by Joanna Brooks
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…)
by Katie Drossos
In November I wrote about how Kaltura’s partnership with Blackboard helps address the challenge of campus media head on. This December, Kaltura released an updated version of their Building Block to make it even more helpful and user-friendly. Some of the new product features include:
- Additional clipping functionality, allowing users to create clips from existing content
- Improved galleries, enabling users to click thumbnails
- New workflows, allowing administrators to assign content to Blackboard courses directly from within the Kaltura Management workflow (more…)
by Katie Drossos
Guest Post by Christopher Tiné, Producer, NBC Learn and EducationNation.com
“Just about every challenge in American education has been met somewhere, by somebody.” – Bill Clinton.
A few months ago, I had the opportunity to hear Bill Clinton speak about education at NBC News’ Education Nation summit. He spoke with Brian Williams about competitiveness and cooperation, but right at the end as he was wrapping up he made a comment that has stuck with me. He said, “Just about every challenge in American education has been met somewhere, by somebody…why are we so lousy at copying the competition and adapting it to our own circumstances?”
Bill Clinton challenged the audience to look around and see where things were working, and adapt solutions to fit their own educational challenges. NBC Learn and Blackboard have tried to do just that with the Solutions in Action series. So often the focus of the education conversation is on what’s wrong with the system. Solutions in Action is our effort to spend a few minutes shining a spotlight on what’s right in education – thinkers with new ideas, effective solutions, and scalable strategies. (more…)
by Andrea Meier
We are excited to share the news that registration for BbWorld 2012 is now open! As you recharge over this winter break, why not get a jump start on your summer plans and consider joining us in New Orleans for our annual user conference.
If you joined us last year in Las Vegas, it’s hard to forget the incredible opening keynote with Steven Johnson and the closing keynote from Sir Ken Robinson. Through the course of two and a half days, we kept you busy with dozens of sessions, networking opportunities and executive discussions, details on Blackboard’s technology roadmap, special receptions with your peers, Blackboard executives and staff, and a corporate keynote from founder and CEO Michael Chasen. We left you excited (and exhausted) and ready to head into the school year with best practices and new ways to deliver a more impactful learning experience at your institution.
Don’t you want to join us again? (more…)
by Katie Drossos
Clients often ask what the impetus was behind the Blackboard and McGraw-Hill partnership. Our answer? To help improve and enhance the teaching and learning experience. Prior to the partnership and during conversations with faculty and system administrators alike, several challenges came to the forefront – challenges that could be simply addressed by finding a way to make publisher online homework and assessment platforms seamlessly integrated so that instructors and students could access all of their course resources in one place.
As a result, Blackboard and McGraw-Hill built and launched the McGraw-Hill integration. Now, with the release of the second generation of the Building Block, faculty have access to the rich content and tools provided by McGraw-Hill’s Connect, Create, and SimNet platforms, all within their familiar Blackboard Learn™ instance. Single sign-on provides seamless access to all course resources, all Connect grades are automatically imported into the Blackboard gradebook, and the solution is fully FERPA-compliant. And with an improved design and new features, it’s now easier than ever to discover and imbed McGraw-Hill content into courses. (more…)
