Blackboard 9 Test Drive accounts

Faculty and staff who are interested can request a Blackboard 9 test account. We will likely be requesting a bulk group of accounts when we get to the detailed "hands on" evaluation, or sandbox portion of our process.

Banner Integration

At the February Steering Committee meeting, we discussed options for Banner integration both for our current LMS (WebCT CE8) as well with whatever future product we select. The committee agreed that course creation, course assignment, user account creation, user updates, enrollment, and drops should be handled automatically in the new LMS. Grade publishing is also a highly prized functionality, though not essential at the time of implementation.

From this point on, any products we consider will need to cover the basic SIS integration. I will work with TSS to evaluate any needs on our side, and we will start communicating with Student Records about grade exchange.

Vision of distance learning from Desire 2 Learn and Blackboard

During the last two weeks, folks from both Blackboard and Desire 2 Learn have visited PCC to discuss their vision of distance learning in the next five years, what they see as their place in that future, and what they're doing to get there.

We also asked them to try and address the following areas which we've deemed as important for our own program.

• Integration and interoperability
• SIS for account creation, course creation, etc.
• Content packaging and sharing
• APIs for sharing information between applications
• Assessment and Identity Management
• Collaboration and Portfolio
• Accessibility
• Customization for institutional needs
• Ease and breadth of customization
• Flexibility in teaching and course management styles
• Hosting
• Disaster recover/business continuity
• Service Level
• Product and Company Roadmap
• History and Plan for the future of the company
• Mobile Learning
• User testing and feedback (faculty AND students)

Both vendors were able to talk to each of the points and demonstrate a little of their existing product. Sadly, both sessions included non-disclosure agreements, so this is the extent to which we can share.