One of the liveliest groups at the St Andrews event addressed key functionality required for BB9.1 when it is released in late 2009. Our debate focussed on the functionality that was absolutely necessary for institutions to consider upgrading from WebCT to BB9. After much heated discussion, the following were considered to be essential:
- A fully functioning Glossary as in WebCT;
- Options for Alternative Icon Sets – lack of customisation by tutors currently available in BB9 was a major issue for us all;
- Explicit Student View – for tutors to ‘check’ how students view modules;
- Increased roles available for participants in a module;
- A File Manager & WebDav as currently available in WebCT;
- Learning Modules as currently available in WebCT;
- Web Links Tool as currently available in WebCT.
There was also much debate about the lack of clarity in documentation produced by BlackBoard outlining the functionality Differences CE vs. Vista. In some instances, it was unclear about which versions of BlackBoard would have which functionality which severely impacted on testing the new product. A quotation from one of the participants which summarized our discussions was “We would like enhanced WebCT not enhanced Blackboard.”