Wiley and Blackboard Launch Combined Digital Learning Integration

HOBOKEN, N.J. and WASHINGTON, June 13, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- A new integration for using digital learning content from John Wiley & Sons, Inc. (NYSE: JWa, JWb) with the leading learning management system (LMS) from Blackboard Inc. is now available to students and faculty worldwide, the companies announced today.

The solution gives students and faculty access to the rich collection of learning content and tools from Wiley's research-based, online teaching and learning environment, WileyPLUS, directly within the Blackboard Learn™ platform. Thousands of students and instructors across multiple disciplines participated in a full semester limited field trial and provided feedback to shape this best-in-class integration, ensuring the highest quality experience for system administrators, faculty and students.

The solution creates a seamless user experience that gives instructors the flexibility to search for and select pieces of content and embed them into their course workflow and automatically synchronize grades and data. Designed to meet varying levels of digital usage, the integration provides instructors with greater flexibility in course design and gives their students an easy to use, singular experience for navigating learning materials.

"Being able to use the Wiley content I want together with Blackboard Learn is extremely powerful and easy," said Valerie C. Simmons, Instructor at the College of Business at The University of Southern Mississippi. "Rather than adding a link, I can now insert the Wiley content I want in my course and students can use it without having to go from one system to another – and the grades are automatically synched so it's easier to track content usage."

With the single sign-on, students can interact with digital content directly within their courses moving from Wiley content and assignments to LMS tools like journals or discussions in a seamless workflow. The integration of Wiley's eTextbook, media resources, and interactive assignments in Blackboard Learn allows instructors to better sequence their course using the activities and resources found in both WileyPLUS and Blackboard Learn. Students who participated in the field trial agreed that the integrated solution made then more likely to complete assignments, helped them learn and improved their grade.

"Last semester I didn't use WileyPLUS or Blackboard Learn, and I'm doing better this semester in both of my accounting classes," said Margaret Cusmina from Montgomery County Community College. "Doing the problems and interacting though WileyPLUS and the Blackboard Learn discussion board has helped me better understand the material and do better in the class overall."

In addition to single sign-on, deep linking and grade book synchronization, the Blackboard Learn and WileyPLUS integration provides unique tools that support several levels of content integration, ultimately yielding a more personalized experience than existing approaches, and further increasing the potential to positively impact the overall learning process.

The solution relies on the open education standard IMS Basic Learning Tools Interoperability (Basic LTI) and is built on the Blackboard Learn 9.1 platform, an open, extensible platform with an active development community and open APIs.

Nearly 2,000 institutions have adopted Blackboard Learn, Release 9.1, Blackboard's flagship learning management platform, to take advantage of its improved stability, greater workflow efficiencies for instructors and administrators and social learning tools. Blackboard Learn has a wide range of integrations that incorporate the company's industry-leading approach to digital content integration with the LMS that enables instructors to easily find, adopt and share all types of content within their customized courses.

WileyPLUS is a research-based, online environment for effective teaching and learning that is offered with over 300 Wiley titles and is used in over 20 countries globally. It incorporates the entire digital textbook with learning resources, practice, and assessment for a personalized student learning experience that is proven to improve learning outcomes.

For more information about Blackboard Learn, please visit http://www.blackboard.com/learn. For more information about WileyPLUS, please visit http://www.wileyplus.com.

About Blackboard Inc.

Blackboard Inc. 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.

About Wiley

Founded in 1807, John Wiley & Sons, Inc. has been a valued source of information and understanding for more than 200 years, helping people around the world meet their needs and fulfill their aspirations; to help teachers to teach and students to learn throughout the world. Wiley and its acquired companies have published the works of more than 450 Nobel laureates in all categories: Literature, Economics, Physiology or Medicine, Physics, Chemistry, and Peace. 

Wiley's core businesses publish educational materials for undergraduate and graduate students and lifelong learners; scientific, technical, medical, and scholarly journals, encyclopedias, books, and online products and services; and professional/trade books, subscription products, training materials, and online applications and Web sites. Wiley's global headquarters are located in Hoboken, New Jersey, with operations in the U.S., Europe, Asia, Canada, and Australia. The Company's Web site can be accessed at http://www.wiley.com. The Company is listed on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbols JWa and JWb.

Any statements in this press release about future expectations, plans and prospects for Blackboard represent the Company's views as of the date of this press release. Actual results may differ materially as a result of various important factors. 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 statements at some point in the future, the Company specifically disclaims any obligation to do so.

SOURCE Blackboard Inc.; John Wiley & Sons, Inc.