Don't worry too much about your bloated competition such as Blackboard. I am currently a college student and I hate having having to check blackboard. I would much rather have assignment and announcements emailed to me. Most students are lazy like that too. However there are several things that schools need.

-roster page where students can email the whole class or select number of students

-discussion board

-some communication channel for parents, parents heavily invested in their child and a lot of them have zero clue of what they are learning

-A simple class page incase the student wants to login and get their assignments without their clutter of their email.

-Clear subject lines for emails that are sent out