A Collaborative Approach to Quickly Adopt Blackboard
After a market review, Trocaire chose Anthology® Blackboard as their LMS to assist with modernization. They appreciated the market leadership in AI, robust mobile experience, and strong recent history of product innovation across content design, grading, and assessment. They enhanced Blackboard with Anthology® Ally to improve the accessibility of course materials.
Trocaire started by assembling a core internal team— comprising IT, academic, and online learning professionals—to manage the project from start to finish. A major focus for this team was to ensure engagement with key stakeholders, particularly instructors and students, communicate the benefits of Blackboard, and explain the migration process. College leadership, including the president, chief information officer, chief financial officer, academic affairs, student affairs, and academic advisement, were all heavily involved and helped to drive the visibility of the transition plan across the institution.
An initial needs survey was distributed to instructors to understand key areas of focus for upskilling and training. A faculty pilot program was introduced during the summer. The early adopters assisted in rolling out peer-to-peer training prior to the fall semester and the school offered video demonstrations and personalized training sessions.
For students, a multi-channel communication plan was developed, including newsletters, a dedicated website, and instructional videos. An asynchronous Blackboard training course for students was created with support during the classes and promoted during the rollout.
Anthology provided dedicated resources and support throughout the transition. A clear implementation plan was aligned upfront. Furthermore, varied Anthology experts were engaged to support the core Trocaire team and ensure a seamless transition. Anthology Academy training modules were rolled out to relevant stakeholders, including instructors and staff.
Anthology's integration team was amazing—highly responsive, professional, and committed to helping us overcome challenges. They listened to our needs, brought in the right experts, and provided invaluable guidance every step of the way. The Anthology team was not only focused on ensuring a smooth transition but was also deeply invested in our success.
Mary Beth Scumaci, Director of Digital Learning, Trocaire College
Finally, an important workstream focused on the migration of existing courses. Anthology provided the technology required for courses to be migrated in bulk, and instructors were given the option of moving their courses automatically or redesigning them using Trocaire templates in Blackboard. Office hours were established with the Trocaire Digital Learning Team, who collaborated with Anthology experts to decide which approach worked best for instructors and their courses. This combination of automated technology and user oversight allowed the institution to balance efficiency and effectiveness and quickly get learning materials available in their new LMS.
