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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.

How Did We Get Here? Blackboard and McGraw-Hill launched a large-scale pilot program in Spring of this year to understand how the integration improves and enhances the teaching and learning experience.  Fifty-seven instructors from forty-four institutions participated and their feedback has helped shape the final version of the building block. At the end of the pilot program, we achieved an 86% overall satisfaction rating and 85% of instructors indicated that they would use our integrated solution again. Faculty and students told us:

• “I didn’t have to leave the Blackboard site, go to other websites, login with a different name.  And, the bonus was that it immediately posted my grades for my work to Blackboard, unlike other courses where I had to wait for the teacher to post them to Blackboard.”
• “I was able to put more focus on my studies rather than exerting all my time and energy towards the access process alone.”
• “The one-click access to my assignments saved me time because I use Blackboard for my other assignments. Having Connect integrated into the service I already use daily was a huge time saver.”

Want More Evidence That The Integration Really Works? At Murray State University, 95% of students found that the integration saved them time and improved their productivity and 95% of students found it “Easy” or “Really Easy” to log into Connect, access assignments and view grades for Connect assignments within the Blackboard Learn platform.  At San Jacinto College South, 70% of students said the integration improved their performance and 84% of students said integration saved them time and improved productivity. Click here to view a webinar in which Dr. Gary Brockway from Murray State University and Dr. Mary Wisgirda from San Jacinto College South talk about their experiences with the McGraw-Hill integration. We are proud of the work we have done together and look forward to hearing how the integration has enhanced the education experience for you and your students.