Open, collaborative development is the foundation of the Blackboard Developer Network™.  This community born in 2001 relies upon the open, standards-based APIs and web services available for the Blackboard Academic Suite™ and documented in the freely available Software Development Kit (SDK).  This technology enables developers at academic institutions and commercial vendors to develop customizations and integrations with the Blackboard Academic Suite to enhance online teaching and learning experiences around the world. 

These open, standards-based java APIs and web services allow for the sharing of valuable data between Blackboard software and other systems and tools through development of Blackboard Building Blocks® or Blackboard PowerLinks™.  Data that can be passed includes:

• Authentication and authorization information – to ensure seamless authentication and authorization between Blackboard software and other systems.
• User data – name, course of study, contact information.
• Course data and Enrollment records
• Outcomes – student quiz and text data, scores, grades, participation and activity data
• Content – the ability to seamlessly integrate rich content from a variety of sources
• System management – information to help administrators manage and monitor their Blackboard® software installations

Through Blackboard Building Blocks and Blackboard PowerLinks, developers can create sharable, re-purposable web applications that can be deployed on or integrated with the Blackboard Academic Suite.  This open architecture ensures that clients can:

• extend the Blackboard Academic Suite and incorporate new functionality. 
• provide customizations to meet discipline-specific or pedagogical needs.
• leverage this technology to enhance and aid administration of their systems on campus.
• automate procedures or repetitive tasks
• integrate with external systems or applications across their learning enterprise for example the Registrar’s office, the Library to name just two
• customize their implementation by integrating open source or locally-developed applications and tools

Blackboard’s APIs and web services are supported.  Developers leveraging this technology have access to dedicated support resources and a dynamic community of fellow-developers through EduGarage™, home of the Blackboard Developer Network.  This wiki-based resource has documentation, tutorials, discussion forums, source code repositories and sample code and more.