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Capital University, United States
Dr. Linda G. Wolf and Dr. Jens Hemmingsen
Capital University significantly strengthened its assessment and institutional effectiveness work through implementing Anthology Outcomes and Planning. The culture of assessment deepened with an increase in the number and breadth of engaged programs. Capital is able to produce more integrated and meaningful data to inform decisions around student success. Programs can see directly how their work contributes to the overall student achievement of the university Signature Learning Outcomes and program outcomes. The Anthology platform will enable Capital to continue to ask and answer more nuanced questions to address student learning and success.
Danville Community College, United States
Center for Organizational Excellence & Data Analytics (COEDA) - Cory Potter, Justin Nichols, Mark Rutledge, and Tamela Adams
The Center for Organizational Excellence and Data Analytics (COEDA) recently adopted Anthology Planning utilizing best practices that help cultivate and sustain a collaborative culture of assessment and strategic planning where results are used for continuous improvement efforts. The teams' work improved effectiveness by infusing the College's strategic planning efforts with professional development opportunities, providing leaders of the College with confidence in developing objectives, tracking progress, and providing documented evidence. The COEDA team also infused Anthology Planning into its COEDA Nexus (internal SharePoint site).
Keiser University - Online Division, United States
Sherry Olsen, Daniel DiStasio, Neha Prakash, Marcel Laronde and the General Education Team
The online division at Keiser University began the General Education assessment process in 2020 with the help of their consultant Dr. Ruth Newberry. The committee was led by Daniel DiStacio, his team of 13 faculty, and Neha Prakash, using Blackboard Outcomes and EAC. Curriculum maps were developed and reviewed. Rubrics were created for writing, information literacy, critical thinking, math, and science. The team used both primary and juried assessment to launch the process. Artifacts were collected and reviewed. Reports from EAC helped the general education assessment team identify areas for improvement and the assessment cycle was formed.
The University of Tennessee - Knoxville, United States
Assessment Steering Committee - Dr. Heather Hartman, Dr. Denise Gardner Dr. Melissa Brown, Dr. Noelia Pacheco Diaz, Dr. Virginia Stormer, Ashley Browning, Ashley Charsha, and Michael McFall
By implementing a collaborative meta-assessment process, the Assessment Steering Committee created a culture of assessment at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville by expanding training opportunities that allow for specific questions to be answered, ensuring faculty are aware of the expectations around reporting, using a meta-assessment rubric, and improving student learning based on faculty-driven feedback that is accessible and meaningful.
Universidad César Vallejo, Peru
Heraclio Campana, Yrene Chamorro, and Emerson Cajahuanca
The project includes preparation, execution, monitoring and control, and evaluation. It allows the establishment of a product or evidence and the rubric to carry out an examination in the first and third units, aligning the specific and generic competences with the learning outcomes in each CE and the correspondent graduation aptitude. It provides detailed information that permits monitoring the level of achievement of the students' skills for reaching an increase of 16% regarding the current results. Moreover, this activity facilitates the managers to make decisions appropriately for applying improvement actions.
Universidad Popular Autónoma del Estado de Puebla, A.C., Mexico
Institutional Effectiveness Office - Soraya Reyes Guerrero, Sandra Karina Camacho, Maria Elena Lara Rodriguez, Maria Guadalupe Gutierrez Sanchez, and Norma Zavala Hernandez
Since 2018, UPAEP's Institutional Effectiveness Office has deployed institutional strategies, assisted by the Blackboard platform, to create and implement a learning outcomes assessment structure. This structure aimed to incorporate all faculty members into a culture of graduation profile and institutional mission assessment. Nowadays, the entire academic community of the university is involved and engaged in meaningful and manageable assessment dynamics at different levels of scope: institutional, college, and program. Implementing such innovative assessment practices positively impacts continuous institutional improvement.
Arkansas State University, United States
Carolyn Ponce, Blackboard Administrator
Carolyn Ponce has supported the Blackboard Community for numerous years. She has taken over leadership roles within many Blackboard Community groups, including the Blackboard ListServs, the Blackboard Original Experience Users Group, Technical Office Hours, and the Blackboard Techies Slack environment. She has made various presentations at Blackboard Worlds which provide information and insight to new and veteran Blackboard administrators. She has also launched repositories on GitHub which include Blackboard Administration documentation, LTI Icon Repository and a Blackboard database query repository.
Saudi Electronic University, Saudi Arabia
College of Health Sciences - Dr. Mohammed Almohaithef, Dr. Salah Alshagrawi, and Dr. Bussma Bugis
As part of its role in community engagement, SEU provided free access to the National Security Health Program for more than 2,600 students across the Kingdom. Under the supervision of the Saudi Health Committee, the program aims to cover the shortage in the healthcare system, in line with the Saudi Vision of 2030. The program targets unemployed youth to prepare them with knowledge to work in this field. All graduates of the program are now employed in government hospitals. By offering the program on Blackboard, SEU facilitated communication between trainers and trainees from all over the Kingdom through discussion forums and other tools.
UniCesumar - Educação Presencial e a Distância, Brazil
Canais - Tiago Lorenzo Stachon and Mara Michela Silva Gomes
Thinking about people becoming more negative in their lives, the online unit at Unicesumar decided to launch an 1800h course (2y) called the science of happiness, free of charge, expecting these scientists to multiply their knowledge to help people to know their purpose to be happy. Admission and communication with those interested were possible using CampusNexus CRM. More than 2 million emails were sent and 450,000 people were impacted, with an open rate of 27%. Expecting initially to offer 500 scholarships, Unicesumar had to increase to 1000, as more than 12,000 applications were received, proving the demand and impact in their community.
University of Tabuk, Saudi Arabia
Dr. Ali Alshammari and the Deanship of eLearning and Distance Education
Based on the constructivist philosophy, this initiative focuses on establishing communication channels between students, instructors, staff members, and other people who share the same concern or an interest in a topic/discipline. The initiative includes three main components: Community of Practice (CoP), Online Academic Advising, and Effective Communication.
Johns Hopkins University, United States
Ann Garrison Darrin and Dr. Hong Shaddy
At the Whiting School of Engineering, Johns Hopkins University, an inclusive pedagogy was implemented to transform learning. A Space Systems Engineering course leveraged diversity to foster engagement, collaboration, and a sense of belonging for all. The class met course learning objectives as well as ABET student outcomes for engineering graduates to function and lead in a collaborative and inclusive workplace environment. The course strived towards a broader goal of better preparing students for an increasingly diverse world and promoting a more equitable and cohesive society.
The British University in Dubai, United Arab Emirates
Dr. Tendai Charles, Director of Centre for Research in Digital Education
During the COVID-19 pandemic, Dr. Tendai Charles explored a variety of options for supporting students with Special Educational Needs (SEN) as they encountered their first experience of studying alone in an online context. He determined that ‘Ally’ was the most advanced tool available on the market, so he began an awareness raising campaign at the British University in Dubai (BUiD) to encourage students to make use of it. Faculty were also trained on how to create digitally inclusive didactic materials. Hence, since 2020, BUiD has been one of the leading universities in the MENA-region for supporting SEN students with online and hybrid learning.
Hampden-Sydney College, United States
Office of College Advancement and Office of Parent & Alumni Engagement
In January 2019, Hampden-Sydney College launched Tigers in Touch as an ongoing effort to find lost alumni and encourage all alumni to maintain updated contact information with the college, but the request to update info also came with a request to make a gift. Fast forward to 2021 - to help promote their No. 2 ranked alumni network and obtain updated alumni info, Hampden-Sydney College utilized Anthology forms & email to relaunch Tigers in Touch. The result was an incredibly successful campaign where they have currently achieved 93% of their goal.
Mary Baldwin University, United States
University Advancement
The Advancement Team at Mary Baldwin University shattered Day of Giving records on March 17, 2022. The $466,043 raised bested goals for the day and eclipsed last year’s total by almost $50,000. The money supports the Empowers Fund which focuses on unrestricted student-centered priorities like scholarships, academics, and programming. This annual day is a key component to the Empowers Campaign, a $50M multi-year comprehensive campaign. The Advancement team leveraged their Encompass tool to build a dynamic giving day site, create template emails, conduct and track challenges and more.
Spelman College, United States
Office of Annual Giving Team: Doris Pierce-Hardy, Erica Lamberson, Keisha Myco-Tant, and Simone Walls
The Office of Annual Giving at Spelman College utilized the Encompass Maps Scoreboard for our end-of-year fiscal campaign, Road to June 30. During this final push, the goal was to inspire our alumnae to donate by promoting a soft competition with other alumnae around the country and offering a visual representation of what participation looked like regionally. The Maps Scoreboard feature was also an excellent way for the Office of Annual Giving to see where the concentration of alumnae donors is located and identify potential prospects for leadership and significant giving.
KU Endowment, United States
Annual Giving and Communications & Donor Relations Teams: Kerry Glasgow, Bridgett Walthall, Victoria Sickinger, and Michelle Keller
KU Endowment's annual renewal program has seen incredible growth over the last three years as the KU team has used data to inform their solicitation strategy for this group of donors. Leveraging an Encompass Giving Form for donations and Encompass email tools for email marketing the team executed an impactful campaign that grew support significantly.
University of Pittsburgh, United States
PAE Communications Team, PAE Digital Communications Team, and the PAE Alumni Relations Team
Pitt Panthers on the (Scavenger) Hunt (PPSH) is a Pitt Alumni Association-sponsored event that ran from Wednesday, June 9 - Sunday, June 13, 202. Alumni were asked to complete a series of challenges that spanned across four categories: Networking, Pitt Pride, Show off Your City, and Philanthropic. Alumni were be awarded points for each challenge, which were tracked via an online leaderboard. Winners were chosen based on the number of points earned. The initiative looked to connect alumni during an uncertain and hybrid time.
Botho University, Botswana
Blended and Distance Learning Team - Ravi Srinivasan, Subhashree Ravi, Tidimalo Pence, Nametso Mogome, Brighton Banda, and Lesego Lefatlho
The nominated team distinguished itself as a market leader in Botswana. This was done by coming up with groundbreaking innovative solutions in response to the COVID-19 pandemic under the initiative dubbed “Breaking Walls”. The initiative involved leveraging on the technology provided by Anthology and Blackboard underpinning those digital capabilities with an adaptive e-pedagogy. The ultimate goal was to enhance student recruitment and retention.
Galileo Global Education & Macromedia GmbH, Germany
Team LMS: Monika Felder, Tara Assadi, Phil-Marvin Müller, Leon Herrmann, and Elisabeth Sandow
The Team LMS changed the complete learning experience for the students of Macromedia, University of Applied Sciences. The MOVE2BB meant for all 5000 students and hundreds of instructors to move from Moodle and Teams to Blackboard in 10 months – all the while promoting and implementing the new didactical concept of “mPower”. The Course Life Cycle and the enrolments were automated, connecting Blackboard to the SIS. Most of the work was dedicated to training instructors and staff. With Q&A-Sessions, office hours, live trainings and trainings materials the Team LMS provided around 20 training and 7 additional marketing measures.
Northern Illinois University, United States
Jason Rhode, Matt Parks, Susan Smith, Nick Choban, Daniel Ihm, Therese Arado, and Stephanie Richter
Northern Illinois University (NIU) conducted a comprehensive Learning Management System (LMS) review during the 2020-2021 academic year. While faculty usage and satisfaction with Blackboard were high, the university had not formally evaluated the LMS in a number of years. The team developed a thorough, comprehensive process that included extensive input from faculty, staff, and students on the features they desired in a modern LMS to support innovative teaching and learning. The result was a robust and rigorous review process that was inclusive, transparent, ethical, future-proofed, and grounded in NIU’s culture and context.
Qassim University, Saudi Arabia
Dr. Saad Aldawsari and the Deanship of E-Learning and Distance Education
Qassim University (QU) is one of the most experienced universities in the Middle East in using the Blackboard system, adapting its applications and tools in educational development, addressing its obstacles, reducing expenditures, investing in education, and increasing the return of it. Therefore, the University has converted the general education courses to an e-learning system, which are performed completely virtually via the Blackboard system. Moreover, QU has activated the Educational Medical Clinics for medicine students, an initiative entitled "Consult Your Doctor at Home" via Blackboard Collaborate Ultra, and much more.
Saudi Electronic University, Saudi Arabia
Vice Presidency of Academic Affairs: Dr. Hazzaa Alshareef and Dr. Maha Helal
The Saudi Electronic University (SEU) prides itself on being the pioneer of future learning. Being the only university adopting the blended mode of teaching in Saudi, the Blackboard National License Project enabled the University to be at the forefront of e-learning. SEU acts as the sole provider for Blackboard licenses to higher education institutes, provides them with a state-of-the-art secured data center, supports them through technical support and training workshops, and has recently taken the initiative of including private higher education institutes in the National License Project to ensure equality and inclusion.
Universidad Peruana de Ciencias Aplicadas, Peru
Educational Innovation Team
Hyplex-UPC's learnings over last two years have led them to rethink many aspects, such as the change from the creation of emergency remote sessions to the search for teaching-learning strategies in virtual environments that change paradigms. Even now that face-to-face learning has returned, teachers and students maintain their interest in online education and advancing through it. So, UPC seeks to make the educational proposal more flexible with hybrid spaces: f2f and online simultaneously. One of the challenges was designing the solution with the student and teacher experience in mind and not the technology.
University of Leeds, United Kingdom
Minerva Upgrade Project Team
The Minerva Upgrade Project was launched in 2019 to move Leeds' Blackboard VLE, Minerva, first from on-premises to managed hosting, then to SaaS delivery to provide a more robust and reliable platform. The second phase of the project saw the institution's approx. 8,500 module teaching areas move from Original to Ultra Course View ahead of the 2022/23 academic year, providing a powerful, community-first, truly engaging teaching and learning experience and delivering on Leeds' ambitious digital transformation strategy. These changes combined delivered the most significant change to online teaching at Leeds since Blackboard was adopted in 2008.
Coppin State University, United States
The Visionaries
With innovative, multi-faceted strategies, Coppin State University, an HBCU, digitally transformed business processes and optimized student experience by implementing Anthology Reach, Apply, Succeed, and Occupation Insight. The strategy encompassed implementing a Web Services Sync between Reach and the Student Information System; improving the application and request for information pages for an engaging applicant experience; imploring change management principles to increase adoption; and implementing Occupation Insight to transform curriculum to reduce gaps between skills acquired through courses and skills expected by employers.
Kennesaw State University, United States
Divison of Student Affairs and Scrappy's Bucket List - Jessica Duvall, Dr. Gloria Laureano, and Dr. Cara Ray
Scrappy’s Bucket List (SBL) is Kennesaw State University’s newest campus tradition. Led by the Division of Student Affairs, SBL challenges students to participate in a broad array of meaningful and diverse campus experiences intended to strengthen students' sense of belonging. The positive connection between campus engagement and student success is well-established. However, figuring out where to start can be overwhelming. SBL uses Anthology Engage to incentivize and provide a clear pathway to campus engagement for students. In the first year of implementation, nearly 60% of students had made progress towards completing Scrappy’s Bucket List.
University of Derby, United Kingdom
Digital Learning Team (Digital Solutions and Services)
The University of Derby's new Digital Learning Baselines, with accompanying staff development activities, were implemented to optimize the student learning experience across all modules in Blackboard and deliver a high-quality Blended Applied Learning Model. The supporting assurance process involving student feedback, academic staff self-reviews and analysis of learning materials in Blackboard by Learning Technologists used a triangulation of data sources to evaluate the quality of the student learning experience. The data-driven approach enabled swift interventions to enhance and optimize the learning experience of students and their sense of belonging.
University of Pretoria, South Africa
FLY@UP Orientation Team: Prof Norman Duncan, Dr. Hestie Byles, Lerato Sethoga, Johan Slabbert, Dolf Jordaan, and Dr. Kgadi Mathabathe
The University of Pretoria introduced a three-tiered orientation program to prepare new first-year students from diverse backgrounds for their transition into the University. Tier one is a pre-orientation Bb module offering all provisionally accepted students a glimpse into UP. Tier two consists of a week of interactive Bb Collaborate orientation sessions hosted by staff and senior students that address academic, social, psychosocial, and administrative needs of newly registered students. Tier three is a seven-week Bb module offering first-year students an extended orientation with weekly nudges and focused exposure to UP support services.
VIU - Universidad Internacional de Valencia, Spain
Experience D&D: Pere Juanes, Jaime Yagüe, Paula Corcuera, Israel Bru, Alba Bonafont, and Alicia Aparisi
The ‘Te escuchamos’ project provides the students with a voice so they can share their experience whenever and wherever they want. Through the use of Blackboard technology, VIU collected and analyzed opinions to discover insights that can lead to generating improvements in any area of the University, troubleshooting issues and promoting good practices. Likewise, the insights detected are used to enhance cross-departmental work and improve administrative processes. The ‘Te escuchamos’ project represents the firm intention of VIU to establish a co-creation ecosystem that involves all the actors to design the best online university experience.
Keiser University - Online Division, United States
Sherry Olsen, Marcel Laronde and the Online Dean Team
Using Bb Analytics allowed the Keiser University Online Division to use an early intervention approach in reaching at risk students leading to an increase in retention and completion rates. Better advisement and contact led to higher student satisfaction rates on surveys and in increase in student contact and interventions, and the ability to address the needs of our first-time students. Being able to use data and turn that into actionable items was a game changer for helping students stay in school and graduate.
University of Pretoria, South Africa
High Impact Modules Project Team - Prof Gerrit Stols, Dr. Juan-Claude Lemmens, Dr. Sanet Haupt, Detken Scheepers, and Dolf Jordaan
The High Impact Modules Project team at the University of Pretoria implemented effective course evaluation practices that resulted in improved student outcomes and improvement in the quality of teaching and learning. The purpose of this project was to provide a holistic review of a selection of courses with targeted interventions to increase the pass rates of the course. Blackboard Analytics4Learn data and qualitative course reviews were used to understand the specific issues that impact on the performance of a course, namely in terms of curriculum, assessment, policies and practices, support services, communication, students and lecturers.
University of Petroleum and Energy Studies, India
Team Project GROW: Dr. Ritam Dutta and Pooja Khanna
Project GROW focused on developing career adaptability and resilience of 183 MBA students enrolled in 13 diverse domain-specific programs. The aim of the project was to develop a growth mindset and personal agency in students for mitigating career shocks by designing a future course of action aligned with the students' personal values, interests, and purpose. Two life-skill courses were collaboratively offered to the students with the intention of preparing them to persist against career shocks and the results measured on the Career Adapt-abilities scale showed positive changes.
Eastern Kentucky University, United States
Dr. Stephanie McSpirit, Sam Williamson, and Mary Henson
SOC 232 is the foundation social statistics course at Eastern Kentucky University for future nurses and social workers in the online BSN and BSW programs. The 20% drop-fail-withdrawal (DFW) rate was a concern for retention and graduation in both programs. Working with Mary Henson and Sam Williamson of the instructional design center, Dr. Steph McSpirit redeveloped the course to address the needs of students who were struggling the most. The redesign included mini lectures, open-source statistical software, a time-management self-assessment as well as other course changes. With the course redesign, the DFW rate was cut in half.
King Khalid University, Saudi Arabia
E-learning Deanship
KKU believes that they must contribute to creating a learning environment established for simplifying the learning process while using modern technologies and electronic activities relevant to the content of the courses. Therefore, the ELD developed E-Lab, which is an open platform, with the primary goal of explaining scientific concepts in a simplified, enjoyable form. The platform helped them deal with urgent circumstances, particularly the COVID-19 crisis.
Mapúa Malayan Colleges Mindanao, Philipines
HyFlex Team - Dodjie S. Maestrecampo, Alejandro H. Ballado Jr., Lalaine Joan V. Alfeche, and Josef Mika-el M. del Corro
Mapúa Malayan Colleges Mindanao has adapted and implemented the HyFlex Learning Approach, an initiative that focuses on enhancing the student experience, assuring that their learning needs are supported, regardless of the modality. The students are given the flexibility to choose between Limited Face-to-Face, Online Synchronous, or Online Asynchronous modes. The HyFlex classroom incorporates technology that bridges the gaps in the digital learning space. At the core of this learning approach is Blackboard Learn, ensuring that regardless of the modality, the students will experience, digest, and interact with the same quality learning content.
Technical and Vocational Training Corporation, Saudi Arabia
Norah Abdulaziz Alkathiry, Wafa Salah Aljufayr, and Abdullah Othman Alkhalaf
As a huge training organization with +200,000 Trainees and +10,000 Trainers, we seek to create a flexible training environment that meets different challenges and circumstances. Our eLearning team designed a new training model: Blended Training. This model enhances training by providing a flexible environment (no place or time limits), increasing the level of communication and activity monitoring, and improving trainees' self-learning and research skills. Our Blended Training depends on Blackboard as a fundamental system with its various tools to provide a full classroom experience.
Torrens University Australia, Australia
Product Innovation and Bachelor of Branded Fashion Academics Team - Jaki Walker, Nijel Ratonel, and Kaveh Tabar Heydar
Torrens University Australia (TUA) designed and developed the Virtual Design Studio, an immersive technology that advances innovative ways of learning through simulation of activities that typically occur in real-world fashion studios. In this extended reality (XR) space, Branded Fashion students at TUA are provided with the opportunity to learn by doing and reflect on their experiences. With the XR environment designed around experiential, authentic and reflective learning, the learners immerse themselves with interactive learning activities and experimentation in a risk-free virtual environment.
Universidad César Vallejo, Peru
Heraclio Campana, Lily Salazar, and Angelina Mariños G.
This project aims to ensure that teachers of the same CE (curricular experiences) would be able to use materials and resources to reach the expected learning achievement. The CE develops the templates design and implements the learning sessions with all their materials and resources according to information established in the syllabus. Their creation includes a collaborative process leaded by experts. In addition, some innovative methodological strategies for virtual education are going to be incorporated.
University of Illinois Chicago, College of Dentistry, United States
Predoctoral Implant Program - Dr. Cortino Sukotjo, Dr. Judy Yuan, Dr. Fatemeh Afshari, and Dr. Michael Spector
The progressive Predoctoral Implant Program (PIP) uses the Blackboard platform to serve as a repository to benefit the student’s educational experience and enhance high-quality patient care. The comprehensive web-based platform facilitates and enhances learning beyond the classroom. This pedagogy is instrumental since it breaks geographical and time boundaries and is timely, especially during the current COVID-19 pandemic crisis. The impact of the PIP has benefited three major stakeholders through the integration of Blackboard into the program—the Student Learner, the Community, and the Educational Mission.
The University of Texas at El Paso, United States
Abha Singh, Senior Lecturer
Abha Singh has discovered through her own experiments that technology ushers in fundamental structural changes that can be integral to achieving significant improvements in productivity, whether it is a 300-student face-to-face class or online teaching. Used to support both teaching and learning, the Blackboard LMS platform among others, transforms her classrooms by ushering in a new model of connected teaching. This model links her to her students and to professional content, resources, and systems to help them improve their own learning due to its flexibility and adaptability to differentiated learning even with or without the pandemic.
University of the District of Columbia, United States
The Center for the Advancement of Learning (CAL)
The most demanding challenge pose by the pandemic, was maintaining access to learning. As an HBCU, and only public university in the District of Columbia, the university is restricted by economic limitations and is compelled to have a clear vision and strategic plan. Upgrading to Blackboard Ultra was the core plan to create an accessible learning ecosystem, making UDC LMS the hub. The power of the platform lies in providing access for its responsive design. Subsequently, within a nine-month time-period, the entire university had successfully transitioned to Blackboard Ultra. UDC stakeholders came together to implement, learn, and advance.
University of Petroleum and Energy Studies, India
Team 'Living Conversations' - Gaurav Misra, Sharmila Katre, Manisha Mohan, Pooja Khanna, Rekha Verma, Bitopi Dutta, Sakshi Chanana, Ritam Dutta, and Annapurna Parige Leela Lakshmi
Studies have shown that life skills education is effective in preventing a wide range of problems such as substance abuse, mental health, bullying, etc. and promoting self-awareness and self-confidence. The ‘Living Conversations’ course empowered more than 10,000 students with 21st century life skills, even though the course was conducted entirely online. It helped them in character development as well as personality improvement to become future leaders and problem-solvers of tomorrow. The ‘Living Conversations’ course also helped to contribute to the UN Sustainable Development Goal 4 of ensuring “quality education”.
King Faisal University, Saudi Arabia
Prof. Fawaz Waselallah Alsaade, Dr. Ali Saeed Alzahrani, and Dr. Mosleh Hmoud Al-Adhaileh
KFU in its strategic plan targets building a creative and innovative educational environment leading to excellence in the teaching and learning process. Various types of technology available which involve digital content, and interactive materials (virtual and holographic) that appeal to different learning styles and enhance the processes of teaching and learning. KFU uses Blackboard to create one educational stop for teaching and learning and provide a diverse and rich experience of teaching and learning. KFU is dedicated to providing high quality education and looks forward to continuing this goal through the technology of today and tomorrow.
Augusta Technical College, United States
Distance Education for H.I.V.E. Team
Augusta Technical College launched a blended teaching and learning series focused on Hosting Inclusive Virtual Environments (HIVE). Using Blackboard, the H.I.V.E Team combined asynchronous modules, live virtual sessions, and discussion boards, to create a community focused on supporting transgender students, creating more inclusive syllabi, and avoiding and handling microaggressions, learning the history of diversity, equity, and inclusion issues in higher education, exploring our own implicit biases, practicing inclusive course design, building cultures of respect, understanding how to provide culturally sensitive feedback, and cultivating confidence.
National Institute of Education, Singapore
Center for Innovation in Learning: Shamini Thilarajah, Renuka Nasendran, and Eric Bonneau
The NIE Blended Learning Design Toolkit, which is accessible anytime and anywhere, aims to scaffold and empower faculty in (re)designing existing courses into constructively aligned blended courses. It does so using an Interactive Designer tool (Design), Blackboard Blended Course Templates (Development) and a Quality Assurance Self-Checklist (Evaluation). As an Electronic Performance Support System (EPSS), it presents itself as a non-traditional approach to professional development by effectively weaving into the course planning process and thereby enhancing it and upskilling the faculty’s blended course design capabilities on-demand.
Teesside University, United Kingdom
Digital Transformation Team (SLAR) - Ann Thanaraj, Paul Durston, Chris Cooper, Emma Bradburn, Simon Patterson, Russell Smeaton, Caitlin Timlin, and Stephen Waterhouse
Achievements of the institutional-wide professional development to embed digital teaching excellence resulted in a 96% overall satisfaction with 91% of staff feeling confident in using Bb Ultra generating significant improvements in VLE utilization in terms of pedagogy-led, inclusive learning design and a more digitally competent/fluent staff body. It was a gamechanger for the learning experience offered to students through integrating Ally into the VLE. Also, it resulted in buy-in from Senior Management in schools to collaboratively expand the learning ecosystem beyond conventional spaces bringing about mindset change and improved confidence in staff.
The University of Texas at El Paso, United States
UTEP Technology Support
The University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP) Technology Support team developed a robust training and support program around the adoption of the Blackboard Learn Ultra Course View and various instructional technologies to help improve the overall educational experience. The program includes flexible training solutions and resources designed for faculty convenience. It features an innovative training course, websites with resources for adopting the Ultra course view and learning to utilize educational technologies, and a faculty support lab.
The University of Toledo, United States
UToledo Online
UToledo Online stands out as a model department of instructional designers, educational technologists, help desk staff, and learning technology administrators that collectively works to provide technology infrastructure, technical and pedagogical support, and rich, structured faculty development to The University of Toledo. UToledo Online's comprehensive approach to training and support includes a 5-course instructor certification series; Faculty Resource Center in Bb; custom end-user guides; evening and weekend help desk hours; and innovative, on-demand 1:1 and group training solutions via Bb orgs, dev sites, "sandboxes", and Collab.
Universidad Tecnológica Centroamericana (UNITEC), Honduras
Dirección de Innovación Educativa y Desarrollo Docente
UNITEC has carried out various activities with the aim of training faculty members in digital skills and educational innovation, as well as developing the characteristics of the transforming teacher of UNITEC’s Educational Model. Among these activities, the training on the development of competencies in students and the design of the Faculty Training Program that includes 50 courses stand out. Additionally, in 2021 the first Educational Innovation Congress was held in collaboration with Blackboard, in which professors had the opportunity to present their best practices through the Blackboard Collaborate platform.
University of Maryland, Baltimore County, United States
Instructional Technology - Dr. Mariann Hawken, Dr. Susan Biro, Dr. John Fritz, Dr. Tom Penniston, Dr. Peter Ariev, Mr. Collin Sullivan, Ms. Laura Wyatt, and Mr. Josh Abrams
The Planning Instructional Variety for Online Teaching (PIVOT) program at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County prepared faculty to teach online, incorporating effective training practice through multiple pathways with an innovative use of faculty peer mentors. The infusion of Ultra tools and design principles encouraged faculty to try Ultra in their own courses, impacting our migration to the new experience. As a result, more faculty are willing to teach online, student satisfaction with PIVOT courses is consistently higher than non-PIVOT courses, and Ultra courses now represent 46% of the overall active Blackboard courses.