Superior Flexibility, Support for Open Standards and Cost Savings Drive Decision

AMSTERDAM – 17 August, 2011 – Kingston University has selected Blackboard Learn™ 9.1 following a year-long review process, Blackboard Inc. (Nasdaq: BBBB) announced today. The process included a functional assessment of Blackboard and open source alternatives with input from students and staff across every faculty before concluding that Blackboard Learn 9.1 was the most flexible and resilient learning platform.

Having seen strong annual growth in usage, it was timely for Kingston to review their systems to ensure they met the needs of the university’s new Learning, Teaching and Assessment strategy. Overall value and improved functionality were the key reasons Kingston selected Release 9.1. In terms of usability, Release 9.1 offered a significantly improved user interface; the ability to segment and structure resources and edit using drag and drop and in-situ edit tools; easier mashups for integrating dynamic content; close integration of the content system; and greater opportunities for student contribution and control.

Additionally, Release 9.1 featured greater flexibility for handling content, particularly with Blackboard’s strong support for open education standards including Common Cartridge and Basic Learning Tools Interoperability (LTI). As part of their evaluation, Kingston found that Release 9.1 was the only major virtual learning environment that achieved seamless import and export of courses and content with Common Cartridge. This enables a high degree of flexibility and allows the institution to explore using Release 9.1 as a reliable authoring environment for content that can be built in the system and deployed wherever needed.

Kingston also found that Release 9.1 offers instructors a streamlined approach for deploying content – as opposed to the two-step process common with other systems – providing not just superior utility but also opportunities for sharing content outside the institution, an area of growing importance given the popularity of open education resource initiatives. Kingston will establish Release 9.1 at the core of a large set of integrated learning technologies that the institution has adopted over the years and is planning integration with the personal and mobile technologies widely used by students and staff.

“Flexibility and control over our courses and course content that best suits our educational community is of the utmost importance, and particularly the support provided for students to engage, contribute and take ownership of their learning,” said Dr. Tim Linsey, Head of e-Learning at Kingston University. “Blackboard’s commitment to being a leader in open standards sends a signal that they’re moving in the right direction not just for what is already developed but also for what they’ll continue to develop. With Blackboard, we are confident that we’re future-proofing our investment in online course development and delivery, and we’re excited to explore ways to share content across external educational environments to enhance the student experience. Partnering with Blackboard will help us achieve our Learning, Teaching and Assessment objectives both now and in the future.”

More than 1,500 institutions have adopted Blackboard’s next generation platform to take advantage of its improved stability and digital content advancements, social learning tools to drive student engagement and greater workflow efficiencies for instructors and administrators.

For more information about Blackboard Learn, please visit www.blackboard.com/Platforms/Learn/Overview.aspx

For more information about Kingston University, please visit www.kingston.ac.uk