Blackboard Learn

Structure of Blackboard Learn

• Blackboard Course Delivery is the platform of e-learning intended for management of the virtual training environment and providing the platform for distance learning courses;
• Blackboard Content Management is the storage of electronic educational resources intended for the centralized accumulation and structuring electronic educational resources and also access control to them of users and external applications;
• Blackboard Community Engagement is the educational portal intended for the organization of uniform access to services of the Blackboard Learn system, ensuring communications and joint work of users.

A system provides unified interactive environment for training, interaction, information exchange between trainees or students and teachers and instructors of university. It helps to manage the virtual training environment, to create electronic educational resources, to provide remote access to educational resources of educational institution, to exercise control of educational process, to provide platforms for distance learning courses, to accumulate, structure, manage access, to fill up educational base and also to provide means of communication and informing participants.

The solution promotes in automation of the main fields of activity of university in educational process: preparation of educational materials, distance learning, joint research activity, accounting and control of personal criteria of educational process, maintaining normative reference information, joint work of removed members of educational projects.

New in Blackboard Learn v 9.0

Blackboard Learn - version 9.0 (SP10) earlier known under the name Blackboard Academic Suite is developed in cooperation with teachers from the different countries for the solution of the general for them of a difficult task – the organization of learning process for groups of pupils more and more of different type as in the conditions of classroom, and not classroom occupations. This version of the program represents a number of effective remedies for the solution of this task - from means of social training to innovations of Web 2.0 and also the integrated components allowing educational institutions to make better assessment of individuals, groups, programs and schools.

Panels of the Blackboard Learn system from the browser

The release of the specific version considerably increases openness and flexibility of the Blackboard platform, allowing educational institutions to strengthen anyway the opportunities put in the program or to use it as the expanded base for additional technologies which are necessary for them for support of own approach to training.

"Teachers meet serious difficulties with the organization of educational process and assessment of the pupils differing on the requirements and a way of life, - Michael L. Cheyzen, the president and the chief executive officer of Blackboard company noted. - But how real difficulties are, also proposed solutions are so real. Blackboard Learn is beyond traditional categories and control blocks a training course to help to overcome a gap meanwhile as there live students, and how they study. The platform in itself has powerful potential, but in addition differs in the flexibility allowing educational institutions to increase a system for bigger involvement of students and increase in their effectiveness."

The openness of version 9 is increased due to inclusion in it of the elements providing integration of open source code systems and programs, created by fans – including management systems for training courses of Sakai and Moodle, access to which does not require separate registration, and is provided with a uniform input within the Blackboard platform. The integration tools for Sakai and Moodle developed at cooperation with the Sirakyyussky university and the University of the State of Iowa are released open source and integrate more than 150 free or open Blackboard Building Blocks blocks available to users of Blackboard now.

Distinctive features of the version are an opportunity for work with Web 2.0 and also possibilities of social training, including blogs, diaries and the improved means of group work; the electronic bulletin boards publishing topical information and notifications; besides, there is completely processed, configured user interface Web 2.0. This version is the most available of all ever the released Blackboard and includes new features for simplification of keyboard management and also differs in the standardized execution providing ease of use of auxiliary technologies, such as screen readers. This release includes also popular, exclusive Web services of Blackboard company:

• the SafeAssign program prevents plagiarism, giving the chance to teachers to inform of importance of the academic decency and establishment of authenticity of authorship students;
• integration into the Facebook platform provides an information access at the rate of training, to data-refresh, lists and notifications and also a possibility of social training within the Facebook interface.

The Calendar as part of the integrated user interface is updated.

• There were new opportunities of use of multimedia
• there was available a creation of the rich on the maintenance of training courses using more flexible text editor
• it is increased speeds of interaction between students and teachers using a uniform dashboard
• possibilities of the analysis of educational activity and the reporting, etc. possibilities of the updated Blackboard Learn 9.1 (SP10) platform are expanded

Testing

Within three last months more than 50 colleges, the universities, high schools and educational districts and also the professional organizations in the USA and worldwide took part in beta testing of version 9 of widely applied Blackboard Academic Suite program (including before releases from 6 to 8 and also the version of CE). The new version passed also more than 70 thousand hours tests and working off of performance within normal development process of the new product Blackboard.