The Computing Services Department launched a pilot version of Blackboard 9.1 for a number of courses on Monday, according to Barbara Knauff, assistant director of educational technologies. The updated software, which aims to improve the current website's "clunky" nature and confusing interface, will be installed campus-wide during a two-day outage on June 16 and 17, between Commencement and the beginning of Summer term, according to Knauff.
The pilot program is being tested on 30 to 35 courses such as Quantitative Political Analysis and Environment and Society, Knauff said.
Students can use a new "Personalize Page" option to change the software's new color scheme and can reorganize the three new main modules "My Organizations," "My Announcements" and "My Dartmouth Courses" tabs on the home page, Knauff said.
The new version of Blackboard also improves the site's accessibility through a "My Places" option, which allows users to customize text size and adjust contrast settings. The tab also provides a list of quick links to all courses and organizations in which the user is enrolled.
"The new version is a lot more customizable," Amanda Albright, senior education technologist, said in an interview with The Dartmouth. "If you don't like the current arrangement, you can change it. There is a lot more drag and drop."
This version of the software also incorporates features typically used in social networking websites.
"[Blackboard] is a commercial product," Knauff said. "[Blackboard, Inc. is] trying to include the functionality of social networking in the product."
Students can use a new avatar feature similar to the what many students have on Facebook to upload a profile picture. Knauff said this will allow for easier user identification on discussion boards.
The new system also incorporates a notifications tab, which informs users of changes made by students and instructors, such as the posting of a reading, podcast or assignment. Each notification is a direct link, according to Knauff, so clicking a notification about a new podcast takes the user straight to that podcast, for example.
Students can also edit the site's settings to receive notifications of their choice emailed to them directly.
The Mash-Up tool which will exist as part of the text editing toolbar in discussion board postings allows students and faculty to upload YouTube videos, Flickr Photos and SlideShare presentations in discussion threads. Users can also search, preview and link relevant videos from YouTube, Albright said. The software allows users to either share the link with a thumbnail or embed it directly, according to Albright.
To better organize content, the new version has segregated pages for organizations in a separate "Community" tab, equipped with discussion boards for registered members of each community, Albright said.
The system also automatically hides any links without content on the left-hand menu, according to Knauff. Empty tabs are considered one of the "top little annoyances" among student users, she said.
Changes in Blackboard 9.1 incorporate feedback from students and faculty solicited through focus groups, Knauff said.
Responses to the pilot program have been mostly positive, although it is too early in the pilot period to judge the success of the changes, Knauff said.
"We've actually met with the entire faculty [participating] in the pilot and helped then set up the website," she said. "We've been in touch with them. They've been on the system longer than the students, because they were building their course websites."
Government professor Brian Greenhill, who is using the pilot program for one of his classes, said that the new system's "slightly more intuitive interface" made the site much easier to navigate.
"We've been getting a lot of help for issues we may have [with the system]," he said, adding that professors have had the opportunity to report bugs in the system to representatives from Computing Services.
Computing Services has been gathering feedback from faculty, and aims to acquire more critiques from students by the middle of the term, according to Knauff.
"There's a lot of neat, new stuff," she said. "We hope the students find out some of the new features. Getting word around has been a challenge and we encourage students to just email us and give us feedback."
Although most students interviewed by The Dartmouth who have been using the new system said they have not yet found time to explore its various features, several said they were happy with the changes.
"The new Blackboard is fairly straightforward and easy to use," Joseph Coleman '11, a student in Environment and Society, said in an email to The Dartmouth. "So far I don't notice much of a difference. However, the transition is annoying given that not all of your classes are listed in the same format."
