The most recent upgrade to Blackboard 9.1 at Northern Illinois University has proven to be very successful and has been receiving a lot of positive feedback from faculty and teaching staff. This panel discussion led by NIU Faculty Development and Instructional Design Center staff at SLATE 2011 explored the strategies and practices that made the upgrade a success. We shared the logistics of the support plan, implementation timeline, and the publicity plan. Additionally, we discussed the testing strategies, approach to documentation and the training support offered to NIU faculty, staff and teaching assistants.

Those planning an upgrade for the own institutions can download copies of the upgrade documents from j.mp/NIULMS to customize and adopt them for their own needs.