Bb+Elluminate+Wimba: What I'm Hearing

Last few days have been a whirlwind.  I’ve been talking with staff, clients, journalists, and others who want to know more about our acquisition of Elluminate and Wimba and what it means for them.  Sorting through the questions, I’m seeing 3 or 4 key themes emerge from what seems so far to be a pretty balanced response.  And rather than hit them individually I wanted to respond to some recurring questions here for the benefit of those who asked – and for others who may be pondering the same.  My question replay and quick take follows:

• I love Elluminate/Wimba – are you going to change/discontinue the product?

I’m glad to be getting this question for two reasons.  First, it affirms the positive experience we know that Elluminate and Wimba clients enjoy today.  We believe in the power of these solutions – that’s why we invested in them.  Second, it offers me a chance to firmly assure that we will be making no changes to these products, their support, or their pricing for the foreseeable future.  We’ll support your implementation as it has been supported in the past, with the same solutions and the same teams that you’re used to.  Yes, we’ll be working on ideas for bringing greater value to the work you do with greater innovation in these areas over time.  And yes, there are some answers we don’t know yet in this early going and changes will come.  But our first focus is continuity for you in all the dimensions I mentioned above. 

• I love Elluminate/Wimba – but don’t use Blackboard for learning management.  Will I have to use Bb in order to keep using Elluminate or Wimba?

I want to underline the answer to this one: we want to support educational collaboration wherever it occurs, and regardless of LMS.  To that end, we’ll support current integrations for Elluminate and Wimba with all the major LMS providers.  For open source, that’s largely in our own control.  For commercial providers we’ll need their partnership, but I’ve already reached out to some in this arena and am optimistic about this potential.  I know that some still doubt our commitment here, but I can only say it’s real and that I’ll be happy for us to be judged on our actions in this regard.  

• I could see buying one of these companies.  But why both?

Two key reasons.  First, our clients have chosen both in healthy numbers.  Buying and investing in deeper integrations with one organization would disadvantage our many clients who use the other.  So we chose a path that means our entry into collaboration includes a strong statement of commitment to a future roadmap for our whole client community, not just a portion of it.  Second, we think the long term potential for education impact with collaboration is substantial – as do a number of other commercial and open source players.  To our eyes bringing together the people and solution sets from two leaders in the space who share our education focus represented a unique opportunity to take a meaningful and sustainable shot at this bigger potential, a shot any of our three organizations would have been unlikely to achieve on their own.

In the end we know we’ll be judged by deeds not words on all these fronts.  So just as we’re about to do on the LMS front in my freshman year report this week - which I’m happy to say includes very clear, objective indications that we’re following through on promises made to our community (including the ANGEL community) about quality, responsiveness and openness – we’ll report back on how we’ve done against commitments made in this collaboration realm and be judged on the results.  But I’ll share that I’m optimistic based on what I’ve seen Blackboard becoming in my time here. 

So thanks for your feedbacks, and keep them coming.  Happy to be engaged with you in this dialog about these solutions and what comes next – a conversation I’m keen to continue this week at BbWorld and beyond as we consider best next steps for these technologies and where they can take us.

Cheers,

Ray

Comments

[GillianP]

Delighted to hear you will not be changing the Elluminate products/accounts and hope you keep up with their seminars. It's a great product that has never let me down and I would far rather use that than any other conference/seminar tool. These days, I have absolutely no need to use BB except when a uni uses it. Different markets that could, I agree, be usefully merged - but Elluminate is more than something that needs plugging into an admin-focused LMS.

[Eldoom]

Blackboard will bring a professionalism that has been lacking from the open source integrations, I hope. @eldoom

[Mark Burris]

Ray, these synchronous tools have captured the imagination of a completely separate group of faculty, many of whom are joining the online learning environment for the first time precisely because they can interact with students in a way that is familiar to them from the face-to-face classroom. We cannot afford to disenfranchise them when they are just beginning to "step into the water."

These faculty need and want to see other faculty using synchronous tools from a practitioner's standpoint. They also need training that focuses on the unique challenges of "live" audio/video interaction with students.

Consequently, I recommend the following:
1. Retain conferences (like Wimba Connect, etc.) which are offered DURING the academic semester instead of during the summer months. Why? Many faculty are unable to travel during the summer months due to 9-month contract limitations and departmental funding structures. It is easier for them to get funding and attend conferences during their 9-month contract period.

2. Retain training that focuses on the synchronous nature of these tools. It is paramount that faculty experience live and archived sessions (like those provided by Matt Wasowski) so that they will a) have the "feel" of being a participant rather than the presenter, b) will have the experience of engaging of engaging others in real-time, and c) will be able to experience a well-constructed archived session, which they can use a model for their own courses. In addition, the training provided by the Pronto folk is unique (as is the product) and cannot be replicated in a meaningful way through standard paper or website resources. So, synchronous tools are best supported with synchronous resources.

3. Finally, since "up-time" is even more crucial for these synchronous learning environments, I think we all understand that technical support requires a different approach than what has traditionally provided in the asynchronous LMS environment.

I was very impressed by your sincere interest during the "Listening Session" at BbWorld'10. I am confident that you, Ray Henderson, will do whatever it takes to ensure the success of this powerful new phase of online learning!

[Ray]

Mark, thanks for your thoughtful input, which our team will include in early discussions about the road ahead. And thanks for your engagement on this topic here and at BbWorld. As we’ve said from the beginning, we’re looking to plan for what comes next with lots of input from clients and I’m hoping we can add your voice to that discussion when it begins.