Mississippi Selects Blackboard for Its Entire Statewide Community College System
Fifteen Colleges Gain Access to Comprehensive Technology Platform Including the New Blackboard Outcomes SystemWASHINGTON, DC, May 16, 2007 (MARKET WIRE via COMTEX News Network) -- The Mississippi State Board for Community and Junior Colleges has
selected Blackboard Inc. (NASDAQ: BBBB), a leading provider of
educational enterprise software and services, to help improve access
to high quality education and foster economic development across the
state. The Mississippi Community College System, recently rated
second most productive in the nation, is expanding opportunities to
over 65,000 students across the 15-college system, through its
multi-million dollar, multi-year investment, in a fully-hosted
implementation of the Blackboard Academic Suite(TM), including the
Blackboard Outcomes System(TM).
This statewide initiative demonstrates Mississippi's commitment to
providing Web-based learning opportunities for its 21st-century
students, while also enabling each college to review their performance
and make investments and improvements where necessary.
"The Blackboard Academic Suite will provide an industry leading
educational tool to every instructor, every workforce trainer, and
every student," said Audra Kimble, Director of Distance Education of
the Mississippi State Board for Community and Junior Colleges. "Also,
the Blackboard Outcomes System and supporting strategic and technical
services will provide us with an enterprise system designed for our
specific program and institutional assessment needs. It will provide
us greater insight into our institutional effectiveness, guide us in
improvement initiatives, and assist us in meeting ever-increasing
accountability standards."
The initiative also provides for the expansion of the Mississippi
Virtual Community College (MSVCC), a consortium of the 15 community
colleges that allows students to take courses from any campus
anywhere in Mississippi while getting support services from his/her
local college. MSVCC has experienced record enrollment each year,
since first opening in Spring 2000, growing from 1,300 online course
enrollments to currently over 36,000 online course enrollments.
"When we first met with leaders from the Mississippi Community
College System, they expressed a variety of very specific goals they
wanted to achieve, including delivering high quality education and
training, improving competitiveness and meeting the diverse needs of
the 15 colleges across their system," said Peter Segall, President of
North American Higher Education for Blackboard. "We worked together
closely for many months, to develop a strategic solution that would
meet all of those needs and more. We applaud the vision and
significant long term investment Mississippi is making, and
anticipate an exciting road ahead."
The Blackboard Outcomes System, launched this January, is a
comprehensive platform for managing continuous improvement processes
across a higher education institution or a statewide system. It
enables institutions to streamline the aggregation of assessment
data, make evidence-based decisions, and improve student learning
outcomes.
About Blackboard Inc.
Blackboard Inc. (NASDAQ: BBBB) is a leading provider of enterprise
software applications and related services to the education industry.
Founded in 1997, Blackboard enables educational innovations
everywhere by connecting people and technology. Millions of people
use Blackboard everyday at academic institutions around the globe,
including colleges, universities, K-12 schools and other education
providers, as well as textbook publishers and student-focused
merchants that serve education providers and their students.
Blackboard is headquartered in Washington, D.C., with offices in
North America, Europe, Australia and Asia.
Blackboard
Educate. Innovate. Everywhere.(TM)
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-Q filed on May 4, 2007 with the SEC. In addition, the
forward-looking statements included in this press release represent
the Company's views as of May 16, 2007. 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 May 16, 2007.
Senior Manager Public Relations at Blackboard:
Melissa Chotiner
Blackboard Inc.
202-463-4860 ext. 2404
Investor Relations Contact, Blackboard:
Michael J. Stanton
Vice President Investor Relations, Global Treasury
202-463-4860 ext. 2305
Media Contact, Fleishman-Hillard:
Amy Storey
Fleishman-Hillard Inc.
+1 202 828-8819
SOURCE: Blackboard Inc.