Blackboard Unveils the New Learning Experience

WASHINGTON, July 21, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- Blackboard Inc. launches the 'New Learning Experience' – an innovative approach to education that focuses on the learner and promotes better engagement, interaction and quality learning by bringing together and simplifying the learner's educational experience through the use of integrated technology, services and data capabilities.  The New Learning Experience was announced today at BbWorld, the company's annual user conference held this year in Washington, D.C.

The New Learning Experience stems from Blackboard's mission to reimagine education and by creating new ways to better serve learners and the institutions that serve them.

"There is a major disconnect between what today's learners want, and what the educational system is giving them – and it's about time that we all take a close look at how to change that," said Jay Bhatt, President and CEO of Blackboard. "In order for learners of all types and ages to be truly successful, we need to be brutally honest about what's working and what's not. We need to reimagine how learning can happen, and we've taken a major step toward realizing that vision today."

The vision will be brought to life through technology and services that are focused on the wants and needs of the learner; tightly integrated into connected and sensible workflows; packaged in a totally new, intuitive and delightful user experience; accessible, mobile and always-on; and layered with data and analytics capabilities.

"I tell teachers all the time that I will never teach a class again without Blackboard," said Willie Palmer, instructional technology coach at McDonogh 35 Senior High School in New Orleans, LA. "It's what our teachers need to be using to prepare learners for experiences throughout their lives. And I love the new experience. It's intuitive, sleek and smart. I could walk up to the new interface and know how to work everything right away. And more importantly, I'm confident that my users – teachers and learners of all levels of technical expertise – will experience the new Blackboard and say 'I like this.'"

Today marks the company's first market offering that is fully aligned with the New Learning Experience, in the form of tightly integrated releases of its core products: its flagship learning management system Blackboard Learn™, Blackboard Collaborate™ and the new Bb Student App™.

The new Blackboard Learn will deliver the New Learning Experience through multiple deployment options including several Software as a Service (SaaS) based options that give the user a choice of experience: a new, simple and delightful user interface and course view called the Ultra experience, or they can continue to use the original experience.  In addition, the company will continue to provide enhancements and innovations on its earlier versions of Blackboard Learn.

Earlier this year, the company released the new Blackboard Collaborate – a state-of-the-art web conferencing solution that allows for real-time communication on any device directly in the browser, requiring no plugins or downloads.

Where the New Learning Experience comes together is in Bb Student – a responsive mobile app introduced earlier this year that will integrate both Blackboard Learn and Blackboard Collaborate as well as the new user experience to deliver a full and delightful educational experience through the cloud.

For more information, tune into the live unveiling by Jay Bhatt at BbWorld 2015.

For more information about Blackboard, please visit www.blackboard.com or follow @Blackboard on Twitter.

About Blackboard Inc.
Blackboard is the world's leading education technology company. We challenge conventional thinking and advance new models of learning in order to reimagine education and make it more accessible, engaging and relevant to the modern-day learner and the institutions that serve them. In partnership with our customers and partners in higher education and K-12, as well as corporations and government agencies around the world, our mission is to help every learner achieve their full potential by inspiring a passion for lifelong learning. For more information about Blackboard, follow us on Twitter @Blackboard.

SOURCE Blackboard Inc.

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