Swansea University this week hosted the Blackboard Teaching and Learning Conference 2010 – the company’s largest user conference in Europe.
The three-day event, which was held this year for the first time at a university venue, provided educators, course designers, system administrators and eLearning managers from Higher and Further Education institutions across Europe, with the opportunity to share their knowledge, expertise, and best practices.
Blackboard delivers web-based virtual learning solutions to support online teaching and learning, which help enrich all aspects of the academic experience, and delegates had the opportunity to attend a series of training sessions as part of the event programme.
The conference’s opening address was given by Professor Alan Speight, Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Student Experience and Academic Quality Enhancement.
Welcoming delegates to the University, he said: “An outstanding student experience is very much at the heart of what we strive to achieve here at Swansea, and eLearning plays a very prominent role in that.
“We started using Blackboard in 2001 and it was rapidly adopted by both staff and students, with great enthusiasm, and its take-up grew very quickly. Blackboard is now used to support more than 1,500 modules, across every discipline offered by the University.
“It has also become the core system in a major collaboration project between Swansea University, Swansea Metropolitan University, and the University of Wales Trinity St David.
“We have a dedicated and committed team working to support and enhance eLearning provision for our students, who are always looking to new innovations and methods that will improve their learning and achievements.”
Keynote speakers Richard Gerver, who has been described as one of the most inspirational leaders of his generation, and Ray Henderson, President of Blackboard’s teaching and learning division, also presented to the conference on Monday, April 12 and Tuesday, April 13 respectively.
For further information about Blackboard visit http://www.blackboard.com/.
