Following consultation with staff and students earlier this year, we are working to improve Blackboard’s look, feel and ease of use. We currently plan to launch this more user-friendly Blackboard in early September.
What’s changing?
Alongside Blackboard’s annual summer upgrade, this year we are making changes to its design and appearance to help make it a more user-friendly, visually engaging and accessible tool for staff and students to use. The image below gives an idea of roughly how it is likely to look. Please note that this is a work-in-progress and the final interface may look slightly different (the images and headings may change, for example).
Why?
Results from staff and student surveys, along with anecdotal feedback, suggested that people were finding Blackboard ‘cluttered’, text-heavy and challenging in places to navigate. A need was identified to work with staff and students more closely to unpick this and to engage them in contributing to the re-design of a more user-friendly and accessible tool.
When?
Work is taking place over the summer to implement the identified changes. It is planned to launch this new look Blackboard in early September.
What will this mean for you?
These changes are designed to give an improved user experience for our staff and students. All the same functionality will still be available and Blackboard will work in the same way.
If staff are planning to create any resources that require use of Blackboard imagery, it would be advisable to wait until the new look is available before doing so.
Support/resources
The Technology Enhanced Learning (TEL) team will be creating a short video suitable for staff to use to support students, new and returning, in getting started with (the new look) Blackboard. Details of this will be communicated towards the end of the summer.
If you have any questions relating to these improvements, please feel free to reply to this blog post or email me: l.j.mccann@reading.ac.uk
Lauren & the TEL CQSD team