Blackboard

Blackboard

Developing a global thought-leadership initiative

Educational technology company, Blackboard, owns a significant market share of the Learning Management System (LMS) market. Yet while their early start placed them on the forefront of the online learning/MOOC (Massive Open Online Course) movement, their position has increasingly been in the crosshairs of competing LMS providers who were challenging and usurping their position. It was clear the time to act was now.

I was part of the team that helped strategically reposition an acquired company and its assets, namely E-learn Magazine, which published online and print editions of original educational content, to become Blackboard's thought leadership arm. We conducted research with stakeholders and customers worldwide, developed the strategy, created presentations for internal buy-in, and officially re-launched the E-learn platform at Blackboard's annual user conference, BBWorld.

Flipping the model inside out

As a research team member, I participated in interviews with Blackboard leadership and educators worldwide. From Hong Kong to Chicago, London, and everywhere in between, our research highlighted that the teaching and learning community was largely suspect and didn't assign value to any for-profit, corporate entity pushing their views and positions onto the community. As a result, we re-positioned E-learn (and, by association, Blackboard) as a partner within the teaching and learning community instead of an outsider forcing content upon the community. 

Visualizing collaboration

E-learn aims to be a community collaboration designed to help the teaching and learning community — administrators, curriculum designers, teachers, and technologists — share insights, perspectives, and practices to improve student outcomes. 

We needed to capture and extend the idea of collaboration into the visual identity. Our mood boards centered around the concepts of community and collaboration. These themes bring to mind toolkits and other participatory materials designed to encourage members to identify and generate outcomes to problems and bring members together so that they can share for the benefit and progress of the community.

Online, offline, on-brand

We then activated the visual identity across the web and print. We designed assets to appeal to the approachable and personal aesthetics of the teaching and learning community. The site was also made responsive, accessible, and in multiple languages to ensure content was available anywhere. We also revised the print magazine to improve the overall experience by introducing longer line lengths, white space, and better hierarchy. Finally, we built out detailed brand standards, ensuring everything from the color palette to the photography and illustrations completed by external creative teams stays on brand.

Ongoing efforts

The E-learn team has continued to take the design to new heights. Here are several interpretations of custom illustrations for the printed magazine that have graced the covers.