Have thoughts on Blackboard Learn’s replacement? Review team seeks examples of use cases and user stories

The team leading the review of Purdue’s learning management system is continuing to seek feedback from faculty, staff and students as it searches for a replacement for Blackboard Learn.

The review, which launched in August, is a systemwide initiative designed to identify the next learning management system or systems for Purdue. Starting in September, listening sessions were held on Purdue’s West Lafayette, Northwest and Fort Wayne campuses, as well as virtually for faculty and staff at Purdue Global, to gather comments and feedback.

More than 1,000 comments, ideas and opinions have been offered so far, as part of that information gathering process. Two final listening sessions are scheduled for the West Lafayette campus on Nov. 12 and Nov 16. Click here for more information and to register.

“The response has been great and will be helpful as this process moves into the exploration stage,” says Jenna Rickus, associate vice provost for teaching and learning and the chair of the review’s steering committee. “But we’re still hoping to hear from anyone who hasn’t had a chance to participate in the process, especially those who can provide us with use cases about their experience with Blackboard Learn or other learning management systems.”

Although the wants and needs in a new system are diverse, the feedback received so far has included:

• The ability for the new LMS to ingest content from previously created Blackboard Learn courses, with an emphasis on an easy transition from the old system to the new.
• Collaboration workspaces for students built into the LMS, with functionality similar to Google Docs.
• Mobile friendly, for students, faculty, staff and administration.
• Easy to use and intuitive interface.
• Easier acceptance and implementation of third-party tools into the LMS that can be applied to a specific course or academic unit.

After feedback has been compiled, the review’s campus task force teams at each campus will work together to develop rubrics and requests for proposals with the goal of inviting vendors of possible replacements to campus in February or March. Campus taskforce leads are: Adam Dircksen (Fort Wayne), Lisa Wallace (Purdue Global), Emily Hixon (Northwest) and Andy Hirsch (West Lafayette).

There will be no disruption of Blackboard Learn during the 2018-2019 academic year.

For more information about the LMS review, visit www.purdue.edu/lms-review.

Writer: Dave Stephens, technology writer, Information Technology at Purdue, 765-496-7998, steph103@purdue.edu

Last updated: October 31, 2018