Product sheet An Enterprise Application TAKING OFF FROM PILOT PROGRAM TO ENTERPRISE SYSTEM Many educational institutions have launched pilot e-Learning initiatives using the Blackboard Learning System–Basic Edition™. They have seen these pilot programs take off on campus, with success demonstrated through pedagogical innovation and improved learning outcomes for students. Now, as institutions look further into the future, they seek to build on past successes and create an even more powerful educational experience. In pursuit of this next frontier, the goal of many forward-thinking learning institutions is to establish a Networked Learning Environment™ (NLE) in which any student or teacher can view instructional content, collaborate with educators, evaluate academic performance, and access learning resources at any time to achieve their educational objectives. Building an NLE enables institutions to realize important benefits such as student-centered learning, greater instructor efficiency, anytime anywhere access, improved evaluation and outcomes management and access to high-quality learning content. Learn. The Blackboard Learning System™ is a world-class enterprise application that enables institutions to maximize the potential of their learning environment. The Blackboard Learning System brings clients powerful capabilities to start achieving the promise of a NLE on campus. Deploying this advanced e-Learning application allows institutions to: • Foster system growth and usage on a scalable and secure basis. • Leverage advanced teaching and learning capabilities provided through an enterprise application. • Customize their learning environment using the Blackboard Building Blocks® program, our open architecture initiative. • Extend the learning environment to include robust content management and communitybuilding capabilities provided in the Blackboard Academic Suite™. “Moving from the Blackboard Learning System–Basic Edition to the enterprise version of the Blackboard Learning System has taken teaching and learning at Duquesne University to another level. We now have a scalable system with 24 by 7 support. Our faculty have the benefit of integrated third party teaching tools through the Blackboard Building Blocks program. We can use the Blackboard Community System to continue committee discussions and for professional development. The Blackboard Academic Suite enables us to think beyond the physical space of the classroom.” —Ruth Newberry Director of Educational Technology Duquesne University FOSTER E-LEARNING GROWTH AND USAGE As the Blackboard Learning System–Basic Edition becomes an integral part of an institution’s teaching and learning environment, many want to ensure that they can grow usage of Blackboard® software on campus in a secure and scalable way. Integrating Blackboard products with other key campus technologies is a powerful means of driving efficiencies as well as leveraging the combined capabilities of different campus systems. Scalable and Secure Growth As usage of Blackboard systems takes off on campus, the Blackboard implementation must accommodate continually increasing user counts and course offerings, as well as provide redundancy to ensure that important data is always available. The Blackboard Learning System enables clients to use multiple load-balanced application servers to optimize performance as well as redundant database servers to ensure reliability. Integration with Campus Systems Integrating Blackboard software with other campus technologies such as Student Information Systems (SIS) allows organizations to grow Blackboard while minimizing repetitive administrative tasks. Information entered into an SIS can be populated easily in Blackboard and vise-versa. Many institutions have integrated their Blackboard implementation with authentication protocols and campus directory systems (e.g., LDAP, Microsoft Active Directory, etc.) to enable them to have a single password system-wide, reducing help desk requests for passwords as well as decreasing security problems. Enterprise System Administration The mission-critical nature of Blackboard implementations means that many campuses require support from Blackboard on a 24 x 7 basis, a feature of the Blackboard Learning System. As more courses are offered using Blackboard software, institutions also need scalable batch tools to support faculty requests such as archiving courses. Another powerful capability enables customization of roles and user privileges to support delegation of selected system administration and course management functions. GRAND RAPIDS COMMUNITY COLLEGE Grand Rapids Community College (GRCC) has nearly 20,000 students enrolled in more than 1,600 liberal arts and occupational courses and also serves 3,600 users in non-credit instruction. GRCC moved to the Blackboard Learning System in 2003. Eric Kunnen, Instructional Designer, emphasized that: “Because Blackboard became a mission-critical application on campus, we needed to have a scalable, enterprise-level system. Blackboard is indispensable to our faculty, so it was critical that Blackboard be effortless for faculty to use. We appreciate having access to community-built Building Blocks, which add features and functionality to our product without adding cost. KETTERING UNIVERSITY Kettering University is a leading engineering school with 3,100 undergraduate and graduate students where the Blackboard Academic Suite has become an integral part of life on campus. After first piloting the Blackboard Learning System–Basic Edition, Kettering moved to the enterprise edition. According to Donna Wicks, Blackboard System Administrator: “The integration tools have been a miracle for me. The enterprise version of Blackboard makes it so much easier to be responsive. I can easily meet unusual requests from students and faculty.” At the request of the Kettering Student Senate, faculty members now enter final exam and course grades directly into Blackboard’s gradebook. Final course grades are then exported from Blackboard into the SCT Banner database. LEVERAGE ADVANCED CAPABILITIES Moving to the Blackboard Learning System also opens the option to use advanced features that enhance teaching and learning as well as system planning and analysis. These sophisticated capabilities include: Adaptive Release: Enables instructors to create custom learning paths by determining when students can access content items, discussions, assessments, assignments and other learning activities. Multi-Language Capabilities: Allows users to select from multiple languages on the same system. Language instructors can also force students to view course content in a particular language, facilitating student learning. Blackboard Messages: Enables students and instructors to communicate with each other within the context of a course. It provides e-mail-like functionality without requiring that students and faculty share e-mail addresses. SCORM Player: Lets faculty take advantage of SCORM-based content. Advanced System Reporting: Enables instructors and System Administrators to track student progress and performance, to view data on usage of content and to run comprehensive reports on system performance. CUSTOMIZE THE LEARNING ENVIRONMENT Clients of the Blackboard Learning System have access to Blackboard Building Blocks, our open architecture initiative. Open collaborative development is the foundation of the program. Blackboard publicly documents Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) for the Blackboard Academic Suite and provides a series of free or inexpensive resources to ensure that any developer has the documentation, tools and knowledge necessary to innovate around Blackboard technology. Furthermore, clients have access to Building Blocks created by other institutions, many free of charge, to meet their learning needs. Over 400 institutions and vendors have joined the Blackboard Developer NetworkSM. To date, this robust community has created more than 100 extensions to the Blackboard platform that are listed in the Blackboard Building Blocks Catalog -plus many more that have been developed for local use at academic institutions. Applications created using this open architecture can: Enhance student learning. • Extend the Blackboard Academic Suite with new functionality. • Provide customizations to meet disciplinespecific or pedagogical needs. • Aid system administration. • Automate procedures or repetitive tasks. • Act as a bridge between the Blackboard Academic Suite and external systems or applications. COBB COUNTY SCHOOL DISTRICT Cobb County School District, a large suburban school district located outside of Atlanta, uses the Blackboard Learning System for both teacher professional development and student instruction. After using the Blackboard Learning System–Basic Edition for three years, the district installed the enterprise edition of the Blackboard Learning System in 2004. According to Nancy Howell, Distance Learning Analyst, Cobb County chose to adopt the scalable enterprise application for several reasons, including the need to increase substantially the number of users on the system due to the growing interest by both staff and students in online course delivery. Howell noted that the enhanced functionality offered by Building Blocks, such as Advanced Group Management and Dictionary and Thesaurus, have been very helpful to instructors. Having 24 by 7 support from Blackboard is also invaluable to the district. EXTEND THE LEARNING ENVIRONMENT: THE BLACKBOARD ACADEMIC SUITE The Blackboard Learning System is part of the Blackboard Academic Suite™, a comprehensive family of integrated applications for teaching, learning, communitybuilding, and knowledge-sharing. Comprised of the Blackboard Learning System™, Blackboard Content System™, and Blackboard Community System™, the Blackboard Academic Suite provides institutions with a consistent and familiar user environment on a single technology platform. Learn. Connect. Share. To learn more about how Blackboard can help you power your Networked Learning Environment, visit our website at www.blackboard.com Connections, Personalization and e-Commerce. The Blackboard Community System gives institutions the ability to connect users to vibrant online academic communities, to deliver targeted content to diverse user groups, and to incorporate e-Commerce into the learning experience. This powerful software application includes Community Building Tools that enable users to collaborate and communicate more effectively as well as to take advantage of e-Commerce functionality that allows institutions to charge for items via a student’s campus one-card or credit card. Collection, Sharing, and Discovery. The Blackboard Content System provides institutions with robust new tools to more effectively manage and share the growing volumes of digital content that instructors and students are creating. Capabilities of this innovative software application include Content and File Management, which lets digital content be managed and shared without the need for duplication. Moreover, e-Portfolios enable students and faculty members to assemble and share information online for documenting academic growth, career progression, and course preparation. In addition to having a common user environment and complete interoperability, the products in the Blackboard Academic Suite share the system-wide benefits of enterprise scalability, multi-language support, compliance with industry standards, and system integration. www.blackboard.com Worldwide Headquarters 1899 L Street, NW 5th Floor Washington, DC 20036 1-800-424-9299, ext. 4 +1 202-463-4860, ext. 4 Copyright © 2005. Blackboard Inc. 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