News
| Acquisition | |
| BlackBoard + WebCT -- follow the money (12/20/05) Blackboard is slated to acquire WebCT in a cash transaction for $180 million, which values the offer at approximately $154 million, net of WebCT's August 31, 2005 cash balance of $26 million. WebCT and Blackboard have stated on their site that they expect the transaction will close late this year or in early 2006. [commentary by Bruce Landon: the announcement of the acquisition resulted in about a 10% lift for BlackBoard stock in October which amounted to a gain of about $80 million for shareholders (about 7 times the profit from product sales and services) The stock market profitability can make publicly traded educational technology companies less focused on the end user and more focused on the "buzz" because that is where there is the largest rate of return for company work. Because educational institutions are buyers of educational software they are part of the "buzz" process that impacts the stock prices. This company plus company stock situation adds another element to the complexity of educational product selection processes by institutions, especially for those institutions holding stock portfolios.] |
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| Articles | |
| The Bazaar Online Conference System: Athabasca University's Alternative To Proprietary Online
Course Delivery Platforms (1/21/03) Athabasca University has developed the Bazaar Online Conference System, an online course management and conferencing system that is free and high-quality. Inspired in part by the open source movement, which presses for free and accessible software on the Internet, Bazaar's features include many useful and important resources typically offered by the more popular and expensive proprietary systems. |
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| An Instant Feedback Learning Environment (1/7/03) Creating places where college students and professors understand what they're studying and teaching - and quickly understand each other - is a key that opens the door to real learning. A look at the use of instant feedback technology in the classroom.By Susan D. Karnovsky - October 2002 |
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| Evaluating and Implementing Learning Environments: A United Kingdom Experience (1/7/03) This article reports on ongoing work at the five universities in northeastern England, Durham, Newcastle, Northumbria, Sunderland, and Teesside. In common with many universities, all five have been engaged in the process of evaluating and implementing online learning environments. |
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| The Evolving Role of Course Management System Providers in the Transformation of Education: An
Interview with Blackboard's Matthew Pittinsky (1/7/03) Matthew Pittinsky recently edited "The Wired Tower", a new book on the impact of the Internet on education. Jonathan Finkelstein interviewed him in his New York office in August, 2002. |
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| Distance Learning at the Tipping Point: Critical Success Factors
to Growing Fully Online Distance Learning Programs (2/20/02) A new study published by Eduventures, a research firm dedicated exclusively to the coverage of learning markets, identifies online distance learning as a unique market with unique needs. Through an analysis of institutions operating successful online programs, Eduventures created a framework highlighting key components comprising a model for distance learning success, including strong levels of IT, administrator, faculty, and student support.The study further notes that reliability and system performance needs are much greater in supporting fully online programs than those required for stand-alone course management systems or other web-based tools used as course supplements to a traditional, face-to-face classroom environment.According to the study, “eCollege has distinguished itself as one of the leaders in the fully online distance learning market with its focus on the comprehensive, programmatic needs of distance-learning participants - institutions, administrators, faculty, students, and staff.” The study is available on the Eduventures website. If you are not a current subscriber of Eduventures, registration on the site is free. |
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| Company News | |
| eCollege AU+ Authoring Advancements Enable Greater Faculty Productivity for Online Program Success (4/29/03) eCollege is enhancing its course authoring capabilities, which are already recognized in the industry as the most advanced and easiest to use among leading course management systems. The eCollege AU+ Authoring Advancements provide faculty even more efficiency and flexibility in creating and delivering course content, ultimately giving them more time to dedicate to teaching and student interaction.eCollege AU+ Authoring Advancements are a direct result of online faculty input. They allow for everything from incorporating publisher test banks and hiding content such as pop quizzes, to determining when to display and withdraw announcements on the home page, to printing or saving threaded discussions offline. The new authoring advancements will be made available to all customer institutions and their faculty members with no additional purchase, migration or installation required. |
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| Saba Contributes Macromedia Flash MX-based SCORM Testing Tool to SCORM Community (3/20/03) Saba has introduced SCORM Detective, a Macromedia Flash MX-based tool for testing the SCORM (Shareable Content Object Reference Model) conformance of a learning management system (LMS). |
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| eCollege Solidifies Several Content Partnerships (2/21/03) eCollege has recently announced partnerships with several of the leading content providers in education, including Thomson Learning, McGraw-Hill Higher Education and ElementK. The partnerships allow faculty using the eCollege AU+ platform to easily blend self-authored content and popular textbook content to create the most dynamic and interesting online courses and online course supplements possible. The available content can also provide a starting point to jump-start the development of new online courses and programs. |
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| An Update From the Field: Embanet (5/20/01) Embanet Corporation is one of the leading Learning Management Systems Providers in the world. Established in 1995, Embanet was one of the first to develop and host eLearning courses for academic and corporate institutions. Our philosophy has been to concentrate on the individual needs of each client and develop a customize approach to their e-Learning initiative. As a result, we offer five of the most popular e-Learning systems available, Blackboard, FirstClass, IntraLearn, Prometheus and WebCT. Based on the client’s requirements we suggest a platform and then customize it to meet their specific needs. Embanet was also the first in the industry to offer worry free support, providing 24-hours a day, 7-days a week, 365-days a year technical support. Our aim is to provide a complete turnkey solution allowing our clients to focus on their core competencies and not on technology. For more information about Embanet and the service we provide please visit our website at www.embanet.com or contact one of our e-Learning analyst at solutions@embanet.com. |
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| Unique Campus AuthorSM Tool Empowers Administrators to Easily Update Their Online Campus Content (5/20/01) eCollegeSM recently introduced the availability of its unique Campus AuthorSM tool, empowering administrators to easily change and update their online campuses in real time, without any knowledge of HTML. The Campus Author tool is another use of eCollege’s Visual EditorSM tool that has already been implemented in its course delivery system and widely adopted by faculty to easily edit and format online courses. Campus Author provides administrators 24x7 access to and control of their eCollege-powered online campus, whether the institution uses the company’s CampusPortalSM, Premium Campus Gateway or Campus GatewaySM. Using the tool, administrators can view their edits in a preview mode before the changes go live. |
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| Welcome to K-Ville (5/20/01) Each year more than 1,300 Duke University students journey to Krzyzewskiville, a make-shift town where students take temporary refuge in 12-person tents outside Cameron stadium on a quest for precious Duke Blue Devils basketball tickets. K-Ville, named for Duke's men's basketball coach Mike Krzyzewski, is home, cafeteria, and classroom to Duke students throughout basketball season. You might think that doing assignments and attending class would be a challenge for students who essentially live in tents for months at a time. Not anymore. In 1999, Duke adopted Blackboard and wired six K-Ville lamp posts for high speed Internet access--creating the ultimate online, in line learning environment. Students, on-campus and off, now have online access to course materials, tests and quizzes, email, and discussion boards--all in one convenient location, all powered by Blackboard. |
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| Embanet Announces Partnership with Prometheus (4/20/01) Embanet has entered into a partnership with Prometheus, an open architecture software platform. This eLearning system facilitates academic institutions and corporations in the creation of courses, allowing for ease of use, considerable flexibility, scalability and cost-effectiveness. Prometheus is known for its open source code design, allowing for direct integration into preexisting administrative systems and their community portal that incorporates all aspects of student life, integrating online classes and social activities into one convenient area. For more information visit www.embanet.com. |
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| Blackboard Will Host Online Course Environment for the U.S. Army (3/20/01) The U.S. Army has announced that Blackboard Inc. will host the virtual classroom environment for the college courses offered through its Army University Access Online program. PricewaterhouseCoopers, the world's largest professional services organization, will manage the $453 million, five-year contract. The contract brings together more than a dozen technology providers and a primary set of 29 accredited higher education partners to create Army University Access Online, a customized, complete online university. The Army University Access Online program will enable U.S. enlisted soldiers to use an educational Web portal to take distance-learning courses and earn college degrees or professional technical certifications while they serve in the Army. As many as 80,000 soldiers will be able to earn degrees over the Internet. Blackboard will build an integrated solution with Saba and PeopleSoft that allows soldier students to work effectively in an integrated environment which will include the learning platform (Blackboard), the Learning Management System (Saba) and the Student Information System (PeopleSoft). |
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| Partnership | |
| Embanet and Respondus Form an Alliance (11/20/01) Embanet Corporation and Respondus, Inc. recently announced an alliance to make one another's services available to their clients. Respondus makes it easy for instructors to synchronize their print-based exams with those that are published to course management systems like WebCT or Blackboard, which are two of the five platforms Embanet supports.Jeffrey Feldberg, Chairman of Embanet, commented "The Embanet-Respondus alliance is our commitment to ensure our clients have a true one stop shop for e-Learning. The offering of the Respondus package for our clients delivering courses through WebCT or BlackBoard enables them to save time, add value and enhance their offering. At the end of the day, this is what Embanet is all about." |
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| Product News | |
| Saba Contributes Macromedia Flash MX-based SCORM Testing Tool to SCORM Community (3/20/03) Saba has introduced SCORM Detective, a Macromedia Flash MX-based tool for testing the SCORM (Shareable Content Object Reference Model) conformance of a learning management system (LMS). |
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| The Bazaar Online Conference System: Athabasca University's Alternative To Proprietary Online
Course Delivery Platforms (1/21/03) Athabasca University has developed the Bazaar Online Conference System, an online course management and conferencing system that is free and high-quality. Inspired in part by the open source movement, which presses for free and accessible software on the Internet, Bazaar's features include many useful and important resources typically offered by the more popular and expensive proprietary systems. |
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