[BB] Bb may be target of acquisition + Instructure Canvas

Interesting article about BB fundamentals and their problems. In the article they talk about Instructure Canvas, a new and exciting alternative system.

> http://www.cnbc.com/id/42667338?__source=yahoo|headline|quote|text|&par=yahoo

Bill Vilberg - bill.vilberg@miami.edu, 786-250-2255

http://vilberg.com - Spreading seeds of education, technology, and more

[BB] Instructure Canvas Demo THURSDAY - Please sign up

Instructure Canvas is a new learning management system, designed to be better than Blackboard. Really. It was designed by two graduate students who used Blackboard and were frustrated by it. They started from scratch, using a modern programming language, and came up with an interesting system.

Someone from Instructure will be on campus this THURSDAY to do demos for faculty focus groups. There will be two sessions, one from 12:30 pm to 1:45 pm and a second one from 2:00 pm to 3:15 pm. Since you have experience with Blackboard, it would be great if you could attend one of the sessions and compare Instructure Canvas to Bb.

To register for either session (registration is required) go to the http://iacevents.org web page.

To learn more about Instructrue Canvas, go to http://goo.gl/HV5Yv for information from outside of Instructure, including a link to a YouTube video, or go to http://www.instructure.com for material from instrcuture.

I hope a number of you will be able to sign up for one or the other session. You feedback will greatly influence our future plans.

Bill Vilberg
Instructional Advancement
Richter Library, Room 325
bill.vilberg@miami.edu
786-250-2255

http://iacinfo.org - Access to the information you need, WHEN YOU NEED IT.

[BB] Blackboard Advisory Committee

We need your help. We want to have an advisory committee help us with recommendations about Blackboard. Would you be willing to help? (If you, let me know by replying to this email. Otherwise, keep reading and maybe I can still convince you.)

In some cases we just need a group of people for opinions and ideas. In other cases we will ask a few people to get together as a focus group to look at something and provide feedback. This will NOT be a major time sink. If should take less than 30 minutes a week, unless you agree to be in a focus group. Those take an hour and 15 minutes.

We are looking for a range of users from beginners who use Backboard very little to people who are using multiple aspects of Blackboard as part of the student's learning experience. Over the summer participation will be almost exclusively via email or other electronic form, so you don't need to make any commitment to be in the heat and humidity of Miami all summer long.

If you are willing to be on the advisory committee, please reply to this message and I will be in touch with you. We would like about 30-40 advisors, so the load can be spread around a group of people. Please volunteer if you can.

Bill Vilberg
Instructional Advancement
Richter Library, Room 325
bill.vilberg@miami.edu
786-250-2255

http://iacinfo.org - Access to the information you need, WHEN YOU NEED IT.