Blackboard Blogs

Blackboard's Annual Client Satisfaction Survey

Last week in the United States, we celebrated National Customer Service Week.  While many of you have probably never heard of this, it is meant to recognize a commitment to service and customer loyalty while recognizing the importance of customer service throughout any organization.

Coincidentally, last week Blackboard announced the launch of our annual client satisfaction survey.  We view this annual survey as our most important tool for gathering feedback from our clients.  Your feedback gives us crucial information related to our performance over the past year and compares that performance to previous years.  More importantly, the survey gives our clients a say in the future plans for our business.

I hope that you can take the time to fill this survey out when you receive it by email.  If you have filled it out already, thank you for participating.  If you haven’t yet, a reminder message will be sent to you this week.  While we hope all our clients view their relationship with us positively, we realize there is always room for improvement.  I hope you will take a few minutes now and share your candid views about your experience working with Blackboard.

The survey will be available until Friday, October 24.

Access Blackboard Technology from Everywhere

Even as instructors create increasingly rich, deep and comprehensive learning experiences in their online environments, there is a growing challenge to keep students focused on the information and activities key to ensuring their success.  With the distractions and noise surrounding their busy off- and online lives bombarding them from all angles, educators are facing a crisis in student engagement.  Blackboard is working to help meet this challenge and simplify access to information through Project NG.

Through Project NG we are working on providing students (and instructors, too) an aggregated view of the important activities and deadlines across all the courses they are involved in, making their Blackboard experience more efficient and helping users to be more successful.

Further, this information should be available to students and instructors in channels beyond the Backboard application.  Students may check Blackboard once or twice per day, but they may check their smartphones every few minutes and their Facebook pages every hour.

Blackboard Support: Busier than a Bee Hive

History dictates that when institutions are performing Blackboard system maintenance, testing, tuning, upgrading and related activities en masse, the Blackboard Support team becomes very busy.  This heightened activity tends to swell in the August - October timeframe and again during the December - February months.  We typically refer to these periods as "Back to School."

Naturally many people are calling Blackboard Support seeking guidance and assistance as they venture down these numerous paths.  And when you include the high level of adoption that Blackboard is experiencing, you can imagine how busy it must be.  In addition, the capabilities of the Blackboard application itself are being used at higher and higher levels everyday as system administrators and instructional designers become more and more engaged with the products.

Just how busy do things get for Blackboard Support during what is referred to as the Back to School season?  Well, here are some numbers that just might make your head spin . . .