New OpenEd integration provides K-12 educators using Blackboard’s learning management solutions with engaging, standards-aligned open educational resources

WASHINGTON, D.C., October 11, 2017 – Blackboard Inc., a leading education technology company for teaching, learning and student engagement, and OpenEd, an ACT product and the leading online resource library for K-12 teachers, today announced a new collaboration which integrates OpenEd’s standards-aligned open educational resource (OER) library with Blackboard’s learning management systems and solutions.

OpenEd provides teachers with standards-aligned educational resources from a variety of sources. Materials include videos, games, assessments, homework assignments, and lesson plans, which are all accurately aligned to standards and sorted by their proven efficacy. Beginning today, teachers can easily integrate OpenEd’s materials into the learning experience through Blackboard Open Content, a cross-platform, cloud-based, global learning object repository. With this new partnership, teachers are empowered to help students master competencies with seamless access to over half a million OER resources for Common Core Math, Language Arts, Social Studies and the Next Generation Science Standards. Blackboard Open Content is available in Blackboard Learn (the company’s flagship LMS), Moodlerooms (Blackboard’s open-source learning platform) and Blackboard Classroom (a new learning management solution).

“ACT and Blackboard share the belief that educational resources should be seamlessly integrated into learning platforms to make teachers’ lives easier,” said Adam Blum, chief architect of OpenEd. “We are excited about OpenEd's resources being available in one of the most widely used LMS platforms today.”

“We’re pleased to partner with OpenEd to provide educators nationwide with thousands of high quality resources at no cost,” said Katie Blot, Chief Strategy Officer at Blackboard. “Blackboard is committed to enriching instruction and making teacher’s lives easier through the seamless integration of high quality digital content into our learning management systems.”

To learn more about Blackboard’s K-12 solutions, visit http://www.blackboard.com/k12.

About ACT

ACT is a mission-driven, nonprofit organization dedicated to helping people achieve education and workplace success. Headquartered in Iowa City, Iowa, ACT is trusted as a national leader in college and career readiness, providing high-quality assessments grounded in nearly 60 years of research. ACT offers a uniquely integrated set of solutions designed to provide personalized insights that help individuals succeed from elementary school through career.

About Blackboard Inc.

Our mission is to partner with the global education community to enable learner and institutional success, leveraging innovative technologies and services. With an unmatched understanding of the world of the learner, the most comprehensive student-success solutions, and the greatest capacity for innovation, Blackboard is education's partner in change.