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June, 2011 Hi everyone, Summer is almost here and there’s a lot to be excited about. We are about to release Collaborate 11–an incredible milestone for the team and our community, as we combine the Wimba and Elluminate platforms.   As we also gear up for our first combined user conference, the Blackboard Connections Summit, here’s a quick progress report:

Almost 2,000 of you are registered for BbWorld and now that it’s just 30 days away, it’s time to plan your trip! The MyBbWorld feature is available via BbWorld.com to help you build your itinerary and create a schedule that meets your personal interests throughout the week. But with more than 150 sessions on the program, you might not know where to begin. Some of your favorite Bb employees and well-known clients have provided their list of “must-see sessions.” There’s definitely something for everyone, whether you’re a director of technology, system administrator, instructional technologist, or a professional development coordinator. Take a look here as you plot out your trip:

Stephen P. Vickers is the Technology Enhanced Learning Manager at The University of Edinburgh. Please join him, along with Simon Booth from the University of Stirling, during their presentation, “A Plug and Play Learning Application Integration – Seamlessly Connect to Learning” on Thursday, July 14, 2011 from 10:15AM-11:10AM in Titian 2205. Many go to Vegas in the hopes of a big win.  Well come to Vegas next month and I can guarantee you a win-win-win.  The IMS Basic Learning Tools Interoperability (LTI) specification truly delivers a win-win-win.  It is a win for teachers and learners.  It is a win for Blackboard system administrators.  And, it is a win for developers of elearning applications. One of the great things about the second week of July is that thousands of people with a common goal all come together in a single place.  The common goal is enhancing the student learning experience.  This year promises to be even more exciting.  Not only do we have OSCELOT Open Source Day 6, DevCon and BbWorld, but also the Blackboard Collaborate Connections Summit. This breadth of activity is perfectly mirrored in the impact of Basic LTI on the eLearning community.

Guest Post by Dr. Malcolm Murray, Learning Technologies Team Leader at Durham University. Dr. Murray’s session, “Rethinking Student Feedback” focuses on Pedagogical Best Practices using Blackboard Learn, Release 9.x. Join him on 7/13/2011, 3:00 PM – 3:55 PM,  Titian 2206. Feedback (and feeding forward) is a hot topic in higher education, with recent student satisfaction metrics only serving to increase institutions’ focus in this area. Durham University has commissioned a range of studies into feedback, involving both staff (faculty) and students. These describe the current provision, identify effective practice and areas for improvement.  Some of the student views in particular came as a surprise. My BbWorld presentation will use these findings to look at the entire process – from both the student and staff perspective. It will begin with our recommendations for setting online assessments, before moving to look at electronic submission. This includes a revealing time plot showing how near to (and for some, surprisingly long after) the deadline students submit their work! I then plan to share experiences of experiments in online marking (some using tablets, some audio feedback).  Then I want to consider the options for the return of work and feedback, particularly those which promote/permit reflection and dialogue.

Ray Henderson, President Blackboard Learn, delivered the keynote at Blackboard’s 2011 Teaching + Learning Conference at the University of Leeds earlier this Spring. More than 200 clients across EMEA came together to network with their peers and to hear from Blackboard about the latest product and support innovations happening across platforms. If you missed Ray’s keynote, you can view it here in its entirety. We were also fortunate to have Dr. Sugata Mitra, from Newcastle University deliver the second keynote. Dr. Mitra has spoken at TED and his “Hole in the Wall” research inspired the book “Slumdog Millionaire.”  You can view Dr. Mitra’s keynote here.

Statements regarding our product development initiatives, including new products and future product upgrades, updates or enhancements represent our current intentions, but may be modified, delayed or abandoned without prior notice and there is no assurance that such offering, upgrades, updates or functionality will become available unless and until they have been made generally available to our customers.