Theme V: Blackboard

On March 15, 2000, Nicholas Irons attended a meeting at 57th Street and brought back the Blackboard CourseInfo software. Blackboard makes it possible for an instructor to develop course sites that include sophisticated features (grade book management; threaded discussions; examinations) without having to learn to write HTML. It gives faculty and administrators alike a quick and easy way to put up websites for their courses or units, and its introduction in the fall 2000 was accompanied by many training opportunities for both faculty and their students. The Blackboard server (like the software, generously provided by the University) arrived over the course of the spring semester, and implementing the Blackboard electronic learning platform became AIT’s major fall initiative.

In the fall 2000 Vice-President Steve Little supported AIT’s Blackboard trainer, Dr. Sylvie Richards, for Blackboard’s annual conference, an event she found immensely helpful. Halloween was the date set for the official Blackboard launch party, a festive and well- attended event. In the fall Dr. Richards and WebCourse coordinator Professor Lilia. Melani (English) also introduced Blackboard to this year’s WebCourse class, and some FIPSE faculty developers began moving their courses into Blackboard. We believe that Blackboard will dramatically change faculty training and development for Web-assisted teaching. It is our intention to become the University’s premiere Blackboard site.

In January 2001, we migrated from CourseInfo to Blackboard 5. While the rollout was not without its fits and starts, the many new features contained in 5 made the move well worth the effort.

On January 9, 2001, Dr. Richards presented a day-long Blackboard seminar for History Department faculty, a pilot for similar workshops to be conducted for other academic departments during the spring 2001 semester. At a January 30 recap, History faculty Philip Gallagher and KC Johnson provided valuable feedback which we will use to shape future training opportunities.

Faculty seem especially interested in the reserves feature of Blackboard, which they see as a replacement for the photocopied “course packs” many instructors presently employ. A deeper understanding of how the copyright law’s fair use provision affects e-reserves is needed, and the Library has planned two events to provide the needed insights. On February 8 we sponsored a teleconference on the topic, and on April 26 copyright expert Carrie Russell of the American Library Association’s Office for Information Technology Policy will present a half-day workshop on copyright and course sites.