Blackboard system to replace Telesis

| Senior News Editor

By the spring of 2012, Washington University will no longer be using Telesis.

Starting next fall, the College of Arts & Sciences, the School of Engineering & Applied Science and Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts will begin to transition from Telesis to Blackboard—a third-party software currently used by the Olin Business School and the George Brown School of Social Work.

According to University administrators, the transition will aid students by allowing them to use the same software for all their classes. It will also offer additional capabilities, including the ability to embed videos.

The changes will affect both undergraduate and graduate students.

“This will provide a universal experience for students; this way, everyone will use the same system,” Associate Provost Shelley Milligan said.

In the fall, a group of professors that do not currently use Blackboard will participate in a pilot program. The schools will fully implement the program for the spring semester.

According to Milligan, Telesis no longer meets the demands of the University.

“Telesis was the learning management system that the University designed in-house,” Milligan said. “It has served us really well, but it has needed some upgrades.”

Telesis, an online program designed specifically for classes at the university, has been used to give students access to course materials including lecture slides and grade logs.

Students hope that more professors will use Blackboard than currently use Telesis.

“The administrators need to find a system that all professors would use,” sophomore Sarah Kong said.

Junior Stephanie Chang says that many of her professors prefer not to use Telesis for their courses.

“I know that a lot of teachers don’t like Telesis and a lot of them don’t use it, so maybe the transition would be better,” Chang said.

Students currently using Blackboard are in favor of the transition.

“I like Blackboard,” sophomore Pete Yoon said. “It’s organized better, and you can check your homework and tests [more] easily.”

According to Milligan, the cost of Blackboard will be shared among all the schools involved.

“It is a significant investment, and each of the schools will share the responsibility for it based upon the number of students enrolled,” Milligan said.

The medical and law schools use their own software and will not be switching to Blackboard.

With additional reporting by Wei-Yin Ko

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