Products & Services

How do you define success? Companies can measure success by revenue or market share, by developing leading-edge products or by reputation, accolades or awards. At Blackboard Connect, we think all of those things are important – but there’s another metric we think matters equally: delivering a high level of client satisfaction. That’s why we commission an annual survey of client satisfaction . Conducted by the respected education survey firm Gomez Research, the results have shown a consistently high level of satisfaction:  ninety-five percent or more in each of the past three years. We are humbled and encouraged by the feedback we receive from our clients. Their perspective often helps us determine the direction of our product roadmap. In fact, many of the enhancements in Blackboard Connect™ 5 came as a result of the client survey, client focus groups, and even one-on-one conversations with clients. Users asked for an easier interface, so we streamlined the message workflow. Clients were looking for an online message hub, so we created the Connect Access Portal where recipients can review messages, update contact information and subscribe to the content that is relevant to them. With more emphasis on data-driven decision-making, we expanded Blackboard Connect’s survey feature and added real-time message reports and SMS delivery to the mobile handset. Incorporating your input seems to be paying off – Blackboard Connect 5 is serving over 3 million recipients and receiving industry awards in the six months since its release. And we’ll continue to deliver on client feedback as we will be unveiling additional features to Blackboard Connect throughout the year. If you are interested in learning more about Blackboard Connect 5, visit the website or sign up for a demonstrational webinar.

Recently, a blog post in the New York Times advanced the notion that text messaging is on a “steep decline.” Based on a purported decline in year-over-year SMS traffic for Christmas Day 2011, the Times extrapolated to find a declining trend in the popularity of text messaging worldwide, noting that alternative services, like Facebook and Twitter, or free messaging features like Blackberry Messenger and Apple’s iMessage, have attributed to the decline of text messages among cell phone users. Now, to be sure, like the telegraph or the telex before it, SMS will someday peak and then fade away. But at Blackboard Connect, we think reports of the death of texting are greatly exaggerated. Here’s why. When we cherry-pick the number of text messages sent on a single day, we have only the narrowest of data points.  If you step back and examines the broader trend, the evidence is clear: SMS traffic still enjoys double-digit growth every year.  According to Nielsen, mobile users in the US continue to drive significant growth in SMS usage. From 2009 to 2011, the number of SMS sent or received by women increased by 35 percent, and among men it increased 44 percent. Even in more “mature” markets like the UK, SMS grew 24 percent in 2010, the most recent year on record, according to telecoms regulator Ofcom. British mobile users sent 129 billion SMS that year – 5 messages a day for every man, woman and child in the country. That’s the experience we’ve found at Blackboard Connect too.  Our users continue to double their use of SMS every year. In 2011, our users increased the amount of text messages sent through our multi-modal service by roughly 124 percent compared to 2010.

Earlier this week, we were notified by the Software & Information Industry Association (SIIA) that several of our products were selected as finalists for the 2012 CODiE Awards in both Higher Education and K-12 categories. First time nominees, like Edline and CourseSites, were recognized as well as newly updated products like Blackboard Learn and Mobile Learn.  The McGraw Hill/Blackboard Building Block also made it to the next round of judging. We are especially excited that educators nominated us after viewing product demonstrations first-hand. Being a finalist in all of the below categories affirms that Blackboard is helping to improve many aspects of education. Finalist categories include: Blackboard Learn, Release 9.1, Service Pack 6 • Best Postsecondary Course or Learning Management System • Best Postsecondary Instructional Solution Blackboard Mobile Learn • Best Educational Use of Mobile Device CourseSites • Best Cross-Curricular Solution Edline Learning Community Management System • Best K-12 Enterprise Solution McGraw-Hill Blackboard Building Block • Best Cross Curricular Solution For a full list of the finalists in the Education Technology categories, vist the SIIA website. If you’re a member of SIIA, don’t forget to vote from now until April 13! Congrats to all the finalists!

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!”

The next four months are going to fly by. How do I know?  Because the planning for the second annual Blackboard Collaborate™ Connections Summit is in full-swing, and as we continue to dot a myriad of i’s and cross countless t’s, our entire team cannot wait to see so many of you in New Orleans in mid-July. The reasons to attend are numerous.  We’ll unveil the latest enhancements to our Blackboard Collaborate™ platform.  Our fearless leader Maurice Heiblum will share the considerable progress our division has made now that we’ve had a full year under our belt as a combined company.  You’ll have full access to all of BbWorld 2012—yes, even its famous parties and keynotes.  You can roll-up your sleeves and get your hands dirty with the current version of Blackboard Collaborate.  And perhaps most importantly, you can attend nearly 50 sessions by Blackboard Collaborate customers from around the globe. And it’s always the customer-led sessions that are the showstoppers. This year’s Connections Summit agenda covers a variety of topics ranging from best practices and effective instructional design, to decreasing costs and adoption and implementation.  And perhaps most importantly, several tracks will specifically focus on upgrading from Elluminate or Wimba to Blackboard Collaborate. For many of our customers, 2012 is the year in which they’ll upgrade from one of our legacy products to our shiny new toy, and we want them to have the smoothest transition possible.  Therefore, in New Orleans, customers can attend an upgrade panel presentation featuring customers at Northern Illinois University, the University of Arkansas in Little Rock, and the Florida Hospital College of Health Sciences, all of whom have already been enjoying the new platform for months.  There will even be a presentation by the team at the University of Missouri system about its upgrade experience as well. Further, we’ll again have a walk-in feedback room in which our Product Management and Support teams can answer all your upgrade and technical questions, and I’ll likely hold a meeting for anyone who wants to learn more about our cohort upgrade programs. As we say, collaboration is music to our ears, so we feel that New Orleans is the best place for you to learn from the Collaborate team and your peers about the future of the Blackboard Collaborate™ platform.  Block off your calendars now, and I’ll see you in The Big Easy in July!