Submitted by: Jessica Underwood, jessicau@uca.edu on 07/08/2025
The Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning, IT, and the Teaching Technology Advisory Committee (TTAC), have provided an update on the learning management system (LMS) review process. The biggest takeaway is that UCA is NOT changing its LMS for this fall 2025 semester (or even for spring 2026); we are still using Blackboard Learn, as we have been for many years, until summer 2026. There is much work to be done before we migrate to a new LMS; details of our important work is outlined below.
►Current Review Process
After receiving campus feedback in the spring 2025 semester, TTAC turned its attention to working with the UCA Procurement Office to write our official request for proposal (RFP), which is a state requirement for decisions of this magnitude. The RFP solicitation was released the morning of Monday, July 7, 2025, with a proposal submission deadline of Tuesday, August 5, 2025. After that date, TTAC will review and rate each vendor’s technical proposal submission (worth 70% of the total score) to make a recommendation to the Procurement Office; Procurement also vets the cost proposal (worth 30% of the total score) to create a combined score that determines the RFP finalist/winner.
►Implementation and Training Timeline
Once the finalist is selected, the vendor contract must route through the official review and approval process that culminates in the UCA Board of Trustees’ review and approval, along with the Arkansas Legislative Council; this process is anticipated to take until mid- to late November 2025. Once the contract is officially approved, IT, CETAL, and TTAC will begin working with the selected LMS vendor to manage the migration of existing courses from Blackboard Learn to our new LMS.
UCA is committed to providing comprehensive support throughout this transition, with faculty receiving more than six months of training, assistance, and resources before the mandatory migration to the new LMS. All UCA faculty will be offered assistance with moving courses from the old LMS to the new LMS and will be offered multiple opportunities for in-person and Zoom-based training to become proficient in the new LMS. This work will continue from late fall 2025 through all of the spring 2026 semester.
Those who teach during Summer 2026 will need to move to the new LMS, and all faculty and courses MUST move to the new LMS for the fall 2026 semester, in part because the end of life of Blackboard Learn is December 31, 2026. This means UCA will have read-only access to Blackboard Learn after that date.
►Faculty Support and Resources
CETAL and IT are prepared to address questions and provide ongoing support throughout the process, ensuring that no faculty member navigates this change alone. For ongoing updates, faculty should visit uca.edu/lmsreview and monitor UCA Inform for regular announcements. Questions can be directed to Amy Hawkins at aamy@uca.edu.
