Higher Ed

We are excited to share the news that registration for BbWorld 2012 is now open! As you recharge over this winter break, why not get a jump start on your summer plans and consider joining us in New Orleans for our annual user conference. If you joined us last year in Las Vegas, it’s hard to forget the incredible opening keynote with Steven Johnson and the closing keynote from Sir Ken Robinson. Through the course of two and a half days, we kept you busy with dozens of sessions, networking opportunities and executive discussions, details on Blackboard’s technology roadmap, special receptions with your peers, Blackboard executives and staff, and a corporate keynote from founder and CEO Michael Chasen. We left you excited (and exhausted) and ready to head into the school year with best practices and new ways to deliver a more impactful learning experience at your institution. Don’t you want to join us again?

As academic activity slows and students wrap up their finals, IT professionals on campuses around the country are just gearing up for a busy upgrade season. The winter break between semesters is a perfect time to make software upgrades and updates to the important systems on campus – like the LMS. So, when everyone returns in the spring, the latest version of Blackboard is installed – with new and improved features – like gifts under the tree. We’re hearing Ohio University, University of North Texas, Kent State University, Quinnipiac University, University of Tennessee Chattanooga, Madison Area Technical College, Palomar College, University of Alaska Anchorage and Pulaski Technical College are all working diligently to upgrade to the latest version of Blackboard Learn™ 9.1 this upgrade season.

Internships have always been viewed as a great way for students to put concepts learned in class into practice and develop practical skills that cannot be taught in a classroom. However, what was once viewed as a nice-to-have is now becoming an integral step towards achieving post-graduate success. More and more employers say that having real-world experience on your resume is crucial to getting a job in today’s ever competitive job market. Consider these staggering statistics:

• According to a recent study for Michigan State University, ninety percent of new hires will have had work-related experiences prior to entering the workforce and some companies said that they would not even consider a candidate who lacked internship experience.

• In the National Association of Colleges and Employers Job Outlook 2010 survey, more than 75% of employers said they prefer candidates with relevant work experience while 16% said they prefer any type of work experience, relevant or not.

Clients often ask what the impetus was behind the Blackboard and McGraw-Hill partnership.  Our answer?  To help improve and enhance the teaching and learning experience. Prior to the partnership and during conversations with faculty and system administrators alike, several challenges came to the forefront – challenges that could be simply addressed by finding a way to make publisher online homework and assessment platforms seamlessly integrated so that instructors and students could access all of their course resources in one place.

As a result, Blackboard and McGraw-Hill built and launched the McGraw-Hill integration.  Now, with the release of the second generation of the Building Block, faculty have access to the rich content and tools provided by McGraw-Hill’s Connect, Create, and SimNet platforms, all within their familiar Blackboard Learn™ instance.  Single sign-on provides seamless access to all course resources, all Connect grades are automatically imported into the Blackboard gradebook, and the solution is fully FERPA-compliant. And with an improved design and new features, it’s now easier than ever to discover and imbed McGraw-Hill content into courses.

Since 2002, California State University Channel Islands (CI) has been enriching the learning experience by extending their courses online with Blackboard Inc. software. In 2011, however, they were faced with budget cuts and decided it was an important time to determine if Blackboard Learn was the most cost-effective solution that simultaneously maintains a high level of faculty and student satisfaction. Although CI looked at a variety of learning management systems, the hands-on evaluation focused on Blackboard Learn 9.1 and Moodle 1.9. These two systems were most commonly used in other Cal State University (CSU) campuses and therefore provided an easy transition for faculty who teach across the CSU system.