At its Blackboard World event in Las Vegas this week, course-management software company Blackboard—whose products drive numerous online and on-site education platforms—revealed plans to launch its own MOOC platform.
The new platform will be free to use for existing Blackboard customers, but, according to this article by Jeffrey R. Young, at the Chronicle of Higher Ed, “there might be a fee if colleges want to customize or upgrade features on their MOOC offerings.”
Young quotes Ray Henderson, president of Blackboard’s teaching and learning division, who clearly sees this as a first step toward bigger-picture growth:
“MOOCs,” said Mr. Henderson, “are a first step to really building out online programs.”
Blackboard’s new product will pit them against such category heavyweights as edX and Coursera, as well as one of its current software competitors, Instructure, who offer a similar product. We’ll be watching closely to see what develops—how about you?
