How Örebro University is Meeting and Exceeding Students’ Needs

On 1 January 2012 Örebro University (Sweden) launched Blackboard Mobile Learn as a result of an increasing number of student requests for a solution which would allow them to access their course materials with their mobile devices. Örebro University has already been using Blackboard Learn™ for more than 10 years and now selected Blackboard Mobile Learn to give students and faculty access to their courses, content, and organizations on a variety of mobile devices including Android™, BlackBerry®, iPhone®, iPod touch®, and iPad™. The Campus Director, Mr Ola Forssander, explains:

“Örebro University has from it’s very start proven to be a modern and innovating university, so choosing to take on and implement Bb Mobile Learn was a given for us. The main drivers for the investment as such is of course the students who require this type of technology support moving forth but also teachers looking at new ways of utilizing technology to improve and develop their teaching ability and flexibility”.

Örebro University is a rather young university with more than 10 000 full-time FTE students. The institution is well-known for leading the way when it comes to innovation in research and education in the Swedish HE sector. With the introduction of Mobile Learn, Örebro University has proven once again that it is one of the most pioneering universities in Scandinavia. They have proven their ability to efficiently implement new technologies to meet students’ needs on the one hand, and to broaden their pedagogical spectrum on the other hand. In addition, choosing Blackboard Mobile Learn contributes to meeting the expectations and requirements from the institutions new School of Medicine which was launched about a year ago.

So far the launch has been a great success. Within the first week-end (just before Christmas 2011), more than 700 students downloaded the app and logged into Blackboard through the Blackboard Mobile Learn app, coming from one short announcement in the Blackboard Learn user interface.

Without any marketing efforts or investments at all yet, the adoption of the technology amongst the students has far outranked the expectations from the University.