Blackboard, St. Thomas’ web-based classroom tool, will be upgraded this summer.

Elizabeth Smith, a St. Thomas instructional process analyst, said Blackboard needed improvements after 10 years of existing relatively unchanged.

“In 2009 Blackboard Inc. unveiled the first iteration of its ‘New Generation’ learning management system, called Blackboard Learn,” Smith said. “The release includes a new look and feel for course and community sites, fewer clicks, drag-and-drop functionality and additional features like group assignments, blogs, journals and wikis.”

St. Thomas is planning to change from its current version of Blackboard, version 8, to this new version, Blackboard Learn 9.1, this July. Both versions of Blackboard give students access to professors’ course materials, such as handouts, slideshows and web-based learning activities, and both versions include virtual discussion spaces, calendars and class schedules. But junior Alexandra Castano said the current Blackboard version seems a little messy.

“It looks to me like there are some issues with simplicity or organization for the teachers,” Castano said.

Sophomore John Warkel said Blackboard could be set up better and that the updates will be beneficial.

“I’ve only had one class where I’ve used discussion board, and I thought it was useful,” Warkel said. “So maybe if that was updated I would use it.”

Smith said, “In my opinion the new Blackboard Learn course and community sites do not look drastically different. But [they] have an updated appearance with improved functionality.”

She said the switch to a newer version is necessary to “keep abreast of changes to the underlying technology,” and is also partially due to student feedback.

“A chief complaint about Blackboard is the number of clicks it takes to perform routine tasks,” she said. She said Blackboard modified the design to reduce the number of clicks and add drag-and-drop functions in several areas.

“The changes sound great,” junior Catie Nadeau said. “Anything to minimize search time.”

Castano said Blackboard can be complicated.

“I can definitely see what people are saying, that it takes a lot of clicks to get anywhere,” she said.

Smith said the general layout of the site will remain the same. Site navigation will still be on the left and content will be on the right. She said there will be some new tools with the Learn 9.1 version, but many of the familiar communication tools from the current Blackboard version, such as email, discussion boards and rosters, will be included as well.

Fortunately for students and staff, the changes will not affect current documents on Blackboard.

Carly Samuelson can be reached at samu5380@stthomas.edu.