CourseSmart® Launches Integration for the Blackboard Learn Platform

SAN MATEO, Calif., Oct. 19, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- CourseSmart®, the world's largest provider of eTextbooks and digital course materials, today announced a new Blackboard Building Block™ for the Blackboard Learn™ platform. The new Blackboard Building Block for CourseSmart enables higher education institutions to provide their students and instructors with an efficient and instant means to access digital content. It is designed to seamlessly integrate into an institution's campus technology ecosystem, facilitating student and instructor single sign-on access to more than 20,000 eTextbooks and other digital course materials.

"This integration developed for the Blackboard Learn platform will help all parties in the higher education landscape improve efficiencies, save time and money, and most importantly, improve learning outcomes for students," said Sean Devine, chief executive officer at CourseSmart. "We are thrilled to make our products available on a platform that students and instructors are using on a daily basis. Through our single sign-on integration, the digital efficiencies of our products will literally be a click away for thousands of users across the country."

The CourseSmart Building Block will provide instructors with free and immediate access to evaluate 90 percent of the core higher education eTextbooks and eResources in use today, and to select and use these materials effortlessly in their course. Without leaving the Blackboard Learn platform, instructors can easily create links to a required reading assignment, homework problems or other activities that reside in their digital course materials and then seamlessly share that information with their students.

Additionally, the Blackboard Building Block for CourseSmart is free to higher education institutions. The application will enhance students' studies by utilizing CourseSmart's product features including search, copy and paste, highlight, annotate, share and print. The single sign-on functionality enables students and instructors to access CourseSmart's digital catalog by logging into the Blackboard Learn platform without having to remember a separate set of credentials for CourseSmart access.

"Building a better educational experience for our students, instructors and institutional partners is at the core of our business philosophy," said Matthew Small, chief business officer at Blackboard. "The pilots we are currently running with CourseSmart as part of our signature partnership will continue to fuel this experience as they provide our clients with anytime, anywhere access to their digital course materials from any Web-enabled device, including mobile devices running on the iOS and Android™ OS platforms."

As a member in Blackboard Partnerships™ Program, CourseSmart is also part of the Blackboard Developers Network™, an innovative community of technical experts with a passion for using technology to enhance teaching and learning. Within the Network, developers from schools, colleges, universities, associations, government organizations and companies are developing software and applications— Blackboard Building Blocks™—that extend and enhance the Blackboard learning environment.

For more information, please visit www.coursesmart.com.

About CourseSmart®

As the world's largest provider of digital course materials, CourseSmart® connects education publishers to consumers by providing an efficient distribution platform for their best-selling content in digital form. Founded in 2007, the San Mateo, Calif.-based company provides services to four business segments: Online direct retail for students; Indirect distribution of course materials to students through bookstores; Online faculty textbook evaluation services; and Institutional solutions for faculty and students that are integrated within campus technology ecosystems. CourseSmart improves the educational process and experience by offering all users anywhere, any-time access to the course content they need, including those with vision- and print-related disabilities. With more than 90% of the same core titles offered by major print publishers, the company's eTextbooks can be purchased for up to 60% less than the cost of new print textbooks. For more information about CourseSmart, visit the company's Web site at www.coursesmart.com.

© 2011 CourseSmart, LLC. CourseSmart® is a registered trademark of CourseSmart, LLC. Blackboard®, Blackboard Partnerships™ Program, the Blackboard Developers Network™, and Blackboard Building Blocks™ are registered trademarks of Blackboard Inc. and are used with permission. All rights reserved.

Media Contact:
Gabrielle Zucker
Kwittken & Company
(646) 747-7143
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SOURCE CourseSmart