Blackboard Inc. Announces Charter Release Of Blackboard Learning System ML(TM) WASHINGTON, DC 27. 8. 2002 (/ots) - Blackboard Inc. announced the immediate avai

The Blackboard Learning System ML is dedicated to enhancingthe daily education experience. The system offers course andcontent authoring tools, a robust assessment engine, as well assynchronous and asynchronous collaboration tools - all withconvenient and easy-to-use enterprise functions andcapabilities. The system, developed on fifth-generationBlackboard technology now deployed at more than 2,400institutions worldwide, allows academic staff and studentsaround the world to fully experience all aspects of the courseand system user interface in their language or languages ofchoice, and to switch among languages - all within a singleimplementation.

"We are very pleased to have launched the industry's firstmulti-language enterprise-class learning system," said AndrewRosen, Executive Vice President and General Manager ofBlackboard International. "The feedback from our Beta clientshas been tremendous and we are certain that the BlackboardLearning System ML will meet the growing needs and demands ofthe global education marketplace."

Meeting Clients Needs Around the World

Currently, the system enables a variety of languages to bedisplayed in the user interface, currently including Chinese,French, German, Japanese, Spanish and English. Others,including, Dutch, Italian, Korean, and Portuguese are currentlyunder development. The new Blackboard Learning System ML runs onboth Windows and Solaris platforms.

"The Blackboard Learning System has been widely adopted onour campus and the number of users and courses increasestremendously every semester. With the German version ofBlackboard Learning System ML, we expect Blackboard will surelybe further integrated into our own academic environment as wellas throughout the German market," stated Georg J. Anker,Abteilung fur Neue Medien, Universitat Innsbruck.

Blackboard Learning System ML permits a culturally tailoredonline environment for all users. The platform is fully Unicode-architected, enabling the system to interact in virtually anylanguage as determined by the end user, instructor or systemadministrator. This architecture also enables Blackboard toexpand the number of languages offered with relative ease andfast time to market.

Interoperability and Blackboard Building Blocks

Blackboard Learning System ML is designed to interoperatewith an institution's administrative systems, including SCT,SITS, Capita, Datatel, HIS, and PeopleSoft, as well asauthentication systems such as LDAP and Kerberos. Thisintegration lets an institution enrich the student experience byproviding personalised access to campus services and a tighterconnection between academic and student life. In addition,training and support costs are reduced through centralisedadministration and management.

Blackboard Learning System ML also underscores the BlackboardBuilding Blocks(SM) Programme which provides an openarchitecture to enable internally developed or other third-partylearning applications, interfaces, and system services tointeract seamlessly with Blackboard. More than 25 IndependentSoftware Vendors (ISVs), dozens of academic institutions andleading publishers are developing add-ons to Blackboard toexpand and add value to the educational experience.

Charter Release Available Now

After more than a year of development and testing, as well asa dedicated Beta period, Blackboard is proud to offer BlackboardLearning System ML in Charter Release. During this limited-timeperiod, clients will receive a full license to value-addedfunctionality as well as both the English language and corelanguage packs at no additional charge. Please visit our Web siteat global.blackboard.com to find an international Blackboardrepresentative nearest to you.

About Blackboard Inc.

Blackboard Inc. was founded to transform the Internet into apowerful environment for the education experience. The companyoffers a complete suite of enterprise software products andservices that power a total "e-Education Infrastructure" forschools, colleges, universities and other education providers.Blackboard solutions deliver the promise of the Internet foronline teaching and learning, campus communities, auxiliaryservices and integration of Web-enabled student services andback office systems.

Blackboard's Learning, Community Portal and TransactionSystems are consistently ranked by industry analysts as themarket share and customer satisfaction leaders for thousands ofacademic institutions and a leading number of the Internet'smost popular consumer education sites. The company isheadquartered in Washington, D.C., with offices and staff acrossNorth America, Latin America, Europe and Asia. Please visitwww.blackboard.com for more information.

ots Originaltext: Blackboard Inc. Im Internet recherchierbar:http://www.presseportal.de Pressekontakt: Contact: Michael J.Stanton Company: Blackboard Inc. Phone: 202-463-4860 ext.305Email: mstanton@blackboard.com Contact: Dan Baum Company:Periscope Communications Phone: 703-548-5553 ext.205 Email:dan@periscopecommunications.com

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