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…a person who, in 1985, predicted the rise of desktop publishing.

…a person who, in 1988, conceived of hyperlinking software…several years before the World Wide Web debuted.

…a person who sees young people as key engines in their own education.

…a person who won the $1 million TED 2013 Prize to fund his proposal for a technology-driven way to give students access to quality education no matter where in the world they live. (Incidentally, in his model, not all teachers are adults.)

This is clearly a person used to being ahead of his time, but you will soon be able to catch him in the here and now.

We are proud to announce the distinguished closing keynote speaker for BbWorld 2013: Sugata Mitra.

Black Sabbath did it. The Black Crowes have done it. The Black-Eyed Peas, too.

And now Blackboard is doing it.

We’re going on tour. The Blackboard Never Stop Learning Tour.

You may be thinking, “You’re not a band. Why go on tour?”

For the same reason bands do: to interact with people who greatly matter to us.

You can voice your opinion to us and we will share great teaching stories with you. Plus you’ll get to network and exchange best practices with your peers.

This inaugural spring tour will include eight stops:

April 5 Los Angeles

April 12 Philadelphia/New Jersey

April 16 Miami

April 19 Ann Arbor

April 26 New York

May 3 Toronto

May 23 Chicago

May 31 Tuscaloosa

Who’s going? The people who design and build the Blackboard tools you use daily. And they can’t wait to meet you, because you’re the reason they do this. They not only want your feedback—they rely on it.

Who’s presenting? The multi-track agenda features peer-led presentations and panels. That’s right, stories from the trenches, everyday users have been hand-selected to present their best practices.

Who should attend?  Administrators, instructional designers, faculty, etc. there’s something on the agenda for everyone.

We’re also bringing publishers; check the individual tour stops to see which publishers are coming to an event near you.

Looking forward to seeing you on the road. It’ll be rocking even without rock music. Register now for a tour date near you and join the conversation: #BbOnTour

Did you know? Blackboard is involved in local partnerships to connect students to the global marketplace. The state of North Carolina, for example, urges schools to collaborate with national and international partners — such as Blackboard –to discover innovative strategies that will enable change and foster global connections.

Students@Work is a partnership project between the North Carolina Business Committee for Education (NCBCE) with the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction, which was created to focus on middle school students, as these years are a crucial point for preventing future drop outs. Roughly one in five North Carolina students will not graduate from high school in four years, and organizations like the NCBCE are working year round to change this number. The goal of Students@Work is to promote career awareness and establish a connection between students and potential employers.

Though many (hopefully most) students take their education seriously, there will always be a few who don’t keep their eyes on their own work. And in this day and age, we’re seeing new ways of cheating the system emerge. Jeffrey R. Young with The Chronicle of Higher Education cites one example where students used a shared Google Doc that they could view and edit while taking the test.

Educators should not have to divert time from quality instruction to worry about students who try to buck the system, which is why we want to help you beat the cheat. How?

Through our long-standing partnership with Respondus, a leading provider of secure testing solutions. Respondus has just launched a new product, Respondus Monitor, a companion tool to Respondus Lockdown Browser. Respondus Monitor uses webcam and video recording technology to ensure students don’t use inappropriate resources (like smartphones or second computers) during online, non-proctored exams.  And, all of this is available through a seamless integration with Blackboard Learn.

The overall shift to online and hybrid course offerings has opened up so many educational opportunities to so many who were previously unable to participate, but it also gives cheaters new opportunities to expose holes in online testing and assessment solutions. Beating cheating is no less important than it ever was. Only now it’s less difficult.

Want to learn more? Join us for a webinar Wednesday, April 3^rd at 3pm (EST) to get a peek at this new, innovative product.

Gathering course evaluation feedback is an increasingly important aspect of institutions’ strategic decisions. Academic leaders value research and data analysis to identify areas for institutional training enhancement. There are an abundant number of solutions in the area of feedback management, but how can institutions harness the right data?

This past fall, Blackboard gave a major nod to the importance of data-driven enhancement when we began offering our enterprise survey tool as part of the core Blackboard Learn product.

Recently, eXplorance, a leading enterprise feedback management provider, has become a Blackboard Premier Partner. eXplorance has more than 150 clients utilizing the Blackboard Learn integration it developed in 2010. This Premier Partnership allows for a greater collaboration between the two companies through increased technical, marketing, and sales support.