Tegrity to Deliver Real-Time Lecture Capture Integration for the Blackboard Learn Platform

SANTA CLARA, Calif., March 9, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- Tegrity, a unit of McGraw-Hill Education and a Blackboard Signature Partner™, today announced the availability of a unique Blackboard Building Block™ developed specifically for Tegrity users that enables real-time exchange of data between the Blackboard Learn™ platform and Tegrity Campus – an award-winning lecture capture service used by hundreds of Higher Education institutions.

The Blackboard Building Block provides significant benefits to joint Tegrity and Blackboard Inc. users in the areas of personalization, automation and security.  By providing user, course and enrollment context, Tegrity's own AAIRS™-enabled integration delivers each Blackboard Learn user a completely personalized lecture capture environment.  For example, students can place personalized bookmarks within their class recordings in order to quickly review specific points in class.  This level of personalization is not possible with traditional lecture capture integrations, which only convey course context.

Another major advantage of the new integration technology is that it offers institutions using the Blackboard Learn platform a completely automated lecture capture workflow; not only for instructors, but for IT as well.  Since the Building Block communicates Blackboard Learn user, course and enrollment data to Tegrity in real-time, recordings automatically are sorted in the right course where only enrolled students can access them.

"Lecture capture allows instructors to extend the classroom to every student, everywhere.  It is yet another example of how educators can leverage 21st century learning tools to improve the educational experience," said Matthew Small, Blackboard's Chief Business Officer.

While traditional lecture capture integrations require IT to create duplicate databases through time-consuming and error-prone import/export processes, the Tegrity integration functions more like a modern web-service.  More specifically, updated course and enrollment data are transmitted in real-time each time a Blackboard Learn user accesses the Tegrity service.  The result is that the data is always up-to-date, without IT having to manage and monitor ongoing synchronization efforts.

"With Tegrity's new AAIRS™ integration, Tegrity pings our Blackboard Learn platform each time a user logs in, updating their available content in real-time.  Our students simply log into their Blackboard Learn account, click on the Tegrity button in their course menu, and receive instant access to all of the recordings their professors have made available -- something which, for new student enrollments, used to take up to 24 hours," said Steve Clark, Coordinator of Learning Systems at Athens State University.  "Now I no longer have to manage the synchronization of yet another database, saving me a lot of time which I can use to manage other learning systems," he continued.

"AAIRS™ technology makes Tegrity Campus the most scalable lecture capture solution on the market," said Isaac Segal, President of Tegrity. "Other solutions tout the ability to automate the process for instructors (or end user), which we believe should be a given.  However, what gets lost in the shuffle is that the instructor automation often comes at the expense of IT.  That isn't the case with Tegrity Campus, which thanks to its advanced integration is completely automated for both instructor users and IT," he added.

About Tegrity, Inc.

Tegrity Campus is the only cloud-based Lecture Capture solution proven to improve student achievement, satisfaction, retention and recruitment across an institution. It makes class time available all the time by automatically recording, storing and indexing every class on campus – without the need to install any special hardware or software in classrooms. The company's patent-pending Search Anything™ and Smart Bookmarks™ features then let students instantly review key class moments online using a PC, Mac, iPod, iPad or other mobile device. For more information, visit http://www.tegrity.com.

About McGraw-Hill Higher Education:

McGraw-Hill Higher Education, a unit of McGraw-Hill Education, is a leading innovator in the development of 21st century teaching and learning digital solutions for postsecondary and higher education markets worldwide. Through a comprehensive range of traditional and digital education content and tools focused on improving student learning outcomes, McGraw-Hill Higher Education empowers and prepares professionals and students to connect, learn and succeed in the global economy. McGraw-Hill Education, a division of The McGraw-Hill Companies (NYSE: MHP), has offices in 33 countries and publishes in more than 65 languages. Additional information is available at http://www.mheducation.com.

Blackboard, Blackboard Learn, Blackboard Signature Partner, the Blackboard Alliance Program, and Blackboard Building Blocks are the trademarks or registered trademarks of Blackboard Inc. All rights reserved.

SOURCE Tegrity