The Kept-Up Academic Librarian

Using Courseware Metrics To Identify Effective Teaching

Although course management systems capture a wealth of information about individual users and courses, none of the four systems that RIT Online Learning has used in the last 10 years (FirstClass, Blackboard, Prometheus, Desire2Learn) provided reports that were useful to better understand and identify effective online teaching and learning practices. For almost five years now, RIT Online Learning has generated detailed reports of our own to help identify factors that might be associated with effective teaching. The key metric used in the most influential reporting of this data is course “interaction.” Read more at:
http://www.magnapubs.com/issues/magnapubs_ff/5_4/news/601397-1.html?s=FF&p=MFCFEZ

Blackboard Is Victorious In Patent Lawsuit

Blackboard Inc. won its patent infringement suit against competitor Desire2Learn Inc.. A federal jury in Lufkin, Texas, ruled Friday that the D.C.-based software company's patent is valid, and that the company should be awarded $3 million in damages. In a letter to customers Friday, John Baker, president and chief executive officer of Desire2Learn, wrote: "We will continue to challenge the patent's validity and Blackboard's charges of infringement. We are currently evaluating our next steps." Read more at:
http://www.bizjournals.com/washington/stories/2008/02/18/daily61.html

Blackboard Looks To Enable Text Messaging To Students

Blackboard has agreed to buy a text-messaging company for $182 million. Blackboard said Sherman Oaks, Calif.-based NTI Group will improve its ability to communicate with large groups as the online learning market grows. NTI's technology will also enable Blackboard to give universities and colleges a means to communicate to students and teachers if there is a tragedy or severe weather. Read more at:
http://www.bizjournals.com/washington/stories/2008/01/14/daily3.html

Distributing Documents In Class Versus In Courseware

Students who receive course materials in class performed "significantly higher" on end of semester tests of their knowledge than those who received the materials via a course management system, according to a study by a researcher at Penn State. Even so, the study on the effects of three different "information distribution strategies" on student performance also found no significant differences among the three strategies on total points earned in the course or on student reactions to the learning experience. Read more at:
http://campustechnology.com/news_article.asp?id=20096&typeid=150

Blackboard Now Offers Assessment Help

Not content with their domination of the courseware market, Blackboard is branching out into a whole new area of software for higher education institutions - the assessment product. Blackboard announced a new module called the Blackboard Outcomes System. The system is designed to help institutions collect information needed for assessment and measurement of student performance. Read more at: http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2007/01/17/blackboard

Open Source Advocate Battles Blackboard's Patent

The Software Freedom Law Center said Thursday that it has asked the U.S. Patent Office to re-examine a patent awarded to education software company Blackboard. It claims that the patent is bogus and could undermine three open-source education software projects it represents--Sakai, Moodle and ATutor. "It's a junk patent that should never have been given by the Patent Office," said Richard Fontana, a patent attorney with the Software Freedom Law Center.  Read more at:
http://news.com.com/Open-source+group+wants+educational+patent+reversed/2100-7344_3-6139834.html?tag=nefd.top

Blackboard Continues Revenue Growth

The educational software market continues to grow, and so does the bottom line of Blackboard Inc., the D.C. provider of products for schools and universities. The company last week announced second-quarter revenue of $43.6 million, a 32 percent jump from last year's $33 million. Read more at:
http://washingtontimes.com/business/20060814-100821-5993r.htm

For some news on earnings of for-profit higher education providers read the story at:
http://www.boston.com/news/education/higher/articles/2006/08/18/sector_wrap_for_profit_schools/

Blackboard Was Not The Typical Internet Start-Up

Blackboard’s software, now used by well over 10 million students and their professors, has all the earmarks of a “disruptive technology” — a blend of computing and Internet-based connectivity with the potential to transform how established institutions operate.Yet Mr. Chasen, the company’s president and chief executive, will never be confused with the brash upstarts that defined the Internet boom of the 1990’s, or Silicon Valley’s ever-growing crop of disruption-crazed entrepreneurs. Blackboard took a very different path to starting up. Read more at:
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/07/16/business/yourmoney/16mgmt.html?ex=1153713600&en=ab94cd30fae09c67&ei=5070&emc=eta1

Faculty That Don't Use It Or Use It Well Is The Main Failure of Courseware

Here's an interesting article in which a recently graduated student reviews his institution's use of courseware (Blackboard in this case). It's mostly a positive review in which the student believes that faculty who effectively use the courseware provide an enhanced learning experience. But the news is not all good. Read more at:
http://www.campus-technology.com/news_article.asp?id=18864&typeid=155

Blackboard Goes "2.0"

Looks like Blackboard is getting on the "2.0" (web, library, etc.) bandwagon with something called "e-learning 2.0. Its official name is the Blackboard Beyond Initiative. From the press release: The Blackboard Beyond Initiative calls for the creation of a series of Web properties that connect the institutions, faculty, and students who use Blackboard worldwide across education segments and disciplines. The sites will be shaped and run by Blackboard's client community of practice and developed by Blackboard. Social network is one of the four pillars of the initiative. Read more at:
http://biz.yahoo.com/iw/060301/0111604.html