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Even though it’s been awhile since I was a college student, I can’t help but feel like these are the last weeks before the end of the semester and final exams.

You remember the all-nighters, and the study groups and term papers that seemed to never make it to “perfect,” but eventually reached the point where you just couldn’t do any more with them.  Was it just me or did you somehow vacillate between feeling nervous, confident, worried and excited all within a very short time span?

Over time I learned to accept those feelings as a good thing, since it generally meant I was taking things seriously and trying my hardest to put my best foot forward, so that I could look back after all was said and done knowing that I would have no regrets.

At the end of this “semester,” my “final exams” will come in the form of two Blackboard Managed Hosting presentations taking place at BbWorld ’08 in Las Vegas:

Over the past several months, there have been many articles highlighting the growth in popularity of open source software solutions in education.

Here at Blackboard, we also feel that open source plays an important role in education.  The recent incorporation of a non-profit organization called OSCELOT (the Open Source Community for Educational Learning Objects and Tools) by a group of passionate members of Blackboard’s developer community reflects this trend.

OSCELOT’s mission is to promote the development and sharing of open-source plugins and extensions for learning environments, including Blackboard Building Blocks and Blackboard PowerLinks, that allow Blackboard users and our partners to customize, enhance, integrate and extend our core LMS products using our open API architecture.

By pairing open source plugins with Blackboard’s commercially supported teaching and learning platform, we’ve seen rapid uptake of educational tools and platform enhancements that everyone can benefit from.

To date, there are over 70 projects hosted on OSCELOT’s site and over 150 known free or open-source plugins contributed by the community, which can be used today with Blackboard solutions to address a wide variety of teaching, learning and institutional priorities.

Whew.  I know it’s been a while since I’ve posted, but this BbWorld conference coming up is a whopper!  So, in between sending emails to speakers and working with my colleagues on mundane things like the signs that are setup outside the session rooms, I thought I’d write something quick for you folks reading the blog today.

What fun things can I tell you about BbWorld and the 2008 Blackboard Developers Conference?  How about:

KJ’s Top Ten Reasons to Come to Vegas in July!

10)  OSCELOT’s Open Source Day III (Saturday, July 12, and Sunday, July 13).  What, you didn’t know?  Now you do!

9)  It’s the Final Frontier . . .

8)  You can build your own program at BbWorld and DevCon!

7)  You can search for sessions that meet your specific needs.

6)  Fabulous keynote speakers at both DevCon and BbWorld.

5)  It’s not THAT hot (inside anyway).

4)  Peer networking.  Not that kind!  This kind!  And like this!

3)  Best practices in your interest areas: Assess, Engage, Manage and K-12.

2)  Exciting Pre-Conference Workshops!

And the #1 reason to come to Vegas in July . . .

1)  The Client Appreciation Party!

OK, maybe the networking is more important than the party.  But, still, you should register now!  There’s no better place for talking about your success than BbWorld ’08.

Hope to see you there!

This year BbSummit Asia was merged with the eLearning Forum Asia ("eLF2008") and held on 29–30 May in Singapore.  Over 140 delegates attended the forum, from mainland China, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, the Philippines, Thailand and Taiwan.

The eLearning Forum Asia was created two years ago by three Blackboard clients: City University of Hong Kong, Taiwan’s Feng Chia University and Singapore’s Nanyang Technological University (NTU).

Following the success of BbSummit Asia last year, Blackboard was fortunate to be approached by the executives of these universities and invited to work with them to create a single event with a program that would be deeper in subject matter and broader in coverage than either event could have individually.

The theme for the forum this year was "It’s a Small World After All."  For details about the program, which focused on online pedagogy and the role of leadership, see the NTU website.

The opening keynote address was delivered by Dr. Xu Erming, a professor of management and the deputy dean for the School of Graduate Studies of Renmin University of China.  His presentation was titled "Online Learning Pedagogy: Strategies and Approaches for Effectively Applying ICT to Support Learning."

By Anthony Doyle, Senior Client Manager, Blackboard

I work with Blackboard’s International Client Management Team in Europe, the Middle East and Africa, and joined Blackboard back in November 2005, direct from an institution where I was responsible for the implementation of an institution-wide rollout of Blackboard software.

With those years of experience working on the user side of the Blackboard fence, I’m always excited to meet with members of the global community of Blackboard users and hear first-hand how they are using the software to educate and implementing innovative uses for their implementations.  From my time as a technologist and VLE systems manager, I can vouch for the power of community.

So, in May, I undertook an exciting drive across country, from Middlesbrough in North East England to Sunny Manchester, to join over 300 peers, colleagues and friends (and not to forget the Glasgow Rangers fans) to participate in BbWorld Europe 2008.  I have many connections still from my days as a Blackboard client, and I’m always excited to learn what the latest success stories from day-today users of the system.

My first experience of Blackboard was as a student at university.  From that experience I moved directly from using Blackboard software as a student into working with it as a technologist at a further education college, who actually implemented Blackboard software.  That student perspective stayed with me when I worked as a technologist and much of my work was based around learner-centric methodology.

After one particular session at BbWorld Europe ’08, I left the room with excitement, really thinking, “This is what it’s all about!”