SUNY Cortland Staff Member Wins E-Learning Award

CORTLAND, NY (08/26/2008)(readMedia)-- Blackboard Inc. presented its 2008 Blackboard Community Collaboration Award to Bryant Withers of Cortland, N.Y., a computer information specialist at SUNY Cortland.

A global leader in enterprise technology and innovative solutions, Blackboard Inc. strives to improve the experience of millions of students and learners around the world every day. Founded in 1997, Blackboard is headquartered in Washington, D.C., with offices in North America, Europe, Asia and Australia.

Withers, who works in the College's Academic Computing Services, was honored for his collaborative work with other professionals in his field during Blackboard World 2008, the annual users' conference, July 15-17 in Las Vegas, Nev.

"The efforts made by Bryant really do make a difference in enhancing the learning experience at SUNY Cortland and for many other institutions across the globe," writes Russ Carlson, Blackboard Inc.'s president for North America Higher Education. "We certainly feel as though such achievements are deserving of special recognition. I want to congratulate SUNY Cortland for its leadership and excellence in the support of online teaching and learning."

Since early 2007, Blackboard has encouraged client collaboration through a new program called The Upgrade Team. Using techniques such as virtual office hours, a central wiki site, list serves and other resources, the community has helped hundreds of Blackboard clients. Through the program, the company is able to highlight members of the community who exemplify the very best of eLearning through the sharing of best practices, tips and techniques.

"By attending so many weekly Web conferencing sessions surrounding Blackboard's software, I was able to share ideas that helped others trying to do the same things or solve similar problems that we were working with here at SUNY Cortland," Withers explained. "In addition, some of my suggestions were sent to the company as development requests and a few have already been implemented. The combination of solutions at this level wouldn't have been possible without this community."

SUNY Cortland's e-Learning program began in 2001 when the College received a $750,000 U.S. Department of Education Title III grant. The five-year award funded the initial software purchase and provided money for faculty to attend summer workshops to learn to use the software and incorporate eLearning into their classes.

The e-Learning system allows SUNY Cortland faculty to increase their face-to-face courses by offering programs like class notes, e-mail communications, online class discussion and access to an online grade book. Faculty can also use the program for online course offerings.

This past academic year, 683 courses with more than 5,000 students enrolled were taught at the College by 309 faculty members using the Blackboard Course Management Platform. Also in 2007-08, using this software, 174 online courses were delivered, including 150 during summer and winter sessions.

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