There was a recent thread on the BBADMIN ASU listserv entitled "Advantages of BB9" and there were several posts related to it.  This is timely as well for our college as we are getting ready to begin a pilot, and to begin to plan for our upgrade timeline from Blackboard version 8. A couple of posts from Gene Kleppinger, Eastern Kentucky University, and Donna Wicks from Kettering University contained a good set of noteworthy features. 

In addition, there was a good discussion too on the BLKBRD ASU listserv entitled "Blackboard Upgrade- new questions", where Corrie Bergeron from Lakeland Community College compiled a wide array of Blackboard 9 Resources...

Building off from the ASU lists, I've attempted to summarize nine of my favorite Bb 9 features here:

1. Edit in Place

The ability to easily edit the course menu and switch back and forth between student and instructor view saves time. Instructors also no longer need to switch to a separate control panel to perform course editing functions.

2. New User Interface

Inline receipts replace the "OK" and click through workflow thereby significantly reducing clicks. In addition, there is drag and drop functionality providing a more natural editing process. CSS can be also heavily customized for more flexibility in design and colors.

3.  Multiple Attempt and Group Assignments

Assignments can be created to allow students to re-submit an assignment without the instructor having to "reset" their attempt.  What's more, faculty can also create a group assignment with a single group grade.

4. Group Tool

A new group tool provides a suite of enhanced features to better create, manage, and track group work.  Students can even create their own groups and access group assignments, journals, or blogs.

5. Journal/Blog

These new built-in tools provide a way for students to record private communications and reflections with their instructor through the Journal tool, and a public view of work through the new Blog tool.

6. My Places

My Places provides a landing page for faculty and students with a qiuck way of accessing courses, organizations, and other settings.  Users can also add an avatar that appears in certain areas such as blogs.

7. Notification Dashboards

Notifications allow faculty and students to see what is new, what is due, to do, alerts and when new assignments or tests are needing grading and more.  These notifications can also be sent via email.

8. Course Portal and Home Page

Courses can have a start page that provides a portal like environment with various modules, instead of the typical announcements list.  Items such as announcements, what's new, calendar, and tasks as well as other modules can appear on the course home page.

9. Community System Tab Groups

As more and more content is brought into the learning system from other sources, more organization is needed. Tab groups allow additional organization option by grouping a set of tabs together.

What are your favorites? What am I missing? Please comment below!