Blackboard Inc. (Nasdaq: BBBB) today announced that the Centre for Welsh Medium Higher Education has implemented Blackboard Learn™, Release 9.1 to establish Y Porth – Welsh for “the gateway” – a collaborative e-learning platform enabling universities across Wales to share Welsh medium resources.

Blackboard Learn was an obvious choice as the platform for Y Porth, as its online learning solutions are already used by the majority of the Welsh Universities, all of which contribute to the development of resources and modules on Y Porth. In direct response to feedback from Blackboard clients, Blackboard worked in partnership with the Centre for Welsh Medium Higher Education and the wider sector to develop a Welsh language pack for Blackboard Learn, Release 9.1 which will be supported for subsequent updates and versions.

“We did consider open source alternatives to Blackboard Learn but would have had to develop and maintain our own language pack with every update and new version,” said Owain Huw, Digital Technologies and eLearning Manager for the Centre for Welsh Medium Higher Education. “Blackboard’s willingness to partner with us to create an online solution means we can devote our time to supporting the development of high quality materials and resources, safe in the knowledge that the underlying infrastructure is in place.”

Y Porth is central to the Centre for Welsh Medium Higher Education’s academic development programme, and complements the Welsh Assembly Government’s vision for Coleg Ffederal (Welsh medium Federal College) to create a Welsh medium academic community by 2011 in which students can study high quality degree level courses in the Welsh language. Five thousand students currently study a proportion of their degrees in Welsh, many of whom use the resources and collaborative modules on Y Porth. The number is expected to rise significantly with the development of the Coleg Ffederal.

“We’re delighted to help the Centre for Welsh Medium Higher Education enhance the experience of Welsh medium students by enabling them to study effectively using cross-institutional materials,” said Barrie Hoban, Regional Vice President at Blackboard. “This is a perfect example of the power of collaborative learning that our solutions are designed to facilitate.”