Blackboard Learn development projects successfully completed

Monday, 07 September 2015

Over the summer, a number of projects have been successfully completed to improve our Virtual Learning Environment, Blackboard Learn, in readiness for the new academic year.

Blackboard Learn and all Blackboard courses have been migrated to an externally-hosted platform which is managed and supported 24/7/365 by the Blackboard company. This brings many advantages, including increased reliability and performance of Blackboard Learn and the ability to introduce the latest tools more quickly. There will also be reduced downtime and disruption to the service, which will be a huge benefit to our staff and students around the globe. Blackboard Learn was also upgraded to the latest version, introducing new features that staff can use in their teaching. At the same time, the user interface was improved and updated, giving a more modern look.

The planning and execution of this work has been a significant undertaking, involving staff from several teams across IT and CQSD working closely with our Blackboard partners. Staff from across Schools also contributed to the success by assisting with testing and checking and providing feedback. We would like to thank staff and students for their patience, as inevitably there was disruption to the service during this period.

The successful completion of these projects provides us with a strong foundation for continuing to develop our teaching, learning and assessment practices and our use of technology to support student learning. It also places the University in an excellent position to pursue some key objectives, such as the introduction of university-wide online submission, marking and feedback and the expansion of our Distance Learning provision.