Blackboard Homepage

Once you login, you go to the Blackboard Homepage (Figure 3).

This page has four main sections - a horizontal navigation bar, a set of horizontal navigational tabs, a set of horizontal navigational buttons, and two modules.

Figure 3 - Blackboard Homepage - Rating - 2.5

Under Section 1, the UAA logo is a live link to the UAA homepage. In the center, the Home logo is also a link to the UAA homepage - this logo could specify "UAA Home." Another logo could be added for "Blackboard Home." The Help button is mysterious as it links to the Distance Education Homepage. It would be better to link to the Blackboard Login page, which at least has several resources to help with Blackboard. The Logout logo does link to the Blackboard Login page, which is appropriate.

Under Section 2, there are two tabs. The UAA tab is basically the blackboard homepage. The Courses tab links to a page with three modules: Course Search, Course List, and Course Catalog (Figure 4).

Figure 4 - Courses Tab - Rating - 2.0

The three modules under the courses tab are not very useful in any practical way. The Courses for almost any student would be few enough that a Course Search module would be unnecessary. The Course List module here is also unnecessary since it duplicates the information on the homepage under the Courses module there. The Course Catalog section might theoretically be useful; however, the most recent catalog posted on this page is dated Fall 2001. Additionally, schedules are readily available electronically from the UAA homepage. This tab could be completely eliminated. I would rate the page 2.0.

As mentioned earlier, Section 3 of the Blackboard homepage has two buttons: Modify Content and Modify Layout. The Modify Content button serves no practical purpose and could be eliminated. At present, it leads to a Modify Content page that allows for the choices of two additional modules: Courses Quick View and My Announcements (Figure 5). The basic problem is that the My Courses module already includes the information from the other two modules, making them redundant. I would rate this page a 1.5, only due to the fact that more modules could be developed.

Figure 5 - Modify Content Page - Rating - 1.5

Figure 6 shows a Blackboard homepage with the additional modules added.

Figure 6 - Modified Blackboard Homepage

The Modify Layout button leads to a Modify Layout page that allows you to move modules from one column to another and to change the color of the theme. These changes are very basic, but could be expanded at some point. I would rate this page 3.5.

Figure 7 - Modify Layout Page - Rating 3.5

The Modify Content and the Modify Layout buttons could be added as individual tabs in Section 2, or they could be added as links to the Tools module.

Section 4 of the Blackboard homepage typically contains two modules: Tools and My Courses. Actually, it would be more accurate to say that it contains one vertical navigational toolbar (Tools) and one module (My Courses).

I will review these sections in later blog entries