Blackboard and Skytap Partner to Offer Cloud-Based Virtual Training Labs

WASHINGTON, Feb. 15, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Blackboard Inc., the world's leading education technology company, today announced a partnership with Skytap to provide cloud-based, on-demand virtual training labs via the company's flagship learning management system (LMS), Blackboard Learn™. The integration, known as Virtual Training Labs powered by Skytap, enables education professionals to reach more learners through browser-based and mobile user interfaces, enhances the user experience with self-service class enrollment, and gives instructors full control of the virtual classroom.

Skytap provides cloud-based virtual training environments to help enterprises deliver better hands-on software training. Through the partnership, Blackboard customers now can provide virtual instructor-led, self-paced and on-demand certifications and practice labs, and rapidly create new classes and provision virtual labs with no IT intervention or reprogramming. Instructors have full control of the virtual labs, including registration, billing and usage monitoring, with over-the-shoulder views of learner progress, and a suspend capability to temporarily halt labs. 

The user experience has also been improved, giving learners the ability to access labs from any desktop or mobile browser. They can now learn at their own speed and on their own class schedule with self-paced labs that can be suspended and resumed as needed.

"We are excited to partner with Skytap to offer more virtual training options for our customers," said Valerie Schreiner, VP of Product Management at Blackboard. "Many of these learners are already in fast-paced working environments, but want to continue to build on their skills and knowledge. Virtual Training Labs powered by Skytap will make it easier for professionals to grow careers with technology – while learning at their own pace."

"The integration of Blackboard's learning management system with Skytap's virtual training lab solutions is a game-changer in the industry," says Wayne H. Monk, Vice President of Business Development and Alliances at Skytap. "Blackboard Learning Labs automates the delivery of dynamic learning infrastructure and content with the scale and flexibility today's business learners demand, replacing what was once a very disjointed student experience and labor-intensive setup process."

Virtual Training Labs powered by Skytap, a combined solution for self-service virtual classrooms, is available today with pricing on a subscription and usage basis.

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.

About Skytap, Inc.
Skytap is a public cloud provider that extends enterprise Cloud and DevOps strategies to traditional on-premises applications. Skytap uniquely supports application modernization with production-ready development, software testing and training environments that work the same way as an on-premises data center. Skytap packages servers, VMs, networks, data and configurations into environments can be provisioned, cloned, started, suspended and deleted with a single click. To try Skytap and learn more, visit www.skytap.com.

CONTACTS:

For Blackboard:
Peter Milligan, Blackboard Inc.
202.303.9243 or [email protected]

For Skytap:
Melissa Boggs; Barokas Public Relations
206.264.8220 or [email protected]

SOURCE Blackboard Inc.