Company

It was great being part of the first Singapore Blackboard User Group (SBUG) Seminar which was held at Ngee Ann Polytechnic. I like User Groups because they provide an opportunity for our local community to come together. This event in particular allows for clients to share ideas for future uses of our platforms and how they are partnering with Blackboard to achieve pedagogical results for their institutions. View the video from our event:

With the start of the spring semester on 1 March 2012, the University of Salzburg is going mobile! The University of Salzburg was already using Blackboard Learn™ for more than ten years and now selected Blackboard Mobile Learn to give students and faculty access to their courses, content, and organizations on a variety of mobile devices including Android™, BlackBerry®, iPhone®, iPod touch®, and iPad™. The Vice Rector of Educational Affairs, Univ. Prof. Mag. Dr. Erich Müller, explains: Als innovative und zukunftsorientierte Universität ist es uns ein besonderes Anliegen, am Puls der Zeit zu sein. „Blackboard Mobile Learn“ trägt dazu bei. Nach zehn Jahren erfolgreichen Lernplattformeinsatzes werden ca. 80% aller Lehrveranstaltungen der Universität Salzburg von Blackboard unterstützt. Mit dem Start von „Blackboard Mobile Learn“ haben Studierende und Lehrende nun die Möglichkeit auch via Smartphone oder Tablet überall und jederzeit auf die Lernplattform zuzugreifen. Ich erhoffe mir dadurch eine weitere Steigerung der Flexibilität im Studienalltag. As an innovative and future-oriented university, it is especially important for us to keep our fingers on the pulse of time. “Blackboard Mobile Learn” contributes to this objective. After ten years of successfully using learning platforms at the University of Salzburg, almost 80% of all courses offered by the University of Salzburg are now supported through the Blackboard Learn platform. With the launch of “Blackboard Mobile Learn” both students and teachers can now access the learning platform anywhere and anytime via smartphone or tablet. I thereby expect a further increase in the flexibility of everyday life of both staff and students. The University of Salzburg created a special website for the launch of Mobile Learn, informing students and staff about the possibilities Mobile Learn offers as well as instructions on how to download and install the app on their mobile devices (www.uni-salzburg.at/zfl/mobile ). Students and staff will further be made aware of the newly launched Mobile Learn through a widespread billposting campaign on University of Salzburg campus and an official email sent by the Vice Rector of Educational Affairs, Univ. Prof. Mag. Dr. Erich Müller. In addition, faculty staff will receive an information folder and an announcement will be made on the homepage of the University of Salzburg. Last but not least, the higher education insert of the Salzburger Nachrichten, the most important and biggest newspaper in the Austrian federal state of Salzburg, has highlighted the launch of Blackboard Mobile Learn at the University of Salzburg. So far the launch has been a great success. Within the first 48hrs, the app was installed approximately 500 times. On 2 March 2012, just one day after the launch, the number of unique visitors was 663. Richard Posch from the Central Service for Flexible Learning and New Media commented: “What a great start, we are all very excited!”

On Monday February 20th Blackboard EMEA, along with BME Holding, our master distributor in the Middle East, hosted the first Teaching & Learning Forum in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. The conference was held in the capital city of Riyadh at the Intercontinental Hotel Riyadh. The goal of the Blackboard Teaching and Learning forums is to demonstrate a series of presentations and discussions about how technology is enriching the teaching and learning experience for faculty and students in the Kingdom and around the world.

On behalf of Blackboard EMEA, I am excited to share with you the success of our first Teaching & Learning Forum in the region of Tatarstan, in Southern Russia. The conference was held on February 15th in the city of Kazan at the IT Park Hotel. The Forum gathered Presidents, Deans, Principals and Directors to participate in a series of presentations and discussions about enriching the teaching and learning experience of faculty and students in Russia and around the world via the latest collaborative technologies.

Over 70 attendees consisting of more than 25 Russian universities discussed and learned about the challenges facing Universities today, how to engage with a new generation of learners, current trends in eLearning and how technology plays a vital role in enhancing education. A panel of Blackboard

representatives hosted the event including Sales Mangers Harry Tubben, Michael Vassilev and Solutions Engineers Pablo Langa and Yuri Shilov who showed live demonstrations of the Blackboard suite of solutions available to Russian universities. The program and was enriched by lively discussions and by special guest David Lewis from Glamorgan University who shared the experience of a Blackboard University in the United Kingdom, presenting a practical case of the challenges, change of behavior and most importantly the success they have had since they began using Blackboard Learn throughout their university. Mr. Lewis’ impressions were gratefully shared with us after the Forum: “The questions I was asked echoed the concerns of my colleagues in the UK when we are at out stages of introduction of this technology, and I hope that I left them with some ideas as to how they can progress, and they would be joining an international community of technologists and scholars in taking forward their development.  The days proceedings were brilliantly designed and constructed to address their fears, explain the potential and provide them with opportunities to experience the range of new features and functions open to them, whatever their needs.” This blog was created by Senior Channel Marketing Manager, Roksana Nabavian.  Roksana has been working with the International markets at Blackboard for 5 years and holds a BA in International Affairs and MA in International Education and Training from American University. She is based out of Valencia, Spain. Contact her at: roksana.nabavian@blackboard.com For more information about Blackboard events in Russia and other locations in EMEA, visit us at: www.blackboard.com/emea.

In a few short days, the impact these mobile devices have had on the students at Nangwanda Secondary School has been profound.  97% of these students never touched a mobile phone before this week, but now their mechanical functioning of the phones increases exponentially every day.  And they just love using these devices!  They are highly engaged and you can see their minds transforming right before your eyes as they attempt to solve new problems in new ways. The  smartphones we are using have the Blackboard Mobile Learn application installed along with content developed by Stanford University and the Seeds of Empowerment team. The mobile learning exercises developed by the research team allow us to measure the cognitive functioning and technological aptitude of the students.