A blog for faculty, developers and system administrators focusing on the latest Blackboard Learn technical and commercial partner news. We’ll share documentation and information on web services and APIs along with Blackboard Partner updates and technologies.
On September 30, 2011, Blackboard Student Services- Killeen, Texas hosted U.S. Congressman John Carter and his staff to discuss ways education technology is empowering students, teachers and parents in the state of Texas—and the important role Blackboard Student Services plays in the student experience at higher ed institutions throughout the country.
Blackboard employs ~400 Texans at our Killeen Blackboard Student Services call center
Blackboard learning technologies are used at 83% of all Texas higher education institutions and 21% of all Texas school districts
1 in 3 Texans who are in public education are using Blackboard technology daily
Just because a platform is proprietary doesn’t mean it can’t be open, and Blackboard Building Blocks™ are a large part of Blackboard’s openness strategy. Building Blocks give Blackboard Learn users the ability to customize aspects of the user experience to cater to institution-specific needs. Building Blocks have been provided to Learn users through our network of partners and open source developers since 2001.
You too can join this dynamic developer community! But, without the right guidance, getting started with Building Blocks development is often a daunting task. As Mike Fudge, one of our presenters at DevCon 2011, noted, “85% of my time was spent looking for resources.” This video will show you all of the resources you need to get up and running with Building Blocks development.
It’s not often in life you see tangible or direct results. So many times projects are diluted, the original intent or scope changes or things beyond your control take over. Well, today I got to see an amazing result of our work which gave me goose-bumps. I manage the Blackboard Catalyst Awards and I love this program because I get to see the outstanding achievements of Blackboard clients that results in acknowledgment by our company. But what I *really* get excited about is when a client I know who is very deserving, receives accolades from their institution or organization.
Can you believe it? September is just around the corner, which, for educators, means it’s time to start preparing for Fall Semester. And, what better way to jump-start your course planning than to take advantage of McGraw-Hill’s customizable, dynamic educational content and tools now available within the latest version of the Blackboard Learn™ platform?
Guest post by Eric Kunnen, Director of Distance Learning and Instructional Technologies, Grand Rapids Community College, and a member of the Ask Dr. C program, a free question and answer service for Blackboard users.
Most faculty simply do not have time to learn costly, complex solutions for recording and distributing their lectures, but many tools can provide instructors with effective ways of redistributing classroom sessions and, ultimately, improve the learning experience for students.
Typically, lecture capture utilities include a video of the computer screen and audio overlayed by the instructor. Occasionally, there is also video of the instructor or whiteboard/document camera which allows student to see what the faculty member is writing on the whiteboard or showing to the class through a video camera. Lecture capture tools on the market today include Tegrity, echo360, MediaSite, Accordent Capture Station, Camtasia Relay, and even some open source options like Panopto*.
