The university explored a variety of solutions to improve its external user enrollment process. They soon discovered that Blackboard Learn offered an extension that could meet their goals. Part of Blackboard Learn’s extensions suite (SaaS), Anthology Training and Development Manager (TDM) provides a self-service learner journey from course choice and enrollment through to payment and certification. With TDM, there is no need for additional infrastructure or integrations, expensive customized solutions, or third-party providers. “TDM is an excellent solution for non-credit, skills-based training online registration and payment software for SaaS Blackboard users. It's easy to use, and the implementation was fast and seamless,” said Daniels.
While Trevecca considered other solutions for self-registration, the most crucial part of the decision-making was understanding their use cases and goals. "The transition has created opportunities for us to work closely with the developers to ensure that we have a product that aligns with our mission, use cases, and goals. It's been a great experience providing feedback to product development to include features to improve our user experience,” said Daniels.
The benefits of TDM were especially realized in 2021 when Trevecca Nazarene University was awarded a $1 million grant from the Tennessee Department of Education to provide teacher endorsements in special education (SPED) and English as a Second Language (ESL). The grant gives up to 2,400 educators the opportunity to earn an endorsement in one of these two areas for the 2021-22 and 2022-23 school years. TDM enables Trevecca to manage users and offer self-paced, fully online professional development training to help fill the demand for Tennessee teachers statewide in the two specialty areas. Teachers accepted in the program work at their own pace in earning the endorsement and preparing for roles as special education or ESL classroom teachers.