Our benefits create a powered learning experience to connect the entire community: teachers, students, parents, and staff. By creating a collaborative learning environment, we support schools and districts of all sizes with 21st century learning opportunities.
Providing seamless online collaboration
Managing your district Web site
Developing and supporting a virtual school
Moving curriculum development online
Enhancing classroom instruction
Offering advanced courses online
Extending classrooms with online learning
Providing professional development
Improving communication
Providing seamless online collaboration
Problem: Providing seamless and secure collaboration for learning
Online collaboration holds many promises for education: more student engagement, more equitable access for all students, and opportunities for teachers to further their own learning. However, text-based collaboration only addresses certain learning styles.
Solution: Integrated collaboration applications
Blackboard® extends its Web-based learning system to include collaborative tools such as voice discussion boards, virtual classrooms, and controlled instant messaging. To learn more about the collaborative tool Extensions that are available through Blackboard, please visit the Extensions catalog.
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Developing and supporting a virtual school
Problem: Creating a community of online learners
In a virtual school, students and teachers need a comprehensive system of support. In order to be successful with their online courses, students need to feel accountable and responsible for their academic success. Teachers require support and opportunities for their own learning and sharing. And administrators face the challenge of managing a school without face-to-face interactions.
Solution: Choose a proven online learning platform
When choosing to go online for their learning, students look for a rich course catalogue, easy enrollment, interactivity and multimedia resource options. Virtual school instructors require easy course creation and a space for formal professional development as well as opportunities for informal sharing and learning from each other. To support the administrative side, the learning platform should be able to integrate with student information systems and offer role-based groups to manage and customize delivery more effectively.
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Enhancing classroom instruction
Problem: Increasing student engagement
How do we ensure time spent in class is meaningful, productive, and engaging for students? Every school faces the challenge of motivating their students and staff while remaining flexible to their needs and promoting student success.
Solution: Improve instructional practices and outcomes with a meaningful learning environment
The right classroom instructional tools make all the difference in enabling students to master curriculum and become lifelong learners, while closing the gap between the way students live and the way they learn. These tools positively impact classroom design, resource allocation and instructional efforts to create effective teachers and contribute to positive student outcomes.
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Extending classrooms with online learning
Problem: Not enough hours in the school day!
The typical school day only lasts from 8:00 AM to 3:00 PM, which is not enough time for teachers to prepare lessons, manage assignments, enter grades, and communicate with students and parents in addition to their most important role: teaching.
Solution: Deliver learning beyond the four walls of the classroom
Adding online learning to face-to-face classes can help teachers save time and give students access to more resources as well as to each other. From online assignments to discussion boards to customized learning paths, Blackboard technology enables each teacher to decide how best to integrate online learning into the standard curriculum. Teachers can manage assignments, share multimedia resources, launch discussions, and create assessments that go directly into an electronic gradebook. At the end of the year, they can easily update and reuse online course components and share best practices with fellow teachers.
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Improving communication
Problem: Getting the right information to the right people
From the superintendent’s office to the classroom to the student’s home, a vast network of small, large, and overlapping communities make up any school district. How can technology make it easier for people to connect to share information and connect with each other?
Solution: Targeted communication platform
Schools have the opportunity to use the latest technologies to streamline communications and improve district-wide understanding. A role-based communication platform gives different groups, such as librarians, principals, or teachers, an easy way to update and share their information online. Administrative tools enable flexible moderation, delegation and security settings to match your district policies and requirements.
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Managing your district Web site
Problem: Keeping track of what’s happening in your district
As a school or district, you have a lot to keep track of on your Web site: content to share, news to keep updated and an abundance of information to keep organized!
Solution: Utilize an easy-to-use platform to manage your Web site
Keep things user friendly, easy-to-maintain and relevant with department sites, district and school directory and staff profiles, district and school calendars, parent portals, discussion boards, content sharing, registration systems, log in pages and site maps.
Part of the cost of Blackboard Managed HostingSM service is eligible for an E-rate grant if you use Blackboard community portal technology as your district or school Web site.
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Moving curriculum development online
Problem: Keeping curriculum guides current
Meeting requirements for highly qualified teachers and ensuring adequate yearly progress for all students requires all teachers to have access to exemplary content. Annual distribution of printed guides is costly and difficult to integrate into classroom instruction.
Solution: Provide easy access to online curriculum guides
Moving curriculum development and management online gives educators direct access to what works in the classroom. Teachers can log in anytime, anywhere to search for help, seek training, ask questions and share best practices. Additionally, districts can easily distribute customized and appropriate curricula created in the district or by a third party to teachers by school, subject area, grade or other defined grouping. Development tools enable curriculum specialists and teachers to collaboratively create content for all to access or go through a formal review process.
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Offering advanced courses online
Problem: Limited learning opportunities
Many districts are forced to limit student learning opportunities due to a lack of qualified instructors for certain foreign languages, advanced placement, and other specialized classes.
Solution: Offer more advanced courses
Online learning enables schools and districts to share experts and offer more courses to all students. Students have become comfortable with online learning and regularly choose to take a class online that is not offered at their school. They're joining learning communities of peers who share their interest and desire to learn. For many students and teachers, an online course does more than just replicate a face-to-face course. It can be more personal, interactive and individualized.
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Providing professional development
Problem: Providing easy access to high-quality professional development
Teacher quality is the number one controllable factor that can influence student achievement. But ensuring high-quality teachers requires on-going professional development which can be expensive to deliver and difficult to schedule.
Solution: Make online professional development available to all teachers
By offering professional development online, districts provide training anytime, anywhere and with the least disruption to classroom instruction. A proven, hosted platform for course development and delivery enables school districts to introduce online learning without a technical investment or additional resources. Collaboration tools enable teachers to share best practices and solve problems without adding another set of meetings to their busy schedules.
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