Categories
UI/UX

How about fixing Blackboard?

One of the more popular online learning (and training) management systems for high schools and universities in the United States is Blackboard. However, despite the fact that it has a lot to offer, many of it’s features are hidden deep in the interface.

We all came across it [ or at least most of us 😉 ]. You come to a new school or university and for sure, every single one of them uses a different learning platform like MoodleOpenOLAT or Blackboard. These applications offer different ways for managing classes/courses, knowledge, vary greatly in features. They do have a few infamously commonalities, such as lacking simplicity, focus and consistency. However, in this particular post I would like to take a look at Grand Valley State Universities’s Blackboard (myBB) solution. As part of the CIS 623 class I am taking I received an assignment to design an improved version of it.

Why are online learning

platforms so frustrating?

In order to work on a new design I tried to locate a few of the major problem areas. There are several platform-external and -internal reasons why they might fail from my very personal opinion, such as: