New Open Source Tool From Blackboard & MERLOT Unleashes a Multitude of Educational Resources for Teachers and Students

Tuesday April 12, 7:00 am ET MERLOT Search Makes Thousands of Existing Online Educational Resources Easily Accessible via Blackboard
BALTIMORE, MD--(MARKET WIRE)--Apr 12, 2005 -- 7th ANNUAL BLACKBOARD USERS CONFERENCE -- Blackboard Inc. (NasdaqNM:BBBB - News), a leading provider of e-learning software and services, announced today the release of MERLOT Search, a Building Block for The Blackboard Learning System(TM). The new Building Block was announced at the 7th Annual Blackboard Users Conference during a keynote from Blackboard Chairman Matthew Pittinsky.
This tool will allow instructors to search for educational materials available through the Multimedia Educational Resource, for Learning and Online Teaching (MERLOT) without exiting their Blackboard course. MERLOT (www.merlot.org), a free and open resource features more than 12,000 online educational materials and more than 25,000 members representing the higher education community. Blackboard Building Blocks are software applications which extend the Blackboard e-Learning platform.
MERLOT Search allows instructors to search the MERLOT repository directly from Blackboard, saving time and additional steps. Instructors can apply search results to select specific learning resources and embed links to them in their Blackboard course Web site.

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