The Center for Teaching’s New Role with Blackboard
by Derek Bruff, Director, Vanderbilt Center for Teaching
The Center for Teaching is taking on a significant new role in the educational technology landscape at Vanderbilt. Starting this spring, the CFT will coordinate and provide technical and pedagogical support for Blackboard, Vanderbilt’s course management system, known locally as OAK. Also, in conjunction with Vice Provost for Learning and Undergraduate Affairs Cynthia Cyrus and the OAK Faculty Advisory Committee, the CFT will lead strategic planning for Blackboard and other potential platforms for supporting teaching and learning at Vanderbilt.
New roles often require new resources, and the CFT is now accepting applications for an Assistant Director for Educational Technology. This new colleague will work with current CFT staff to help Vanderbilt instructors understand the roles Blackboard and other platforms can play in teaching and learning. We anticipate hiring additional staff in 2015, which will allow the CFT to centralize Blackboard support across most of campus. This new model, with multiple Blackboard specialists housed at the CFT, should provide more robust support for Vanderbilt instructors.
The roadmap for Vanderbilt’s course management system looks promising. In late December, OAK/Blackboard will move from Vanderbilt servers to Blackboard servers, which should improve performance and reliability. Faculty who find OAK useful but slow should look forward to their Blackboard experience in January. Next summer, we plan to upgrade to a newer version of Blackboard, which will likely have an improved user interface and new tools for instructors. This spring, the CFT will seek input from Vanderbilt faculty, staff, and students to guide upgrade decisions. Faculty who have stopped using OAK because it didn’t meet their needs are especially invited to participate in this process and to try out the new Blackboard late next summer.
See my recent CFT blog post for further information on the CFT’s new roles with Blackboard and related plans for enhancing educational technology resources for Vanderbilt instructors.