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BERSIN & ASSOCIATES © 2008
BERSIN & ASSOCIATES
Research Bulletin | 2008
About the Author
Josh Bersin,Principal Analyst
Blackboard Inc., the leading provider of online learning and course
management systems (more than $300 million in run-rate revenue) for
higher education, grades K-12, and corporate and government markets,
has now entered the small to medium business (SMB) corporate learning
market. ProSites, a hosted, easy-to-use online learning platform, is
designed to help small and midsized organizations (and departments)
manage and deploy training at a very low cost.
ProSites was launched in August, 2007 – and includes Blackboard’s easy-
to-use course management, collaboration, assessments, authoring and
reporting tools, with new features for corporate training.
August 13, 2008 Volume 3, No. 21
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Blackboard Reaches Corporate Learning Market with Low-Cost ProSites Offering
Source: Blackboard, 2008.
Figure 1: ProSites Home Page
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BERSIN & ASSOCIATES
Research Bulletin | 2008
BERSIN & ASSOCIATES, LLC6114 LA SALLE AVENUE
SUITE 417OAKLAND, CA 94611
(510) [email protected]
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Research Bulletin | 2008
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Blackboard Reaches Corporate Learning Market Josh Bersin | Page 2
The Lack of Low-End Learning Management System Options
The Blackboard offering fills a niche in the departmental, small
organization “entry-level” learning management system (LMS) market –
working groups with tens to hundreds of employees that need an
online system – which can manage content, provide easy content
authoring and help instructors manage courses. Consider a small sales
organization, a customer service team or a nonprofit organization that
wants to train its constituents. These organizations may not have a
systems administrator and rarely have a budget for a corporate LMS.
ProSites is easy to administer and is priced for small implementations –
$9,500 for the first 200 users and $4,500 per year for each additional
100 users (under $50 per user per year).
Today, such small workgroups and organizations typically look to
a corporate LMS like Learn.com, GeoLearning, NetDimensions,
TrainingPartner or SkillPort from SkillSoft. While these systems are
priced similarly and have many more features, they require more
complex administration and are designed to provide complete end-to-
end administration (e.g., classroom scheduling, resource management
and even e-commerce). These features are useful in corporatewide
training applications, but are often too complex for a department or
nonprofit institution.
The larger, enterprise-class LMS companies (such as SumTotal Systems,
Saba, Softscape, Plateau, Oracle, SAP and Cornerstone OnDemand) also
provide solutions for midsized organizations through their on-demand
offerings. But few have the pricing structure or salesforce to sell a
complete solution to a department or organization with only a few
hundred employees.
Features of the Blackboard ProSites Solution
Course Management
As with any LMS, the system enables an administer to create, copy,
archive and manage courses. A “course” can consist of any arrangement
of content, collaboration and online activities.
BERSIN & ASSOCIATES © 2008
BERSIN & ASSOCIATES
Research Bulletin | 2008
BERSIN & ASSOCIATES, LLC6114 LA SALLE AVENUE
SUITE 417OAKLAND, CA 94611
(510) [email protected]
BERSIN & ASSOCIATES
Research Bulletin | 2008
BERSIN & ASSOCIATES © 2008
Blackboard Reaches Corporate Learning Market Josh Bersin | Page 3
Simple Content Authoring
The system includes a simple course authoring tool – which enables
an administrator or instructor to upload materials, build pages, create
navigation, include assessments and assignments (which are sent to an
instructor), and engage in collaboration.
Source: Blackboard, 2008.
Figure 2: ProSites Course Interface
Source: Blackboard, 2008.
Figure 3: ProSites Authoring Interface
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BERSIN & ASSOCIATES
Research Bulletin | 2008
BERSIN & ASSOCIATES, LLC6114 LA SALLE AVENUE
SUITE 417OAKLAND, CA 94611
(510) [email protected]
BERSIN & ASSOCIATES
Research Bulletin | 2008
BERSIN & ASSOCIATES © 2008
Blackboard Reaches Corporate Learning Market Josh Bersin | Page 4
Managing Instructor-Led Programs
Perhaps the most valuable use of Blackboard ProSites is the complex and
messy process of what the company calls “course management.” Instructor-
led training (ILT) programs always include a variety of activities, such as:
• Lectures and audio materials;
• Slides and slide notes;
• Syllabi and assignments;
• Quizzes and quiz results;
• Tests and final exams;
• Workgroup project assignments;
• Student comments and feedback;
• Reference materials;
• Simulations and other high-touch learning activities; and,
• Online assessments.
When any organization of any size develops and delivers instructor-led
training, there is a burden of administration placed on the instructor.
In the traditional university setting (on which Blackboard has focused
for years), the professor or teacher assembles all these materials,
reads student assignments (or delegates them to others), monitors the
progress of each student, and then delivers a “grade.” They iterate and
improve each and every element of the course each year – and, in many
cases, the course materials vary during the course itself (i.e., current
events may change the content).
Without a solution like ProSites, such a process is very burdensome and
handcrafted. Corporate LMS systems provide many of these features,
but they are designed for use by course administrators, not necessarily
individual instructors.
One example of an organization using this is Kids Inc., an organization
which teaches secondary school teachers how to understand
neurological learning challenges in their students. Kids Inc. teaches
these two to three day courses throughout the country at 10 different
BERSIN & ASSOCIATES © 2008
BERSIN & ASSOCIATES
Research Bulletin | 2008
BERSIN & ASSOCIATES, LLC6114 LA SALLE AVENUE
SUITE 417OAKLAND, CA 94611
(510) [email protected]
BERSIN & ASSOCIATES
Research Bulletin | 2008
BERSIN & ASSOCIATES © 2008
Blackboard Reaches Corporate Learning Market Josh Bersin | Page 5
learning locations. The primary author of much of the material is one
of the founders of Kids Inc. Through the use of ProSites, this founder
can replicate his class materials rapidly, manage many courses easily and
collaborate with his co-authors.
While ProSites is priced and positioned for use by smaller training and
teaching groups and departments (e.g., sales training, customer service
training, customer education), class management is a problem in large
corporate universities, as well. While many of these organizations may
have access to a corporate LMS, we believe ProSites may be easier for
instructors to use than the corporate LMS.
The corporate LMS is needed to provide scheduling and store the
“system of record” for an employee, but many companies have legacy
LMS systems that do not have an easy-to-use interface for such class
management needs.
Collaboration
Our research clearly shows that most organizations (84 percent1) want
to improve the collaborative learning experiences in their training
1 For more information, The High-Impact Learning Organization: WhatWorks® in the Management, Governance and Operations of Modern Corporate Training, Bersin & Associates / Josh Bersin, May 2008. Available to research members at www.bersin.com/library or for purchase at www.bersin.com/highimpact.
Source: Blackboard, 2008.
Figure 4: ProSites Collaboration Interface
BERSIN & ASSOCIATES © 2008
BERSIN & ASSOCIATES
Research Bulletin | 2008
BERSIN & ASSOCIATES, LLC6114 LA SALLE AVENUE
SUITE 417OAKLAND, CA 94611
(510) [email protected]
BERSIN & ASSOCIATES
Research Bulletin | 2008
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Blackboard Reaches Corporate Learning Market Josh Bersin | Page 6
programs. Today, collaboration usually means classroom assignments
and perhaps an online discussion room. Modern LMS systems have many
features for collaboration, but they are often unused by employees. The
reason for this is that they are often not “instructor-friendly” – and are,
therefore, not considered by the instructors teaching courses.
ProSites’ collaboration features, while no more advanced that those
in other systems, are designed for easy administration by instructors,
facilitating collaboration as a course management feature. They
are designed to be integrated with course assignments, and to be
moderated by both instructors and subject-matter experts – making
collaboration easy to enable. While these features are not unique to
ProSites, they make the solution even easier to justify for a department
or workgroup training organization.
Testing and Assessment
As discussed earlier, almost all instructor-led training (and certainly all
educational programs) have some sort of assessment. In the corporate
training market, assessment is often used for compliance needs and to
aid in the learning process. (Grades are rarely used, but scores are often
used to certify completion and learning.)
Source: Blackboard, 2008.
Figure 5: ProSites Assessment Interface
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BERSIN & ASSOCIATES
Research Bulletin | 2008
BERSIN & ASSOCIATES, LLC6114 LA SALLE AVENUE
SUITE 417OAKLAND, CA 94611
(510) [email protected]
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Research Bulletin | 2008
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Blackboard Reaches Corporate Learning Market Josh Bersin | Page 7
ProSites’ assessment tool is very complete and offers more than enough
functionality to enable corporate assessment solutions. It allows
organizations to create a variety of question types, establish answer clues
and feedback, and provide reporting to the instructor and administrator.
ProSites’ assessment tool is not designed to serve as the backbone of
an enterprisewide compliance or assessment solution; but, in a small
workgroup or department, it gives the trainer or instructor an easy-to-
use, integrated solution.
Reporting and Analysis
In the corporate LMS market, reporting has become a mammoth and
complex system. In fact, most corporate LMS reporting tools include
ad-hoc report builders, analytics systems, report distribution tools,
exception reporting systems and many custom features.
ProSites’ reporting is different. It is focused on the needs of the instructor
or administrator, with the primary goal of managing the delivery of
training itself. As Figures 6 and 7 show, the system is very easy to use, and
provides highly actionable information for the instructor or administrator.
For administration, the ProSites reporting system also helps the
organization understand content usage and general activity level across
all parts of the system.
Source: Blackboard, 2008.
Figure 6: ProSites Reporting for Instructors
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BERSIN & ASSOCIATES
Research Bulletin | 2008
BERSIN & ASSOCIATES, LLC6114 LA SALLE AVENUE
SUITE 417OAKLAND, CA 94611
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Research Bulletin | 2008
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Blackboard Reaches Corporate Learning Market Josh Bersin | Page 8
Bottom Line: Should You Consider ProSites for Corporate Training?
Blackboard is a well-run, highly successful company. In its core market
of universities, and now primary and secondary education, the company
has staked out a dominant market position.
The corporate training market is different. Buyers here focus on
scheduling, tracking, reporting and e-learning features. Corporations
want their LMSs to serve as the “employee system of record” for
training, competencies, development plans and even performance
management records. In fact, corporate LMS systems are more complex
than almost any other form of HR software. Our research on LMS
systems2 helps readers understand these solution providers.
2 For more information, Learning Management Systems 2008: Facts, Practical Analysis, Trends and Vendor Profiles, Bersin & Associates / Josh Bersin, Chris Howard and Karen O’Leonard, July 2007.
Source: Blackboard, 2008.
Figure 7: ProSites Reporting for Content Managers
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BERSIN & ASSOCIATES
Research Bulletin | 2008
BERSIN & ASSOCIATES, LLC6114 LA SALLE AVENUE
SUITE 417OAKLAND, CA 94611
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BERSIN & ASSOCIATES
Research Bulletin | 2008
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Blackboard Reaches Corporate Learning Market Josh Bersin | Page 9
Yet, regardless of the need for a corporate LMS, there is also major
demand for an easy-to-use, low-cost course management, e-learning,
authoring and assessment system like ProSites. Our research shows that
even the best-run corporate training organizations end up with many
LMS systems, often purchased by different departments for different
local learning needs.3 When a small workgroup or department needs a
training administration and delivery system, it can rarely afford the time
and energy to purchase a corporate LMS, even if it is provided by one
of the midmarket solution providers. Also, despite many years of effort
in ease of use, most corporate LMS systems are focused on providing
features for the training administrator and training manager, not
the instructor.
ProSites fills a well-known gap – meeting the needs of workgroups,
teams and departments that cannot access the corporate LMS, or those
that simply need a system of their own for rapid deployment and ease
of use. While ProSites will not meet the needs of a corporate LMS, it
plays an important role for organizations that must develop, deliver,
administer and manage training for many hundreds of users.
3 For more information, Learning Management Systems 2008: Facts, Practical Analysis, Trends and Vendor Profiles, Bersin & Associates / Josh Bersin, Chris Howard and Karen O’Leonard, July 2007.