Rapid adoption, globalization: a vendor-provided case study

T+D, April, 2003

Responding to the rapid global adoption of its e-learning software, Blackboard Inc. entered into an expansive partnership with Welocalize to implement an enterprise-wide globalization plan related to the Blackboard Learning System. Focused on further empowering Blackboard's clients, partners, and Building Block application developers, the partnership will directly affect how e-education is deployed and offered around the world and enable educational institutions abroad to tailor e-learning to their local pedagogical approaches.

Blackboard has been working with Welocalize for several months and selected the company as its long-term partner in the full globalization of the Blackboard Learning System. "This will be a tremendous benefit to our entire client base, which increasingly requires enterprise technology and customizable applications that can cross all borders," says Andrew H. Rosen, general manager of Blackboard's international operations.

In contrast to current approaches to translate learning environments, Blackboard's approach to the globalization of its Learning System aims to set a new standard for academic institutions in the process of implementing e-learning programs. The globalized offering is the Blackboard Learning System-ML (Multi Language), reflecting the product's multiple-language functionality and permitting institutions to provide a tailored online environment suitable to their existing pedagogy.

The multilingual offering continues Blackboard's commitment to pedagogical effectiveness, ease of use, international standards, and scalable architecture. Blackboard's teaching and learning solutions began on the campus of Cornell University in the United States, and Blackboard served as the primary contractor to the IMS Global Learning Consortium standards project at conception.

Based on the setting selected by the particular institution, Blackboard Learning System ML offers a variety of features: Language Customization for User Interface. Users have the ability to set the language of their choice for the interface to appear. For example, a student can select to view the course environment in German, while a peer in the same course can view the environment in French.

Language Preference for Content. Regardless of which language an institution downloads for the user interface to display, learners can type or upload content in any language and the text will be recognized and displayed appropriately.

Locale Specification. The institution can determine which locales it would like to deploy for its users. Each locale dictates the manner in which times, dates, names, addresses, and currencies are displayed.

Based on Blackboard's third-generation scalable, enterprise technology, these fundamental tenets are behind the Blackboard globalization product strategy: phased development, Blackboard Building Blocks, and multiple-language support. The tenets serve to

* accelerate client return-on-investment by leveraging ease of use in an international academic setting

* minimize risk in the marketplace by adopting one solution founded on a stable, scalable code base that supports multiple languages rather than multiple pieces of software per language

* maintain optimal staffing profiles by avoiding duplication of sItills, hardware, and software with an e-education platform capable of global learning.

Internally, Blackboard will deliver the application in two phases. The first deliverable has an internationalized user interface so that learners see navigations, forms, and so forth in their native language. Final delivery will be the completely internationalized application. Blackboard abstracts the code from the presentation layer. Thus, new languages can be added seamlessly in the future without a full upgrade.

The Building Blocks program is a key differentiator for the Blackboard product offering. Through the open architecture and APIs (supported application programming interfaces), this program enables academic and commercial developers worldwide to design, build, and integrate applications into the Blackboard platform. Because of the enterprise architecture that the Blackboard Learning System-ML is built on, Building Blocks developers have myriad choices when it comes to internationalizing applications to run on top of the platform. They can write a localized application for each language, which can appear only in certain courses, or they can create an internationalized application that presents its interface in the user's language http://buildingblocks.blackboard.com.

The need for multiple-language support derives from three requirements:

1. Both the database and browsers must support commingled languages that can enable, for example, a Chinese university to offer a language course in Korean.

2. As the application is used to facilitate distance learning, it must support multiple languages as students of distinct content or even one course may speak different languages (for example, British universities targeting Chinese-speaking students).