Innovative US Education Software Provider Blackboard Transforms Learning

With e-learning fueling the massification of higher education, boosting the availability of resources and heightening the convenience of distance learning, it is hard to imagine tertiary education is only reserved for the elite.

In fact, more than ever before, a growing number of school leavers in the developed world are entering university.

In 2008, The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development’s (OECD) “Education at a Glance” study found an estimated 56 percent of young adults in OECD countries were likely to take a university degree programme during their lifetime. That translates into an 8 percent jump in university entrants from the year 2000, and over 20 percent more than the number recorded in 1995.

OECD brings together some 30 members to support sustainable economic growth, boost employment, maintain financial stability and contribute to growth in world trade.

The demand for education has prompted universities to rethink their positioning and seek new ways of strengthening their offering amid an increasingly globalized and knowledge driven world.

In that process, technology has emerged to become a key agent of change, revolutionizing traditional ideas about study and learning, and reshaping the dynamics within the academic community.

At the forefront of the technology curve is Blackboard, the world’s leader in enterprise technology and innovative education solutions that currently works with over 5,000 institutions to increase the impact of education by transforming the experience of education.

“A very small percentage of our clients are in pure distance learning,” said Mr Zach Johnson, Blackboard’s Regional Vice President in Asia Pacific. “The majority use is to enhance what they do face-to-face. In many ways, the term e-learning is outdated. There is no division between e-learning and learning. Learning is just learning.”

Part of Blackboard’s success can be attributed to its willingness to accommodate other technologies on its platform. For example, by using open architecture, Blackboard Building Blocks, users can extend functionality by integrating other products into Blackboard Learn, the software provider’s proprietary course management system, to meet specific discipline or institutional needs.

“Blackboard is an open solution. This openness provides a stable and solid framework that allows us to plug in external applications like Web 2.0 properties which have relevant content and pedagogical benefits,” he added.

Blackboard’s system does not focus only on the management of coursework, schedules and grades. It adopts a holistic approach which assesses how students are faring towards their own individual goals, and also takes an aggregate view of the academic institution’s overall performance.

“On a micro level, this helps students perform to their own individual goals. From a macro perspective, it assists institutions in defining their own goals and objectives, tracking and measuring progress, using the rich data available to improve performance, and ultimately raising the overall quality of education,” said Mr Johnson.

By utilizing Blackboard Idea Exchange, client institutions are given the opportunity to offer immediate feedback on the solutions and that input is then directly channeled back into its product development planning. That way, the software provider is able to keep a close tab on the evolving needs of both students and institutions, integrating additional relevant capabilities into the core system.

High on Blackboard’s agenda is the theme of collaboration particularly as universities around the world are increasingly establishing partnerships to boost teaching expertise and widen course offerings.

As students continue to drive the use of Web 2.0 in and outside of the classroom, Blackboard will continue integrating a greater number of social learning tools onto its platform.

Further applications will also be extended to Blackboard Sync, a solution that allows users to receive notifications of changes and updates to their Blackboard Learn accounts on other applications. The system currently offers synchronization with Facebook and the iPhone.

As part of its aim to develop more tools and incorporate existing properties on the internet to boost collaboration in a bid to strengthen student engagement, Blackboard, in May, announced its acquisition of ANGEL Learning Inc, a leading developer of e-learning software to the education sector in the U.S.

The acquisition will combine ANGEL’s record of innovation and client service with Blackboard’s own innovation, financial strength and industry leadership to create a stronger, more flexible supporter of teaching, learning and student engagement, said Blackboard in a press release.