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 WileyPLUSand 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 aboutWileyPLUS, 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.
