Launching Blackboard at UT

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In the fall of 2000, the University launched a personalized Web entrance to UT Austin to give students, faculty, and staff a more consolidated route to conduct University business and academics. A key feature of the site is to provide electronic communication and collaboration opportunities in each class a student is enrolled, and a space for faculty, if they desire, to create and manage course Web sites. The courseware tool Blackboard was chosen to integrate courses within UT Direct.

The process of reaching this decision began in December 1999, when Academic Computing and Instructional Technology Services (ACITS) and the UT Web Office were asked to research and recommend a set of courseware tools to consider for the course Web site component of UT Direct. They developed general evaluation guidelines for extensive research, testing, and product comparison of four tool options: Blackboard.com's Course Info, WebCT, CourseNotes, or making a product of our own.

Beginning in February 2000, technical staff and instructional Web designers from Administrative Computing Services (ACS), ACITS, and the Center for Instructional Technologies (CIT) developed a set of technical criteria that the package had to successfully address. The courseware selection committee then created a timetable for product analysis, testing, and final selection.

After deciding that WebCT and Blackboard's CourseInfo (later renamed simply Blackboard) were the only tools that could come close to addressing all the needs of UT Direct, the committee assigned staff members to further analyze aspects of each tool. Their efforts culminated in a three-hour subcommittee meeting in which the decision points and the pros and cons of each package were weighed. Although WebCT excelled in several areas, Blackboard was determined to be better positioned to address the essential UT considerations of EID authentication and scalability to meet the demands of 11,000 class sites.

Once the product was chosen in mid-March, a Blackboard implementation team was formed, comprised of staff from ACITS, ACS, CIT, and the Registrar's office, to streamline data integration, server setup, courseware installation, and user interface customization, with a goal to have a set of pilot courses up and running from within UT Direct for the beginning of the fall semester needed for full-scale implementation of UT Direct.

The implementation team decided to begin with a group of volunteers enlisted from faculty of the University's core courses. Staff from the Center for Instructional Technologies started training sessions for faculty and their support staff, and with the beginning of the Fall 2000 semester, thirty instructors and 1,900 students participated in a pilot project to supplement classes with an online course environment in Blackboard, integrated within UT Direct.