Moodle-Blackboard Integration Software in Development

• By David Nagel
• 10/28/08

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Blackboard has partnered with Iowa State University to develop technologies that will allow Blackboard's learning environment to integrate with the open-source Moodle learning management system. Iowa State will lead the development effort, with Blackboard providing support.

This is not the first time Blackboard has partnered with an academic institution to integrate its software with open-source solutions. Back in July, the company partnered with Syracuse University to create software (called a "Connector," which is a Blackboard Building Block) that would link Blackboard's LMS with the Sakai open-source learning platform. The partnership, according to Blackboard, is part of its Project NG, a multi-stage effort deliver the new learning tools that couple traditional LMS technologies with new capabilities, including social networking and social learning. This project also included the development of the Learning Environment Connector, on which Iowa State's Blackboard-Moodle Connector is based.

For the new Connector, Blackboard will offer "design guidance and support" to Iowa State, which will head up overall development. The final software will allows students and faculty in multi-platform environments to access courses in both Moodle and Blackboard from a single location using a single login.

"We are pleased to partner with Blackboard in this effort that will bring new flexibility and ease of use not just to our own campus but to our peers in the Blackboard community," said Randal Dalhoff, assistant director of Academic Technologies for Iowa State's Information Technology Services, in a statement released this week.

The underlying technology for the forthcoming Connector is available now. The final product, whose anticipated release date has not been announced, will ship as open-source software. Further information can be found here.