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.

Looking for a way to meet and build relationships with your fellow peers and Blackboard staff? Are you ready to partner with these same folks to help shape Blackboard technology and get early access to roadmap information? Or do you want access to the tools, resources and support that’s available to address your product questions or guide you as you upgrade to Blackboard Learn™ 9.1? Then stop by the Blackboard Community Programs booth (#600 and #601) at BbWorld to sign up for one or more of the free programs we’ve developed to support you, as a member of the world’s largest, organized e-learning community.

In Part II of my blog series highlighting our clients’ successful upgrade to Release 9.1, we take a look at the University of Richmond.

Home to NCAA basketball’s Richmond Spiders and one of the highest ranked liberal arts schools in the U.S., University of Richmond supports a growing population of 4,045 students and 379 faculty members. Of the university’s 60+ majors and thousands of courses, zero (yes, that’s none, folks) are taught by teaching assistants. That means Richmond’s faculty is highly involved in the hands-on education of its student body. It’s Fred Hagemeister’s job to ensure they have the best tools to do so. Fred is the Academic Technology Services Coordinator at the university’s Center for Teaching + Learning +Technology and Richmond’s leading Blackboard expert.

Hi. My name is Tiffany Tooley and I am the Blackboard Community Manager. In this role, I have the opportunity of working to support a unique series of programs, developed to help our clients have a more valuable and meaningful experience as they engage with the platform and seek input and experiences from their peers  across the  greater Blackboard Community. In doing so, I get to meet our terrific clients and listen as they share their stories and ideas about impacting education and their relationship with Blackboard. I also get the opportunity to retell them here.

With over 1,200 Blackboard clients currently using our latest generation platform, my new blog series will highlight several of our clients that have successfully upgraded in the past year. My first spotlight will focus on Concordia University.