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The turkey is in the oven, the mashed potatoes are on the table and the cranberry dressing is flowing – it can only mean one thing: it’s time for Thanksgiving.

Whether you’re a parent of an active learner, an instructor or happen to be one yourself – it’s clear that this year we’ve got a lot to be thankful for in the education revolution. Need some reminding?

Administrators are Empowered to Innovate and Improve Schools.

In order to fulfill the educational needs of the active learner, schools must adapt. Luckily, this year we saw a lot of great data sets that clearly show the advantages of integrating technology and catering to the active learner.  And it’s this data that helps drive decisions with Administrators, Faculty, System Administrators, and others.  While adoption may be a slow process, we’re thankful that we’re heading in the right direction.

So as we prepare to settle down and reflect – let’s take some time to remember the important role that active learners play in education.  We hope you’ll use this holiday to mentally prepare to come back and continue efforts to innovate our education systems so that they can better accommodate the needs of our active learners.

You keep your phone in your purse or pocket. You keep your favorite t-shirt you’ve had for years in the middle drawer (or sometimes on the floor). And when it comes to the information that matters most, you don’t want your stuff all over the place.

Wait, staying organized—that’s a lot of work. But don’t worry. Now you don’t have to do it alone. A new feature in Blackboard Learn, My Blackboard, makes it so much easier.

Think of it as your own intelligent, organized educational assistant.

Grades, notifications, course conversations, classmate profiles, and more, are all bundled into one convenient, organized interface that is accessible from anywhere within Blackboard. No jumping in and out of courses, multiple tabs, or convoluted drop-downs.

You’ll have to get your clicks elsewhere.

Blackboard Learn. Simply. Better. See why.

Hey dreamers—you can’t read the Blackboard unless you show up for class.

This year, Blackboard kicked off what has rapidly become a successful series of regional one-day conferences designed to give our clients in-person access to Blackboard leaders and developers and insights into your peers’ technology endeavors. In other words, class is coming to you.

What: Blackboard Teaching and Learning Day

When: Wednesday December 5, 8:30 am (breakfast) to 4:15 pm

Where: Covel Commons Conference Center (UCLA), 330 De Neve Drive, Los Angeles

Why: To exchange ideas and best practices from Blackboard reps, your peers, and special guest speakers.

Congratulations to Cuyahoga Community College (Tri-C) for winning a $50,000 grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to develop a Massive Open Online Course (MOOC), which it will run on CourseSites, a free, cloud-based online learning platform that provides the latest and greatest Blackboard technology. Cuyahoga Community College, a Blackboard Learn^TM client, will use the grant money to create an open course on developmental math.

“We’re very excited to utilize Blackboard’s CourseSites for our MOOC. We have a longstanding relationship with Blackboard and appreciated the opportunity to work on an emerging new educational delivery format (MOOC) application to support one of the College’s core learning needs: developmental education. The use of a MOOC to enhance success with students in developmental education is an excellent opportunity to support innovation with core learning initiatives,” said Christina Royal, associate vice president of eLearning and innovation at Tri-C.

Tri-C is joining a growing list of institutions that are using CourseSites to run MOOCs for reasons including familiarity with the Blackboard system, the breadth of features and functionality, and the ability to create courses based on their own vision instead of adapting to a vendor’s model.