The Blackboard LMS Goes to Medical School

Many universities and schools around the world are using streaming video to create educational experiences, but most aren't using it as a standalone tool. Rather, they use it as one media element within a larger learning environment, usually by embedding streams within online courses.

In the education realm, learning management systems (LMS) are king. These are complex, varied, and expensive software applications that provide public schools with the sort of networking productivity advantages long enjoyed in the private sector. Besides delivering stream-laden courses, these systems also do things like allow students to chat with each other in real time for collaborative learning and provide both students and teachers with immediate feedback (answers to questions or test results, for example).

One such LMS software product is the Blackboard Learning System, though the company prefers to call it a "technology platform" that helps educators to create a "networked learning environment." In its LMS directory, capterra.com describes Blackboard as "Web-based server software that offers course management and integrates with student information systems." Blackboard claims to have 12 million users at more than 2000 "academic institutions" and at nearly 400 K-12 schools in 47 states.

The company has long recognized the value of streams and, in fact, forged a partnership with RealNetworks back in 2003. Under the agreement, RealNetworks promised to leverage Blackboard's open architecture to integrate the RealNetworks Helix Universal Server technology with the Blackboard Learning System. The integration was intended to enable the seamless incorporation and delivery of digital audio and video through the Blackboard system, thereby simplifying the process of managing digital media assets for use by students. This agreement gave Blackboard a sort of momentary leg up over other LMS providers, but the company has not tied itself to RealNetworks exclusively. In fact, in October Blackboard announced a joint development project with Microsoft intended to more tightly integrate Blackboard software with the Microsoft Office System and with the Microsoft SharePoint Portal Server.

One academic institution that has found some innovative ways of using Blackboard to integrate streaming video into the learning process is the University of Vermont College of Medicine in Burlington, Vermont.

Jill Jemison, the College of Medicine's elearning manager, explains that Blackboard adoption came shortly after the college decided in August 2003 to revamp the entire curriculum. They wanted to jettison old learning models and embrace a new style known by the educational buzzword(s): "integrated learning." This is a more holistic or blended approach that connects topics to tasks. The approach is highly dependent on computer network technology. In fact, the first thing the College of Medicine distributes to incoming students when they arrive on campus is a laptop.