Blackboard World #2 - Blackboard Mobile

One of the really exciting topics at Blackboard World 2011 is Mobile.  This is an area where Blackboard has invested and is showing early returns in the form of great functionality and even greater promise.  The Blackboard Mobile Platform is made up of two modules;  Mobile Learn and Mobile Central.  The company presents lots of (probably unnecessary) evidence that the mobile space is taking off rapidly on college campuses.  There are already more smart phones being sold than workstations and laptops.  Moreover, the evidence is mounting that individuals spend more time connecting to the internet on their mobile devices than they do on other land-based devices.  There is no doubt that mobile will make a major impact on how educational content and student services are delivered to and consumed by learners.

The Mobile Learn module is in many ways simply an extension of the Blackboard Learn Platform.  The tool provides access for students as well as faculty and designers to their Blackboard course content.  While not all content can be automatically formatted for mobile devices, (and some content, like large charts or tables for example, lends itself to small screen real estate), a surprising amount of content and course features have been adapted from the traditional blackboard course.

At ATSU, we have installed a free version of the Blackboard Mobile Learn module for testing on our Blackboard Learn 9.1 environment.  It includes all of the same functions and features as the paid version, however, it can only be accessed on Wi-Fi or via the Sprint network.  Faculty and students who have courses on 9.1 are welcome to try it out.  You can download the app from either the iTunes App Store or the Android Market.  After downloading, you will need a special code (use 5DJZWX) in the search area to access A.T. Still University.  Remember though, this tool is still in test mode at ATSU.

The Blackboard Mobile Central app may prove to be even more exciting than Learn over the long term.   This tool allows Universities to develop their own mobile content.  While many schools rave about mobile campus maps and smart phone links to athletic information, these applications don't have much appeal for the ATSU community.  The tool, however, can be used to link to institutional systems outside of Blackboard to create features like student directories, access to library resources, or student grades.  As other third party systems like Google Apps for Education also expand into mobile formats, this tool may be a way to organize mobile development and official apps.  As an example, take a look at what the Medical College of Georgia has done with their mobile app.

I believe these tools have significant potential for ATSU and we are gathering information on how both tools can be implemented with our systems and how they match up with the mobile application strategy under development.  Let me know what you think and what features you would like to see in the mobile space.

Blackboard World #1 - Blackboard Analytics

I am in Las Vegas this week participating in Blackboard World 2011, the Blackboard User Conference.  I should have several posts this week about the conference and the various product announcements by Blackboard, not to mention the miscellaneous rumblings related to the announced purchase of Blackboard by Providence Equity Partners for ~$1.6 Billion.

On Monday and Tuesday, I am attending a Blackboard CIO Symposium event.  This event is targeted to CIOs and allows for some candid conversations about where Blackboard and the education software industry in general are headed.  The first session on Monday was about the Blackboard Collaborate Platform and the recently purchased iStrategy product.  This product is a BI (Business Intelligence and Analytics tool) that I have previously blogged about.  Not a whole lot has changed, so I won't say much more other than the fact that Blackboard has formally announced the addition of a Blackboard Learn Analytics module to this platform.  This module is the 6th module within the Analytics platform.

There session contained a very interesting conversation around the entire Analytics and Business Intelligence areas for education.  Several comments revolved around how the barriers to better use of analytics within our industry are not simply technical.  Many of my peers felt that administration within higher ed have been cautious about sharing data with faculty and other stakeholders and the culture in several organizations was perceived to lack transparency.  Thus, a culture shift may be needed as part of an Analytics and BI implementation.  Another barrier to immediate use of metrics is the fact that many organizations have not contemplated what data structures are necessary to get the desired metrics.   And for those organization which have defined their data, it was noted that there is a significant lack of expertise and even training for the types of skills needed to make analytics a fundamental part of the culture.  The best advice was to get data in many people's hands and then iterate repeatedly to improve both the usefulness and the skills.