Blackboard gets certified and completes edtech first

Blackboard has reached a first in the education technology community. The company's flagship SaaS-based LMS product, Blackboard Learn, has received certification by the IMS Caliper v1.0 standard, making it the first company to complete this process.

Caliper is the recently released standard from the IMS Global Learning Consortium, only available to IMS Contributing and Affiliate members.

Blackboard focuses on bringing learning analytics capabilities to its customers, providing them with insights to enhance learning outcomes, drive retention and increase success.

Blackboard Learn provides data about teacher and student use.

The real-time feed of learning data, referred to by the Caliper standard as an 'event stream', will be available at no additional cost to all users of Blackboard's SaaS platform, according to a statement.

Compliance has been certified with key 'metric profiles' that cover actions such as logging into Learn, submitting a homework assignment, or receiving a grade.

"We strongly believe that learning analytics can help institutions, faculty, teachers and learners make informed decisions about the learning process," says Mark Strassman, Blackboard senior vice president of industry and product management.

"This milestone and our overall support for Caliper demonstrates Blackboard's commitment to analytics, and cements our role as a good steward of educational data," he sys.

Dr. Rob Abel, IMS Global chief executive, says, "Just as IMS Learning Tools Interoperability (LTI) revolutionised the ease with which institutions can incorporate innovative products into the learning experience, IMS Caliper is designed to revolutionise the ease with which data can be used to improve those same experiences.

"Blackboard is providing bold leadership to the education sector by being the first organisation to complete conformance certification to ensure interoperability is achieved across the ecosystem.