Jay Bhatt CEO

Learning how Blackboard is reimagining the education experience.

*disclaimer – all stuff mentioned here is in development and may or may not be what we see eventually.

Education 2020 – some trends

Education system is not responding fast enough to engaging students and driving appropriate outcomes. 1/4 students are motivated because they like their school experience.  School is not an engaging environment for 3/4 students.

75% of kids own/use a mobile device – far to little content is being delivered in this medium.

1/3 college students feel that education is preparing them for life..while 2/3 dont.

11 million people employed but 4 million jobs remain unfilled in the U.S. – people who can fill them are not being produced by higher ed system.

Raison D’etre  of schools – manage student learning and develop appropriate outcomes.

100 million learners will be coming into our learning systems in the near future.

Blackboard sees a different future for education – learner-centric.  Creating a better education system for learners of all kinds.

Key to reimagining education is putting the learner first.

Redesign, Redefine – How

Redesign –

  • The Approach
  • The Portfolio
  • Innovation & Education

New vision, reorganized our customer facing teams, single points of contact, increased support of international customers. New Data Centers (Germany, Brazil etc..)  5000 consulting projects to 1,500 clients.  Joined Internet2, new integrated product team and roadmap.

Launched over 25 product updates to meet country requirements, Blackboard Store, Mobile App, Bb labs and Polls, Invested in Moodle Rooms, launched 40 schools running MOOcs, founding members of badge alliance, aquired MyEDU

MyEdu – (Based in Austin, Texas) Speaks to skills gap by helping student collect competencies and connect to workforce.

Redesign – Solutions, Support & Services, Industry Citizenship

Solutions – Changing the way we bring products to us.  Making it easier to buy and deploy products together as one unit.  Want to share course content with folks outside of org they should be able to.  Student should see same workflow.  Bb is combining learn, collaborate and mobile.

Learn, Content, XPLOR, Community, Mobile – Combined into Learning Core (Now Blackboard’s base product)

Real-time Collaboration – Learning Essentials

Data – Learning Insight

Retention Services – Learning Insights + Retention

k-12 solutions include common core, innovative classroom, parent engagement (focused on blended learning)

Common core – learn, content mobile and xplor

Collaboration – innovated classroom

Parental Engagement is third solution – K12 Central parents can interact with schools via mobile device

Redesign – Support & Services

Customer Support – Consolidated and improved, private cloud offering improved, now 7 managed hosting facilities. (adding germany, singapore, brazil)

Institutional Focus – Technology Implementation, Faculty Adoption, Grow Online Programs
Student Centric – Attracting & Enrolling students, supporting student pathways, measuring outcomes

Blackboard acquired Perceptus by adding contact centers in South Carolina, Arizona, Kentucky and Texas.

Redesign – Industry Citizenship

partnership with ACE – American council of education – new models of learning (competency based learning – emerging area)
Founding members of Badge Alliance – Support Research and Studies to inform industry dialogue – Project Tomorrow
Speaking and writing and publishing
Spotlighting Bb Customers – SouthWest College in Northern Ireland – eLearning project in Zambia, Africa
T!PTXT – anti-bullying messaging platform – free platform for k-12

Redefine – Utility and purpose of technology in the support of education.

User Experience – new
Mobile First –
Expanded Cloud Strategy – SAS public cloud offering (public – new)
Big Data – pull rich data from across learning experience

User Experience – dramtic switching focus to learner

  • Blackboard Store – Connecting learner to everything they need (material wise for the course)
  • MyEdu – allow students to communicate accomplishments in academic context
  • Entirely new user experience and workflow (streamline navigation, integrate capabilities)
  • Responsive Design UI
  • Completely different look and feel.
  • Easy of access and use for students.  Very simple, very streamlined
  • Linking content and activities to conversations – learning from other learners.  A completely integrated UI
  • New online meeting tool!  Video capable and awesome!!
  • Blackboard Collaborate Mobile – very simple!
  • Bb Grader – Mobile app super simple way to do grading (audio, video, written feedback as well as rubrics are available in the tool)
  • BB K-12 Central –
  • Blackboard Job Genie – Connect dots, career paths etc,
  • Blackboard Mobile Learn – Completely Redesigned – speed, efficiency and engagement.

Deployment Strategies –

  • Self-hosted, private cloud, Learn in the Public Cloud
    Learn in public cloud – elastic, resilient, current (Canvas-esque)

    Learn in the Cloud – Available this Summer
    Open Education platform for MOOC’s FREE

Redefine Big Data – Platform Analytics

  • Academic Platform data flows (across learn, collaborate, connect, others using IMS Caliper Standard
  • Learner should also consume report data.  Recent Activity comes with tip telling them where they are falling short, how they are doing compared to their peers.  Wow!!
  • Instructor view graphs of student performance and compare to other students.

Blackboard is more than just an LMS.