Higher Ed

Yesterday we made a series of company announcements that drew the attention of many across the education industry and beyond. But the news that we are going to continue to support the ANGEL platform indefinitely is an announcement I’d like to pause on for a moment – as this is an important announcement for the entire ANGEL community. Blackboard acquired ANGEL back in 2009 and was planning to End of Life the platform in 2014.  However, as announced yesterday by Ray Henderson, “We recognize that clients continue to be successful with ANGEL, and we want to support that work as part of our larger strategy to support multiple learning platforms.” Blackboard will continue to provide support and maintenance to the ANGEL Community indefinitely.  While ANGEL won’t see the significant enhancements that Release 9.1 and the Moodlerooms platform Joule will see, we plan to provide regular service packs for ANGEL 8.0 along with select enhancements, on which more information will be shared at BbWorld in New Orleans this summer. Commentary from the media, analyst and client community has been very favorable of this news:

March Madness 2012 is upon us! With 99% of the tournament teams using Blackboard, we decided to host our own Final Four Pool. No money involved just good, clean fun. The client with the closest entries for the final winner will win a non-transferable free pass to BbWorld 2012 in New Orleans, LA.

Whether you’re pulling for a Trojan or a Jayhawk, you must enter your final four bracket picks by 12PM EDT on March 22, 2012 – and hopefully we’ll see your team in the Final Four.

Click here to enter your picks and be sure to follow us on Facebook and Twitter for more March Madness trivia! Please see the contest terms and conditions,  for more information.

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!”

This weekend at the American Council of Education conference,  Blackboard Student Services announced with Hobsons, one of the leading companies in recruitment, communication and student success solutions for colleges and universities, a partnership that will offer current and prospective client institutions complementary services from each company that will help enhance the process of delivering support to students in all aspects of the student lifecycle. Both Blackboard and Hobsons offer complementary services to our individual client bases and we often find our solutions working together in different parts of the same institutions.  Through this partnership, we will provide our current and future clients a more streamlined integration of our separate offerings. Colleges and universities will now have the option of working with TWO market leaders through integrated services, support and technology in various aspects of the campus experience such as:

• The development of marketing strategies,
• Proactive recruitment and outreach efforts,
• Continuous live, Web and mobile support of financial aid and enrollment information to improve enrollment conversions,
• Increasing student retention, and more.

“Student expectations have changed and there is high demand for 24/7 access to information and real-time responses,” said Craig Chanoff, general manager of Blackboard Student Services. “While student support organizations within institutions try to meet these expectations, more and more universities are relying on technology to gain efficiencies. We are excited to partner with Hobsons to give institutions the option of working with two market leaders to build and maintain relationships with their students.” To learn more, check out the press release announcing the exciting new partnership. In other ACE conference news, we also announced a renewed partnership and a $700,000 in-kind gift to support the ACE Fellows Program, which prepares senior leaders to serve colleges and universities nationwide. Through this give, we have made Blackboard Learn™, Blackboard Colalborate™, and Blackboard Mobile™ available to the ACE Fellows Program, enabling greater communication between ACE Fellows and program instructors, greater collaboration with higher education leaders around the world, and provide a central location for program logistics, assignments, resources and online discussions.