Products & Services

Mark Edmundson, a professor of English at University of Virginia, wrote an Op-Ed called, “The Trouble with Online Education,” which appeared in last week’s New York Times. Timing of the op-ed coincides with UVA’s recent announcement that they would be developing and offering online courses with Coursera. To boil down the article, Edmundson says he thinks of online education as a one size fits all experience, yet thinks of traditional learning experiences as that of a jazz composition. In response, Josh Kim published an open letter to Professor Edmundson exposing some of Professor Edmundson’s incorrect assumptions and confusion, which you can read here: An Open Letter to Professor Edmundson.

I was lucky enough to attend the “Julie and Julie” session at BbWorld 2012! Julie Evans, CEO of Project Tomorrow, and Julie Young, President & CEO of Florida Virtual School shared their thoughts on Personalized Learning. Both agree that students are looking for ways to use technology in order to make learning more relevant and successful according to their own individual needs, goals, and preferences. And, both mention that children are using mobile phones, social networks, and the internet with such increasing frequency that it is becoming a must for schools to incorporate these tools into a student’s learning, instead of shutting them down.

Can you guess what student profile this describes?

In 2010, Professor Sharon Feaster began offering Connect Anatomy & Physiology to her students as an extra study tool. Professor Feaster was hesitant to require McGraw-Hill Connect and have her students go to two course websites – Blackboard Learn and Connect – so she made it optional for students.

As soon as the Blackboard integration became available, she immediately jumped on board and started requiring her students to use McGraw-Hill Connect.  As a result, she experienced significant improvements in course and exam pass rates, demonstrating the effectiveness of Connect and LearnSmart on student learning.  In addition, she saw a 29% reduction in course withdrawals, which she assumes is a result of fewer students feeling compelled to withdraw because they were succeeding in the course.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Read this case study to find out why Professor Feaster credits Connect with having made a real difference for her students.

In my blog last week I introduced you to a few of the Blackboard Learn experts who will be onsite in New Orleans next week ready to talk to you about new features, workflows, integrations, and extensions to Learn. To ensure you get the most out of your time at BbWorld here is round two of “Meet the Blackboard Learn Experts”.  These individuals will be presenting sessions but also spending a lot of time in either the Blackboard booth (in the exhibit hall) or at the Digital Content & Upgrade Center which will be located on the Main Foyer Level 2 of the convention center.  Seek them out, ask questions and share your best practices with them.

These Bbers will be sharing their favorite features and workflows at the Blackboard Learn booth – here is the schedule, so stop by!

On 22 June 2012, the Society for Pedagogy and Information (GPI) – a scientific society for multimedia, educational technology and media didactics – awarded the Comenius EduMedia Awards to outstanding products in the field of ICT-supported educational media. Blackboard Mobile Learn was awarded the Comenius EduMedia Seal of Approval and the Comenius EduMedia Medal in the category ‘Educational Management Systems (LMS)’.

The Blackboard Mobile™ Learn application gives students and faculty access to their courses, content, and organizations on a variety of mobile devices including Android™, BlackBerry® and iPhone OS. Students and instructors can access documents in multiple formats, read announcements, create discussion threads, upload media, create content items within the course map, comment on blogs and more—all on the mobile devices they love. This German trailer demonstrates what Blackboard Mobile Learn looks like on the iPad.