Blackboard - WUDASSE B. BERKE · User interview User 1 User 2 User 3 Student 2 yrs using Bb Student 2 month using Bb Professor 5yrs using Bb access several times a week Almost everyday

Blackboard Wudasse Berke . HF 725 . Fall 2015 . Bentley University

Blackboard Inc.• Was founded in 1997 as a consulting company for a global leaning consortium by two ex-

employees of KPMG who were interested in higher education. But by 1998 it had merged

with another company to provider software for higher education institution with its first e-

learning platform, what is now known as Blackboard Learn.

• Since then, Blackboard has grown to an industry giant for providing learning Management

Systems (LMS), not only in the USA but globally providing over 10 different products [1].

• Blackboard gets revenue from annual license fees for its big products to institutions and sale

of smaller products.

• Through out the years, it has went from a private company to the public domain and in

2011 went back to being a private company when an equity group bought it for 1.6 billion

dollars [3].

“Our (Blackboard’s) goal is to make learning more desirable, accessible, and meaningful for learners” [2]

Blackboard analytics

Blackboard collaborate

Blackboard connect

Blackboard learn

Blackboard parentlink

Blackboard schoowires

Blackboard Sociability

Blackboard transact

Mosaic by Blackboard

MyEdu

Moodlerooms

Products

wudasse Bereke. Benltey University

SWOT Analysis o Industry leader with 20 mill

k-12 students, 80% of top

higher education

institutes

o Proprietary intellectual

properties

o A suite of products that

cover a variety of needs

for different leaners

o Capital to buy out

competitors and move

into new markets

o Partnerships with

academic publishing

giants such as McGraw

Hill and Pearson to

intergrade course work

into platform

o Acquisition of multiple

companies limits focus on

developing primary

software. (Bb spent 500

million between 2006-

2012 in acquisition)

o Deviating from goal of

supporting learns by

Involving in enrollment

retention, registration

card admin of institutions

o Development, marketing

and investor driven not

user experience driven

o Customer satisfaction

with blackboard learn

interface is low

o Complicated switching

process to blackboard

o Restructure resources to

make individual products

experience better

o Evaluate goal of the

company with move into

a new market.

o Use resources of an open

source model to get input

from users

o Explore cloud resources

to expand usage of

blackboard lean online

o Use user experience as a

driving force for

development while still

considering investors

o Provide easy migration to

blackboard from other

services for institutions

o Hard to remain

competitive in all areas

with an ever expanding

market

o Companies that are

offering free and open

source LMS such as

Courcera, Lore

o Direct competitors,

DesiretoLearn

Strength Weakness opportunity Threat

!wudasse Bereke. Benltey University

Blackboard Learn

• Proprietary software and e-learning platform for course management.

• Was the initial product rolled out by Blackboard, but expansion into new markets through acquisition had moved focus way form the software and created software blotting with continual addition of features to accommodate new products.

• Product is offered to students in k-12, higher education, government and businesses. (For this project we will be looking at higher education specifically.)

• In higher education institutions, professors can create courses, add materials such as syllabus, assignments and readings to share with students as well as grade assignment while students have a central place to access all their course documents.

• Each institution can customize the product by purchasing additional features of course catalog, books from publishers, and more administrative feature for the institution.

• Blackboard Learn is offered both on web and mobile application, with students using mobile more often.


Professor

Teaching Assistant

• Post syllabus and

course documents

• Track if students

have submitted

assignments on time

• Post assignment and

grade

Students

• View/ download

course documents

from multiple classes

• Submit assignments

• View grade

• View information of

classmates

User groups and Main functions

Quickly go in retrieve

information and get

started on what they

have to do

Mange multiple classes

and documents easily.

Efficient way to connect

with students

Even though Blackboard’s direct customer is the educational Institution, they are not the end users

of blackboard's Learning Management System. According to the product’s promise of provide new

ways to learn the primary user groups are professors and students while the institution is a middle

person providing the service for the user groups.


User interview

User 1 User 2 User 3

Student 2 yrs using Bb Student 2 month using Bb Professor 5yrs using Bb

access several times a week Almost everyday Several times a week in Fall, a

few times in spring

Question to semi-structures interview1. How long have you been using Blackboard learn?

2. Have you seen many changes during this time?

3. How often do you use it with in a semester?

4. What is you over all impression of the tool?

5. What are your favorite features? Why?

6. What are your least favorite features? Why?

7. What functions do you us often?

8. What function have you never used or don’t even know what they are ?

9. If you could change any thing what would it be?

10. If you could add anything what would it be?

11.Have you ever used Blackboard learn mobile before?

12.What are your impressions of it?


Empathy map

Say

Feel

Do

Think

• “ There are a lot of things not related to my

courses that I know I won’t never click in

my semester”

• “ As a student my goals is getting to my

courses nothing else”

• “Oh I have never used personalization's ”

• “ I am not interested not have time to sit

and figure this out”

• Go all over the screen looking for grades

• Take time to find labels and digest all the

information on the webpage

• Searching for “log out” button

• Ignore the functions or labels they don’t

understand

• Navigate vary easily and straight into

action on mobile app

• expect each class to be shown in the

grades menu and vice versa

• have to know your professor’s style to

understand how to navigate course

material

• use it cause I have to

• So many things are redundant

• “I wish it looked better”

• “It is disorienting, the amount of

information available”

• “it is confusing why there is both institution

and courses. They are very similar”

• “it feels redundant and confusing”

• “I like the app so much better, its easier”


Empathy map

Pain Gain

Do not have a lot of time

not interested in understanding

the technology behind it

Too many functions not enough use

Transfer of knowledge from

website to app or vise versa

Hard to navigate and know what

functions are categorized under

Central access to course materials

Way to communicate with professor and

get contact of classmates

Easy access to courses anytime

anywhere


Detailed findings

Most important feature not in

the most important place

“tools” isn’t a good description of the

category as elements in there are not

similar

Offer the same function

Offer similar menu itemsLog out icon is out of

context in a website

Other places labeled

as “to do”


Might be a

helpful

navigation

but tucked

away

Unless

clicked on.

Not in a very

visible place

Main navigation

for course but

doesn’t include

grades. You

have to click on

tools to find it

Detailed findings


Navigation and

layout with in

courses is different

Detailed findings

Professors have the ability to change the layout of their course page as they see fit, but this

can be a challenge for the student who has multiple classes all looking different wudasse Bereke. Benltey University

Website and mobile app have a very different design approach and feel. The Mobile version is very modern and

does a good job at providing important information straight away while on website a user have to do a lot of

navigation with a lot of content on the page

They should work better together

Detailed findings


Design recommendations

Design Principles

Maintain similar visual design

Within platform - course pages should have similar structure and look

Between platforms - Application and website should share design to maintain brand consistency and help users navigate the same way and not learn something new.

Better way of categorizing items

use relevancy to users tasks to organize hierarchy of functions with in the design

Differentiate between my institution and course

Items labeled under tools need to have better sub categories or be embedded into other pages with similar items

Make navigation straight forward

Support user task completion with use of their mental model

Show navigation menu clearly and use icons that are contextually relevant or use words instead


Prototypes


Experience strategy

Blackboard Inc.

Re - evaluate business model - as market forces and trends change it is crucial for any company to examine how they stand in the market and innovate ways to bring better experiences to their customers while staying relevant in their industry. For Blackboard Inc.

oOpening up business to bring in outside talent through open sourcing

o Evaluating value proposition and revenue stream in the context of rising “Free” business

models

Will bring opportunities to grow in areas they lack in with user experience and remain

competitive with the quality of the product rather than buying out competitors .

Align product with company goals - Blackboard’s goal are to help students from different backgrounds by providing new and meaningful ways to learn. However this goal is poorly reflect in some product as they are target to administration or even parents. Thus as Blackboard is expanding and moving into new market segments is important to take a step back and consider changing goals of the company to encompass all products while staying true to providing the best educational experience for all aspects of the educational community.


User experience vision for Blackboard Learn

Be a student anytime, anywhere.with fast and easy access to class materials, assignment submissions and campus resources.


Strategy for user experience vision

1. Identify key users and tasks to target the product to end-user not purchaserBecause institutions are the ones purchasing Blackboard learn, features are provided that are

attractive to institutions such as registrations, card administration with in the software that has no

relevance to the learning process and has been seen to be a distraction to the end users. Thus in

crafting a “ desirable and meaningful” learning experience it is crucial to design for students and

teachers not institutions.

2. Understand users mental model and expectations for the productThere is discrepancy between what user expect to find in the website and what is presented. This

shows that users mental model is different that how the website is structured. This creates issues with

navigation and overall experience as user feel frustrated or annoyed. A clear understanding of user

and their goals will help map out their mental model and to design accordingly.

3. Active engagement of the development and design team with end users during the

improvement and creation of features.There are a lot of features with in the products that user’s don’t find useful because it is not related

to their task or they don’t understand what it is. By identifying such features it becomes easier for the

design team to relate to the user on an emotional level and facilitate a desirable experience. This

will also build trust with customers as they know they are being considered in the design and

development.


Blackboard Learn

4. Move away from more function to better experienceA way to make a product better isn’t always to provide more functionality or customizability.

Rather, as it is evident with the application, simplicity and experience centered design that comes

from a clear understanding of the user and their needs can transform a tool.

5. Consistent design approach/ themes across platformHaving common design principles across a product allows for a cohesive understanding of the

product regardless of platform. This allow the user’s familiarity with one platform to transfer to

another .

6. Brand identity through designBuilding company values and goals into design allow for the user to relate to the company on

multiple levels as well as build expectations of quality and assurance that will keep user coming

back for more.

7. Business model of productBecause Blackboard learn is a very versatile tool that spans over multiple customer segments, the

product has expanded to fulfill needs of some customer segments but not all. Moving forward

Blckboard should consider implementing a different business model to accommodate all users. See

next slide for proposed business model.


Business model for Blackboard Learn

Value proposition

Customer segment

Students

Professor

Institution

Course

management

Revenue

Stream

Customer

segment

Student Info

Management

Learning

Management

Revenue

Stream

Value proposition

Currently, Blackboard learn is provided as the only

proposition for three customer segments with

different goal, this creates a confusion on who to

target the product for cause the purchaser is not

the primary user.

In the long run, blackboard should evaluate

its business model and consider a multi-sided

platform with multiple ( limited to market

segment) products as possible business

model while still providing “free” service

Students

Professor

Institution


In conclusion, while providing visual changes and creating design principles willchange the experience of Blackboard Learn, true change will come from top downwhen the company’s business model is centered around user experience and thatdetermines however parts, products and activity of the company are conducted.


Reference

1. Blackboard Inc. (2015). Blackboard Inc. MarketLine Company Profile, 1-20.

2. Blackboard.com/about-us/who-we-are

3. Balckboard Inc (15 September 2015) wikipedia.com

4. Harper, D. (February 28 2006) Blackboard’s Greater Business model. Retrieved from www.investopedia.com

5. Kenneth C. Green (April 2, 2012). The long (and open?) view on Blackboard. Retrieved from InsideHigherED.com

6. Melissa Korn (3 November 2014). Providence’s Blackboard to offer Chegg Touring Services Through Its Software. Private Equity Beat. Wall street Journal

7. Osterwalder, A. & Pigneur, Y. (2010) Business Model Generation. Wiley publishing . New Jersey


Documents

Blackboard - WUDASSE B. BERKE · User interview User 1 User 2 User 3 Student 2 yrs using Bb Student 2 month using Bb Professor 5yrs using Bb access several times a week Almost everyday