Going Mobile: get perspective on all things mobile + education with the team behind Blackboard's mobile strategy.
News and views from Ray Henderson, President of Blackboard Learn.
Next-Level Learning
The latest innovations, best practices, and top learning trends at corporations, associations, governments and career colleges.
K-12 Blog
Keep up with the K-12 team on events, research and client stories as they work with schools and districts to impact the teaching and learning experience.
BbWorld Blogs
Information, updates and stories from Blackboard events and conferences around the globe.
Collaboration
All-new aspects of real time, or anytime, learning and collaboration. Discover tips on how to engage on all levels.
I’ve been using course management software for a long time. As early as 1994, I was involved in a project called “The Virtual Classroom” at the University of Connecticut, trying to figure out how to supplement the course experience with online components. Our tools were Gopher, NCSA Mosaic, and a small web server. At the time, most students had to visit the library or a computer lab to even get online. I later started using WebCT at the University of Denver in 1997 and soon joined the company as an employee in 1999. I may have left teaching, but educational technology has been my profession and passion ever since.
My career has given me the opportunity to work with lots of educational software over the years, and in my role in Product Marketing here at Blackboard, I am closely involved with the evolution of the Blackboard Learn Platform. So it is with great anticipation that I look forward to my first peek at a working build of each new release. The excitement of seeing named features in working code for the first time remains a true joy of this job, but with Service Pack 8 I couldn’t believe my eyes. I knew we were updating the user interface and continuing to improve core workflows, but the actual working product was beyond my expectations. I knew then that this was more than your average service pack.
I enjoyed working in the new software so much that I decided to do a product launch video for it. This would be too much fun to outsource. I dove into our demo course and recorded my actions with screen capture software. It didn’t take me long to figure it all out. Everything is still just where you expect it to be, but the user interface is so much cleaner that it truly feels new. Edit controls just get out of your way when you don’t need them, workflow improvements make it easy to hop from one course to another, and it all just looks so good. Speaking of looking good, there are over fifty course themes that you can apply to personalize your course or make it match your subject.
The more I used it, the more I loved it, and I couldn’t wait for the day when we could release it to all of you. Well, that day is here and I hope you will take this opportunity to try SP8 for yourselves. You can see more in the video below and you can learn more about the release at http://blackboardlearn.com/new where you can also sign up for webinars and upgrade cohorts. I’m confident that SP8 will save you time, make you more efficient, and make your time spent in Blackboard Learn more enjoyable.
While you are at it, take a look at how you, our clients, influenced this release with the Client Impact Report.
I hope you enjoy working with Service Pack 8 for Blackboard Learn as much as I do.
K-12 industry leaders and executives are starting to take serious note of Blackboard and our giant push into the market.
With the addition of Edline to the Blackboard family, we have increased our K-12 community of practice and now provide a complete end-to-end solution set. Despite being known as a “higher education company” we now have more clients in K-12 than postsecondary. Who knew?
Brett Frazier, SVP of sales, and Rick Noble, president of Edline, recently sat down with Tom Vander Ark (of GettingSmart.com and a former BbWorld keynoter) to discuss our new K-12 position, Edline and the ever-changing market.
Brett noted, “Our strategy is driven by a view of an active consumer. This type of consumer has changed many industries from banks to bookstores and is beginning to change expectations for schools.” (more…)
During Tuesday’s State of the Union address, President Obama stated that higher education should be viewed as an economic imperative and urged Congress to provide community colleges with the resources they need to become “community career centers.” Community colleges serve as a career gateway for many Americans, and with an estimated 62% of all jobs in the US requiring at least a two-year degree by 2018, postsecondary education is becoming a prerequisite for economic success.
Obtaining a college degree, however, no longer guarantees employment. With the unemployment rate hovering around 18%-20%, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, American youth aged 16-24 are struggling to find jobs. More and more employers say real-world experience is the key to getting a job. 90% of new hires will have had work-related experiences prior to entering the workforce. And, according to the National Association of Colleges and Employers, 7 out of 10 internships turn into full-time jobs. It’s evident that in today’s increasingly competitive global economy, students must take advantage of every opportunity to enhance their skills and marketability in order to ensure successful entry into the job market. (more…)
What would it be like to walk through an average college campus in the year 2017? It may be harder to imagine than you think. Look how far we have come in the last 5 years. In 2006, there were no iPhones, no Androids, no iPads, no Twitter, Facebook was a college-only experience, and social networking meant meeting at the fraternity house.
In 2003, Steve Jobs said on the launch of the iTunes store:
Will Apple’s launch of iBooks 2 on January 19, 2012 be the same inflection point for textbooks? Certainly only time will tell. So, as we play an active role in education changes that lie ahead and welcome Apple back to education conversation, let’s look back at the past… (more…)
Recent cuts to federal travel budgets now have a considerable impact on the way federal trainers approach learning delivery within their respective agencies. As the President calls for a heavier reliance on video conferencing and web-based capabilities to replace face-to-face training courses, federal trainers must continue to foster core competency and skill set development within their workforce.
Here’s our solution: Blackboard Collaborate, a solution that delivers highly effective and engaging online instruction, meetings, and help—anywhere, any time—across your government agency. Blackboard Collaborate combined with Blackboard Learn mimics face-to-face learning that many federal learners have grown accustomed to- but it’s cost effective. So if your agency is ready to deliver succession planning, streamline knowledge transition, enhance collaborative learning, reduce training costs, and/or improve mission outcomes, Blackboard Collaborate is the solution for you.
Here are some top features of the Blackboard Collaborate solution that will deliver cost-effective results for your agency:
Web Conferencing facilitates interactive instruction, help, and meetings through an enhanced user experience.
Voice Authoring gives you the opportunity to create engaging and effective asynchronous learning by facilitating vocal instruction, collaboration, personalized coaching, and assessment.
When combined with solutions such as Blackboard Learn, your agency will also gain the ability to assess learning outcomes in real time to increase trainee success and measure which training programs are the most effective. Explore the ways that Blackboard Collaborate can help members of your agency stay connected and remain on-task with training plans, even in the face of today’s budget cuts and travel restrictions.
Recent cuts to federal travel budgets now have a considerable impact on the way federal trainers approach learning delivery within their respective agencies. As the President calls for a heavier reliance on video conferencing and web-based capabilities to replace face-to-face training courses, federal trainers must continue to foster core competency and skill set development within their workforce.
