Blackboard 11A conceptual design

The Goal

Write a concept for a replacement and/or upgrade of Blackboard

The Plan

1. Interview lecturers, coordinators, students & technical people

2. Review Internal UvT documentation on Blackboard3. Analyze Student responses / requests on Blackboard Portal

4. Collect Scientific articles&

5. A lot of brainstorm-sessions

The Scope

In the end, most of the Blackboard issues are not a matter of adding more features

But of changing basic design

Four main issues

User is effectively isolated

There is no integration among features

Flexibility is limited

Blackboard is always years behind on reality

Problem 1: Isolated users

Education and communication have changed a lot over time.

Blackboard has not...

Blackboard as it is now

Blackboard as it should be

Solution 1: Groups & Profiles

A lot more happens at a university than just courses

Interactions are betweenPeopleGroups of people

Proposed Structure

Pervasive communication

• Announcements (group / profile)• Wall (group / profile)• (quick) Message (profile)• (group) Chat (group / profile)• Video-conference (group)

Dashboard (example)

Problem 2: lack of integration

Many different featuresThat do many different thingsOr almost the same

But no linking / integration

Solution 2: Integrate core components

Communication

File-sharing / collaboration

Agenda / rostering

Example: File sharing

Problem 3: Inflexible system

Key requirement for Blackboard:Stable, dependable system

But many users want:FlexibilityCustomization

Solution 3: Modular design

Problem 4: Keeping up with reality

Developments in society (internet) lead demand. Blackboard can only follow

You cannot both maintain a stable, reliable system and be at the frontier of development

Bottom up development

• Blackboard has a lot of users, withsimilar needs and goalsA large creative community!

• Encourage users to create and implement solutions for their problems

• Share these solutions

Solution 4:The Blackboard marketplace

• Make user-generated modules available on a marketplace

• Modular system; add modules or replace one component with another

• Modules as a source of income and/or prestige for universities, lecturers or even students

The Blackboard marketplace

Blackboard focus: providing core features and maintaining a stable core system

“You can't just ask customers what they want and then try to give that to them. By the time you get it built, they'll want something new.”

Steve Jobs