Michael Chasen, CEO of Blackboard Inc delivers keynote presentation on company's strategy and offerings for the Middle East market
February 28, 2007: Edutech Middle East, a leading provider of technology-enabled learning solutions and strategic partner of Blackboard Inc in the Middle East, recently organized the first Blackboard CEO Forum at the Emirates Palace Hotel, Abu Dhabi. Michael Chasen, CEO, Blackboard Inc delivered a keynote presentation on the company's strategy and highlighted the latest offerings to a target audience that included senior representatives from Zayed University, the University of Sharjah, UAE University, Abu Dhabi University, Hashmite University, and Abu Dhabi Educational Zone (ADEZ). The Blackboard Outcomes System and Blackboard Academic Suite were also identified as two key solutions for the Middle East market.
Blackboard CEO Forum 2007 provided a unique opportunity for decision-makers from the top universities in the region to discuss the challenges involved with e-learning and the latest technological advancements made in the field vis--vis the solutions offered by Blackboard. Some of the topics discussed included 'how to enhance the student's experience', 'improving institutional accountability', and 'increasing resource and revenue'. Attendees were also briefed on the various Blackboard offerings including Web2.0, e-learning 2.0, Academic Suite, Learning System, Content System, Community System, Portfolio and Outcome Systems.
Speaking at the sidelines of the Blackboard CEO Forum, ASF Karim, Managing Director of Edutech, said: "e-learning has remained a success in schools and universities across the Middle East offering a flexible study pace, reaching a huge student base and ensuring standardized course materials are shared. However, it is important to keep abreast of the rapid changes in technology in a bid to improve, integrate and strengthen the entire learning process."
"Our successful partnership with Blackboard has encouraged us to partner with them in this new initiative to connect with key decision-makers from the top universities in order to share knowledge and best practices so as to complement Blackboard's mission to continuously seek innovative ways of streamlining education objectives," he added.
The Outcomes System, launched globally in January 2007, is the latest and most significant product offering from Blackboard, which provides detailed business level analysis and facilitates the continuous improvement of academic and administrative processes with a focus on student learning, academic programs and co-curricular activities. The solution has several advantages including the ability to provide better visibility into outcomes to enable more effective decision-making and optimization of resources; reduce workloads for institutional assessment committees and departmental assessment projects; and streamline compliance with the most challenging requirements of regional and specialized accreditation.
Outlining the future direction of Blackboard and Blackboard's vision for the higher education market in the region, Michael Chasen said: "Blackboard has launched its latest invention, the Blackboard Outcomes System, designed to address the assessment challenges facing higher education. Today, higher educational institutions are not only collecting and reporting data but also analyzing and acting upon it as well. The Blackboard Outcomes System supports these objectives by aligning courses and student goals with institutional plans and providing a consolidated platform to monitor progress and make decisions on how to effectively improve learning requirements."
The forum also explored issues related to the Learning Systems and the different needs of educational institutes across the region, managing content systems and enhancing the community system to create a richer experience for students and faculty. Further, attendees expressed a clear need for a Middle East user group community that would help connect people with similar attributes and academic backgrounds enabling them to share best practices.
"The Middle East is on the verge of an educational boom as e-learning continues to redefine norms within the academic and educational sector. Events such as the Blackboard CEO Forum 2007 are paramount to the growing importance of the region and I thank Edutech and Blackboard for creating a platform that fosters exchange of best practices and knowledge, in addition to facilitating debate and interaction with leading industry experts and regional decision-makers," said Jamal Al Rumaithi, Head of Information and Technology Department, Abu Dhabi Educational Zone (ADEZ).
Blackboard Inc, which registered revenues of USD 183.1 million in 2006, was founded in 1997 with a vision to enable educational innovations everywhere by connecting people and technology. As the leading provider of e-Education enterprise software applications and services, the company primarily offers five software applications bundled in two suites - the Blackboard Academic Suite and the Blackboard Commerce Suite. The company, which acquired WebCT in a cash transaction for $178 million in 2006, currently has over 3400 subscribers worldwide, over 100 developers, and a million users for its industry leading Blackboard 2.0 and WebCT solutions.
"According to a recent study, the total investment into e-learning in the UAE is projected to increase from USD 14 million in 2004 to USD 56 million by 2008. The upbeat market for e-learning in the Middle East is reflected by the fact that Blackboard currently has over 30 customers in the region and Edutech is glad to have been instrumental in introducing Blackboard's solutions to many of its customers. Considering the current trends in the region's educational sector, we are positive about this highly beneficial and insightful forum," concluded Karim.
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About Edutech:
Edutech Middle East is the leading provider of technology enabled solutions that enable Academic Institutions and Business Enterprises like Petrochemical Industries, Banking & Financial, Manufacturing, Healthcare & Hospitality and Government & Defense to meet their learning and knowledge needs. Edutech combines years of experience with technology and content to deliver rapidly deployable knowledge solutions thereby enabling faster learning cycles, increasing access to information, and reducing cost, efforts and investments. It helps organizations build, manage and measure learning outcomes by providing solutions based on the comprehensive Knowledge Solutions framework that blends content and infrastructure into a single and seamless solution. Headquartered in Dubai, Edutech has a global presence with offices in Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Kuwait, Malaysia, India and US. For more information, please visit www.edutech.com.
For more information, please contact:
Mr. Kiran Kishan Singh
Marketing Manager
Edutech Middle East
P O Box 52334,
Dubai,
UAE
Tel: +9714 3911030
Fax: +9714 3911031
Email: kiran@edutech.com
CommuniGate Middle East
PO Box 66861,
Dubai,
UAE
Tel: +971 4 3988134
Fax: +971 4 3988137
Email: info@communigateme.com
Website:www.communigateme.com
© Press Release 2007
