Blackboard LLC
| Private | |
| ISIN | 🆔 |
| Industry | Educational technology |
| Fate | Merged with CourseInfo LLC |
| Successor | Blackboard Inc. |
| Founded 📆 | 1997 |
| Founders 👔 | Michael Chasen Matthew Pittinsky |
| Defunct | 1998 |
| Headquarters 🏙️ | , , United States |
Area served 🗺️ | |
| Services | IMS-related standards implementation and an IMS-based example system for internet-based learning |
| Members | |
Number of employees | |
| 🌐 Website | [Lua error in Module:WikidataIB at line 665: attempt to index field 'wikibase' (a nil value). ] |
| 📇 Address | |
| 📞 telephone | |
Blackboard LLC was an American education technology company founded in Washington, D.C., in 1997 by Michael Chasen and Matthew Pittinsky after their work in the higher-education practice of KPMG Consulting.[1] The company worked in connection with Educom, the National Learning Infrastructure Initiative and the Instructional Management Systems project. Its work centered on IMS-related standards implementation and an IMS-based example system for internet-based learning.[2]
EDUCOM, NLII and IMS
The National Learning Infrastructure Initiative was developed within Educom during the 1990s. Educom's organizational history states that the outline of NLII began in 1993 and that work on the Instructional Management System began in 1996.[3]
Carol Twigg served as vice president of Educom from 1993 to 1998. During that period, she founded NLII and initiated the IMS project.[4] William H. Graves described the IMS Cooperative as a project of NLII and characterized IMS as an effort to build an "Internet architecture for learning." Graves wrote that IMS specifications were intended to support interoperability among learning systems, management systems, content and discourse.[5]
IMS was organized around shared technical specifications for internet-based learning systems. Graves described the IMS technical team as responsible for designing and reviewing specifications that could support functionality across a range of suppliers in the educational technology market.[5]
IMS contract and technical work
Blackboard LLC participated in the IMS project through IMS specification activity and an IMS-based example system connected to Educom and NLII. A 1998 Blackboard LLC announcement described the company as the primary technical contractor to IMS and stated that Educom had contracted Blackboard LLC to create an IMS-based example system being tested by eleven U.S. and international universities.[2]
Mike Pettit and Udo Schuermann were listed in IMS materials as technical contributors connected to Blackboard LLC's IMS standards work. Pettit served as Blackboard LLC's chief systems architect and described IMS in 1998 as "a viable architecture on which to build on-line education related systems."[2]
The EDUCOM/NLII Instructional Management Systems Specifications Document Version 0.5 was released on April 29, 1998 and is cited in later patent and academic literature as a 212-page IMS standards document.[6][7]
Later IMS content-packaging materials listed Pettit and Schuermann as Blackboard contributors to IMS specification work.[8][9]
IMS-based example system
Blackboard LLC's IMS-based example system was part of the IMS effort to demonstrate shared specifications for internet-based learning systems. Later patent records cite the EDUCOM/NLII Instructional Management Systems Specifications Document Version 0.5, dated April 29, 1998, as a 212-page document.[6]
In 1998, Wired described IMS as a standards effort for classifying, distributing and reusing educational "content objects" across the web. The article described the project as involving software companies, publishers and universities, and reported that IMS version 0.5 had been released in April 1998.[10]
Market context
By 1997 and 1998, web-based course-management and instructional systems were already being evaluated across higher education. Contemporary studies compared CourseInfo, LearnLinc, LearningSpace, TopClass, Virtual-U, Web Course in a Box and WebCT as tools for authoring, delivering, managing and evaluating web-based courses.[11] A 1998 institutional evaluation narrowed a larger group of course tools to CourseInfo, TopClass and WebCT for review.[12]
The systems under review used separate technical environments. Graves described IMS specifications as addressing interoperability among learning systems, management systems, content and discourse.[5]
Merger with CourseInfo
In 1998, Blackboard LLC merged with CourseInfo LLC to form Blackboard Inc. CourseInfo LLC was founded in Ithaca, New York, by Stephen Gilfus and Daniel Cane.[2]
See also
- CourseInfo
- Blackboard (company)
- Educom
- EDUCAUSE
- IMS Global Learning Consortium
- Learning management system
- Educational technology
References
- ↑ "Blackboard Inc. Form S-1 Registration Statement". U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. February 3, 2004. Retrieved May 16, 2026.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 "Blackboard History - IMS and CourseInfo". Gilfus Education Group. April 29, 1998. Retrieved May 16, 2026.
- ↑ "Educom History". EDUCAUSE. Retrieved May 16, 2026.
- ↑ "Teaching and Learning in a Hybrid World". EDUCAUSE Review. July 1, 2004. Retrieved May 16, 2026.
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 Graves, William H. (1999). "The Instructional Management Systems Cooperative". EDUCAUSE Review. Retrieved May 16, 2026.
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 "US7558853B2 - Method and system for conducting online instruction". Google Patents. Retrieved May 16, 2026.
- ↑ "Changing paradigms: managed learning environments and Web 2.0". Campus-Wide Information Systems. Emerald Group Publishing Limited. June 26, 2007. Retrieved May 16, 2026.
- ↑ "IMS Content Packaging Best Practice Guide, Version 1.1.3". IMS Global Learning Consortium. Retrieved May 16, 2026.
- ↑ "IMS Content Packaging Information Model, Version 1.1.4". IMS Global Learning Consortium. Retrieved May 16, 2026.
- ↑ Harmon, Amy (October 21, 1998). "Object-Oriented Education?". Wired. Retrieved May 16, 2026.
- ↑ Mamoukaris, Kiriakos V.; Economides, Anastasios A. (1999). Assessment and Comparison of Web-Based Educational Environments (PDF). WebNet-99 World Conference on the WWW and Internet. Association for the Advancement of Computing in Education. pp. 677–682. Retrieved May 16, 2026.
- ↑ "Software for Supporting Web-Based Instruction". Internet Reference Services Quarterly. doi:10.1300/J060v08n02_06. Retrieved May 16, 2026.
This article "Blackboard LLC" is from Wikipedia. The list of its authors can be seen in its historical and/or the page Edithistory:Blackboard LLC. Articles copied from Draft Namespace on Wikipedia could be seen on the Draft Namespace of Wikipedia and not main one.
- Use mdy dates from May 2026
- Educational technology companies of the United States
- Defunct software companies of the United States
- Companies based in Washington, D.C.
- Software companies established in 1997
- Software companies disestablished in 1998
- 1997 establishments in Washington, D.C.
- 1998 disestablishments in Washington, D.C.
- Blackboard Inc.
