College Students Can Use iPods to Replay Classes in Enhanced Podcast Format
SANTA CLARA, CA AND WASHINGTON, DC, Feb 14, 2006 (MARKET WIRE via COMTEX News Network) — Tegrity, a worldwide leader in student achievement systems, and Blackboard Inc. (NASDAQ: BBBB), a leading provider of technology to educational institutions, are making it possible for college students to watch and listen to class lectures on their iPods at any time and from any location. Through Tegrity Campus enterprise software and the Blackboard Learning System™, recorded instruction from every class can now be automatically converted to enhanced podcasts for students to review later.
The Tegrity Campus enterprise software seamlessly integrates with Blackboard, and includes a Blackboard Building Block™, described and available for download at http://www.blackboard.com/extend/b2/. Blackboard Building Blocks are third party applications which enable academic institutions to extend and customize their Blackboard application. The Tegrity Campus Blackboard Building Block enables institutions to automatically capture, store and index every class on campus for later replay by every student. The on-demand content is accessible through Blackboard on any computer, and is now available on iPods as well. Each podcast is automatically indexed and enhanced with instructor audio, slides and annotations from class, making it much more engaging than audio-only podcasts.
El Centro College of the Dallas (TX) County Community College District is the first Blackboard enterprise client to adopt Tegrity enhanced podcasting. Tuck Minnett, El Centro’s Director of Distance Learning, says that “iPods are everywhere and their portability is becoming an inevitable part of education’s future. Our students are now able to reinforce their learning while on the way to school, work, home or just juggling their busy schedules.”
Blackboard provides the e-Learning platform used by colleges and universities across the country and abroad. For more than a decade, Tegrity’s technology has enabled educational institutions to automatically record every class on campus and deliver them online for students to access. Together Blackboard and Tegrity will enable greater access to educational resources and content providing significant convenience and flexibility to the members of academic institutions around the world.
How Tegrity’s Blackboard Building Block Works – Podcasts Automatically Created from Class
Tegrity Podcast setup starts at the beginning of the semester as the Tegrity Campus Blackboard Building Block adds a podcast subscription button in every Blackboard course and sends a personalized email to students with a one-click link for subscribing to their podcasts using iTunes.
During class, instructors press one button to start and stop recording and the software automatically creates visual podcasts broken down by chapter, that are automatically uploaded after class to the right place on the Tegrity Server. The Tegrity Campus Blackboard Building Block component uses information already available in the Blackboard Learning System to automatically catalogue the recordings by course. While listening to their podcasts, students can easily navigate to specific parts (chapters) of their class and get right to the information they need.
Blackboard administrators and other stakeholders in the institution can use the Tegrity Campus governance component to track usage, observing how students effortlessly take advantage of more instruction hours without burdening institution staff.
