Hawaii Department of Education Selects Blackboard Learn 9.1 to Replace Open Source System

WASHINGTON, Sept. 20, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- The Hawaii Department of Education's Extended Learning Opportunities and Student Support section has chosen Blackboard Learn™ 9.1 to replace an open source learning management system (LMS) Blackboard Inc. (Nasdaq: BBBB) announced today. The platform provides online courses for over 1,200 students through the Hawaii Virtual Learning Network-ESchool (HVLN-ESchool) and over 500 teachers annually through the HVLN-Project Inspire program.

Prior to moving to Release 9.1, HVLN utilized an open source platform to deliver online content. But the need for additional features, easy customizations, and greater functionality prompted them to explore options for a more robust LMS platform. HLVN also anticipated an increase in student and teacher enrollments, suggesting the need for an enterprise capable implementation.

HLVN formed a selection committee to evaluate several LMS options to find the best fit to support student and teacher needs. The committee found that the Release 9.1 platform offered both cost efficiency and enhanced usability in a fully hosted solution including a streamlined approach to course delivery, content management and technical support.  

"The evaluation conducted by HVLN was a complete assessment of teaching and learning needs, cost comparisons and product performance," said Brett Frazier, Senior Vice President at Blackboard. "It's exciting to see a learning platform approach that is well aligned with the strategic goals of a statewide program and helps students, teacher and faculty members engage with one another to promote student success."

HVLN has already leveraged Release 9.1 to deliver online professional development options to over 500 teachers during the last year. This online professional learning community is now enhanced through the consortium provision of faculty courses, such as online teaching training.

Starting this fall, HVLN began delivering secondary courses to over 1,000 students. Schools are utilizing the branding features to customize the system's interface to create an accessible portal for all online learning resources. In addition, parents can directly access their child's course progress in real time rather than waiting for the online instructor to provide a progress report.

HVLN's limited IT staff leverages Blackboard's support and hosting team for day-to-day management of the system, including software downloads, reference materials and management assistance, enabling them to dedicate more time and resources to other teaching and learning initiatives.

More than 1,600 higher education, K-12 and professional 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 http://www.blackboard.com/Platforms/Learn/Overview.aspx.

About Blackboard Inc.

Blackboard Inc. (Nasdaq: BBBB) is a global leader in enterprise technology and innovative solutions that improve the experience of millions of students and learners around the world every day. Blackboard's solutions allow thousands of higher education, K-12, professional, corporate, and government organizations to extend teaching and learning online, facilitate campus commerce and security, and communicate more effectively with their communities. Founded in 1997, Blackboard is headquartered in Washington, D.C., with offices in North America, Europe, Asia and Australia.

Any statements in this press release about future expectations, plans and prospects for Blackboard and other statements containing the words "believes," "anticipates," "plans," "expects," "will," and similar expressions, constitute forward-looking statements within the meaning of The Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Actual results may differ materially from those indicated by such forward-looking statements as a result of various important factors, including the factors discussed in the "Risk Factors" section of our Form 10-K filed on February 18, 2011 and Form 10-Q filed on August 4, 2011 with the SEC. In addition, the forward-looking statements included in this press release represent the Company's views as of September 20, 2011. The Company anticipates that subsequent events and developments will cause the Company's views to change. However, while the Company may elect to update these forward-looking statements at some point in the future, the Company specifically disclaims any obligation to do so. These forward-looking statements should not be relied upon as representing the Company's views as of any date subsequent to September 20, 2011.

SOURCE Blackboard Inc.