WASHINGTON, Jan. 10, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- Blackboard Inc.
(Nasdaq: BBBB) today announced that Riverside and San Diego Community College
Districts have selected Blackboard Learn™, Release 9.1
following separate, extensive reviews of popular commercial and
open source course management solutions. At each institution,
evaluations were driven primarily by faculty who found that
Blackboard Learn offered superior functionality and a feature-rich,
user-friendly platform.
The multi-campus community college districts of Riverside and San
Diego are among more than 50 California community colleges
that have already moved to Blackboard's Next Generation platform in
the last year or are planning to move soon. Many are upgrading from
Blackboard's WebCT platform and have been impressed with Release
9.1 as well as the opportunity to explore other areas with
Blackboard including mobile, outcomes assessment, collaboration
technology, and mass notification.
At Riverside, every faculty
member teaching one of the 800 online, hybrid or Web-enhanced
courses was invited to participate in the review process, and the
selection of Blackboard Learn was driven by its improved features,
instructor familiarity, and confidence in the product. Faculty were
asked to evaluate the software based solely on the merits of the
product and not price, although Blackboard's offer also turned out
to be the lowest cost option of the group.
"Our faculty led this evaluation effort from start to finish,
and they made the decision to go with Blackboard because the
changes in Release 9 and Release 9.1 in particular were exactly the
direction they wanted to go," said Sylvia
Thomas, Riverside's
Associate Vice Chancellor of Educational Services. "We're very
pleased with the results of our search and that it was an open,
inclusive and transparent process."
At San Diego, which has
approximately 500 online and 900 Web-enhanced course sections each
semester, the review process included a survey of every faculty
member teaching an online course to identify their must-have and
wish list of tools and features of a course management system.
After demonstrations and hands-on "test drives" for faculty, vendor
options were narrowed to seven finalists which were evaluated on a
"decision matrix." Blackboard Learn Release 9.1 ranked first in
four out of five criteria, including experience and reliability of
the vendor; tools and features needed by the faculty; efficient
migration from the existing system (WebCT Vista); and support
services including accessibility/ADA compliance, training materials
and tracking and administrator tools.
"With use of our course management system increasing by about 20
percent each year, this step is a critical one for ensuring the
long-term success of our online and distributed learning program,
and Blackboard Learn 9.1 is well worth the cost when all the
evaluative criteria are taken into account," said Dr. Andrea Henne, San
Diego Community College District's Dean of Online and
Distributed Learning. "I'm optimistic about our choice and the
opportunity for faculty and students to take advantage of the
user-friendly interface, new mobile learning capabilities and Web
2.0 tools and features."
Release 9.1 is already being used by more than 1,000
institutions worldwide, and integrates a range of social learning
tools like blogs and wikis to drive student engagement. It also
features a new Web 2.0 interface and the ability to seamlessly
integrate multimedia content from Web sources to create a more
visually impactful course experience. Release 9.1 can also be
enabled to support mobile learning with Blackboard Mobile™
Learn in native applications for the most popular mobile
platforms.
"We've invested much in this platform and in enabling clients to
upgrade in a way that brings maximum value to their uses with
minimal disruption to their daily lives," said Ray Henderson, President of Blackboard Learn.
"I'm encouraged to see Release 9.1 so well received by so many
institutions and particularly by WebCT campuses that have responded
enthusiastically."
For more information about Blackboard, please visit
http://www.blackboard.com.
About Blackboard Inc.
Blackboard Inc. (Nasdaq: BBBB) is a global leader in enterprise
technology and innovative solutions that improve the experience of
millions of students and learners around the world every day.
Blackboard's solutions allow thousands of higher education, K-12,
professional, corporate, and government organizations to extend
teaching and learning online, facilitate campus commerce and
security, and communicate more effectively with their communities.
Founded in 1997, Blackboard is headquartered in Washington, D.C., with offices in North America, Europe, Asia
and Australia.
Any statements in this press release about future
expectations, plans and prospects for Blackboard and other
statements containing the words "believes," "anticipates," "plans,"
"expects," "will," and similar expressions, constitute
forward-looking statements within the meaning of The Private
Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Actual results may differ
materially from those indicated by such forward-looking statements
as a result of various important factors, including the factors
discussed in the "Risk Factors" section of our Form 10-Q filed
on November 5, 2010 with the SEC. In
addition, the forward-looking statements included in this press
release represent the Company's views as of January 10, 2011. The Company anticipates that
subsequent events and developments will cause the Company's views
to change. However, while the Company may elect to update these
forward-looking statements at some point in the future, the Company
specifically disclaims any obligation to do so. These
forward-looking statements should not be relied upon as
representing the Company's views as of any date subsequent to
January 10, 2011.
SOURCE Blackboard Inc.