We are thrilled to announce that Service Pack 6, for the latest release of Blackboard Learn, 9.1, is here!  This release not only furthers increased efficiency that government and military seek, but also provides a more positive, open experience for both educators and system administrators.  Benefits include:

• Reduced integration costs
• Improved user experience
• Greater flexibility of content via Sharable Content Object Reference Model (SCORM) engine
• New instructor tools like timed assessments and needs grading
• Administrative hierarchy

With this latest release, a new SCORM content player is integrated into the LMS and will allow instructors to easily import their existing SCORM-compliant content into their course environment without having to recreate it. The SCORM engine was developed and will continue to be supported by Rustici Software, a leading producer of SCORM compliance products. We interviewed Mike Rustici and you can watch his take on the collaboration of Rustici SCORM and Blackboard. Watch here!

Today’s generation of warfighters are faced with numerous challenges – from evolving threats, to longer deployments, to humanitarian missions.  They need learning and training strategies that are agile enough to cope with such a landscape.  And that’s where Blackboard comes in.

Blackboard Learn™ is an agile, rapidly deployed learning system that integrates with existing learning environments to provide both the structure and flexibility recommended by Advanced Distributed Learning and trainees, and to accommodate how people are actually learning today.

A few weeks ago, the U.S. Army announced that it selected Android for its future smartphone operating system. CNN.com Tech reports that the Army selected the “device agnostic” OS to power a specially designed mobile device that has yet to be released. The Joint Battle Command-Platform, or JBC-P Handheld, would be the first device developed under the Army’s effort to create a framework and suite of mobile apps. If implemented, such a device would enable warfighters to access key information and data on the ground – which could prove life-saving if in the midst of battle.

This is a great step forward in making smartphones a more ubiquitous tool for both military training and operations.  As Andrew Martin and Thomas Lin point out in a recent New York Times story titled “Keyboards First. Then Grenades.”, it’s important to reach soldiers in the mediums in which they are most comfortable.

Training and ongoing learning have always been an integral part of life as a soldier. Our nation’s service men and women are constantly learning new ways to protect our country and its citizens. Equally important is their continuing education while serviing in the military — whether living stateside or stationed abroad. That is why the U.S. Army Command and General Staff College (CGSC), which educates up to 10,000 Army majors a year, has made a commitment to its students to support their continuous learning efforts through current technologies.

We at Next Level Learning like to spotlight blogs of note in the professional education community as a resource for people in our industry. Today, we bring you Government in the Lab – a site dedicated to all things results-driven government and written by John F. Moore, who is a Gov 2.0 expert, as well as numerous contributing authors. Moore’s blog teaches us a lot about how governments can leverage new online tools and technologies to provide for a more powerful (and sometimes more user-friendly) experience for their constituents.