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Northern Illinois University has earned a reputation for seamless integration and upgrades of instructional technology tools. The secret is planning, says Jason Rhode, assistant director of the Faculty Development and Instructional Design Center. Here he offers a few suggestions for getting an upgrade right.

Allow plenty of time. NIU allowed about nine months for its Blackboard Learn upgrade, which allowed plenty of time to prepare the campus.

Don’t start from scratch. NIU tapped into SLATE (Supporting Learning And Technology in Education), the Midwest Blackboard users group, to find out what worked — and hadn’t worked — during other schools’ upgrades. “We asked what questions we should be asking and what gotchas we should be watching out for,” Rhode says.

Avoid surprises. Communicate upcoming changes early and often. Explain what’s happening many times and via multiple channels. NIU’s upgrade communication plan worked so well that other universities have borrowed it.

Get faculty input. Whenever possible, allow faculty to influence the schedule. It will increase buy-in and may help you circumvent problems. For example, NIU gave faculty a say about when the upgrade to Blackboard Collaborate 12 would take place, better ensuring it happened at a time least disruptive to faculty.

Chris Bray’s experience as a Blackboard Administrator at the  University of Arkansas makes him not only an expert on the technology side of modern-day learning, but it has also given him a deep understanding of the way students and faculty use innovations to enhance the learning experience.  Many of you know Chris from his frequent answers to community questions on the Blackboard Administrator (ASU) listserv .  Chris joined us for a Tweet Chat on his experience testing the latest release of Blackboard Learn.  If you didn’t’ make it here is a recap of the topics discussed in under 140 characters.

Upgrades for Educators

Q) The latest release of #BbLearn upgrades the educator experience – what will they like most?
A) Being able to paste from Word, haha. The new Content Editor is similar to what they see in WordPress & other web apps.

(You can see our new content editor in action here!)

The User-Focused Experience

The end user is the first priority when we develop innovations.  So, when the conversation moved to the user-focused learning environment, we were excited to hear this question from one of our participants:

Q) What are some of the functional changes that end users will notice in Blackboard Learn’s latest release?
A) I think students will benefit from the new My Blackboard – to see what’s really happening in all their courses at a glance.
A) …a functional calendar with export features, east to see course updates, discussions, grades
A) Faculty & students say My Blackboard eliminates the need to hop back and forth between courses so much – our goal.

The turkey is in the oven, the mashed potatoes are on the table and the cranberry dressing is flowing – it can only mean one thing: it’s time for Thanksgiving.

Whether you’re a parent of an active learner, an instructor or happen to be one yourself – it’s clear that this year we’ve got a lot to be thankful for in the education revolution. Need some reminding?

Administrators are Empowered to Innovate and Improve Schools.

In order to fulfill the educational needs of the active learner, schools must adapt. Luckily, this year we saw a lot of great data sets that clearly show the advantages of integrating technology and catering to the active learner.  And it’s this data that helps drive decisions with Administrators, Faculty, System Administrators, and others.  While adoption may be a slow process, we’re thankful that we’re heading in the right direction.

So as we prepare to settle down and reflect – let’s take some time to remember the important role that active learners play in education.  We hope you’ll use this holiday to mentally prepare to come back and continue efforts to innovate our education systems so that they can better accommodate the needs of our active learners.

You keep your phone in your purse or pocket. You keep your favorite t-shirt you’ve had for years in the middle drawer (or sometimes on the floor). And when it comes to the information that matters most, you don’t want your stuff all over the place.

Wait, staying organized—that’s a lot of work. But don’t worry. Now you don’t have to do it alone. A new feature in Blackboard Learn, My Blackboard, makes it so much easier.

Think of it as your own intelligent, organized educational assistant.

Grades, notifications, course conversations, classmate profiles, and more, are all bundled into one convenient, organized interface that is accessible from anywhere within Blackboard. No jumping in and out of courses, multiple tabs, or convoluted drop-downs.

You’ll have to get your clicks elsewhere.

Blackboard Learn. Simply. Better. See why.

Hey dreamers—you can’t read the Blackboard unless you show up for class.

This year, Blackboard kicked off what has rapidly become a successful series of regional one-day conferences designed to give our clients in-person access to Blackboard leaders and developers and insights into your peers’ technology endeavors. In other words, class is coming to you.

What: Blackboard Teaching and Learning Day

When: Wednesday December 5, 8:30 am (breakfast) to 4:15 pm

Where: Covel Commons Conference Center (UCLA), 330 De Neve Drive, Los Angeles

Why: To exchange ideas and best practices from Blackboard reps, your peers, and special guest speakers.