At the University of Colorado Denver, we use two Learning Management Systems (LMS): eCollege and Blackboard.  There is a long history why we use two different systems and for better or for worse it doesn’t look like this is going to change any time soon.

Therefore, we have begun thinking about when we will upgrade from version 8 of Blackboard to version 9. Version 9 has a ton of new features that people seem to love.  But we have realized over the years at CU Online that stability in many ways is a better characteristic of a LMS than any specific feature.

We only have 1-2 times each year to upgrade Blackboard. And a great deal of thought and planning needs to be done well in advance before upgrading our LMS. Thus, we wanted to get an idea of what others — specifically those who upgraded from version 8 to version 9 — think of version 9.

I created a basic Google Docs survey that I sent out to Blackboard Admin listserv. The survey included the following questions:

1a. If you are using Blackboard 9.0, are you happy with it compared to Blackboard 8.0?

1b. If you would like (though it isn’t needed), please explain why you like or dislike it in comparison to Blackboard 8.0

2a. Assuming you are currently using Blackboard 9.0, based on your experience, which of the following would you recommend (keeping in mind that you aren’t aware of our circumstances)?

2b. If you would like (though it isn’t needed), please explain  your previous answer.

3. Is there anything else you would like to add?

The results can be found here:
http://spreadsheets.google.com/pub?key=0Ak6yjEoIPaTIdGRmY1FuTlZVUmJIekFUZklPdkNINlE&gid=0

So what did we find out? Well the majority of people were happy with Blackboard 9 and recommended upgrading but

Here are two graphs to illustrate the basic responses.