-Learning at Kingston University, who identified the primary factors that contributed to their decision to select Learn, 9.1.

Guest post by Misty Hanks, Coordinator of Instructional Design, at Morehead State University in Kentucky. Over the past several years, Morehead State’s online course adoption (both hybrid and fully online) has grown considerably. In fact, nearly every course has an online component and purely online courses grew from 17% to 28% during the last five years. With the success of our online program, coupled with a limited budget, we had to consider the most appropriate learning management system (LMS) for our University.