Blackboard Adds Over 1,000 New Course Cartridges From Leading Educational Publishers This Year

WASHINGTON, Dec 16, 2004 /PRNewswire-FirstCall via COMTEX/ -- Blackboard Inc. (Nasdaq: BBBB) announced today that it has added 1,165 new Blackboard Course Cartridges(R) to the offerings now available to higher education institutions and individual instructors through the Blackboard Learning System(TM). To date, more than 30 of the world's leading educational publishers distribute more than 3,500 ready-to-use Blackboard-compliant courses through Blackboard Course Cartridges. With these cartridges, instructors and students can access a wide variety of educational materials online, at any time and from just about any location.

"These Blackboard Course Cartridge additions demonstrate Blackboard's aim to step beyond courses and incorporate the many educational resources available, both traditional and digital, into the online learning experience," said Matthew Pittinsky, Chairman of Blackboard. "With the deep and broad selection of course content available through the Blackboard Course Cartridge Catalogue, Blackboard clients now have an even greater ability to assemble highly specific curricula in a format that can be refreshed easily and customized to the needs of individual instructors."

Created by leading educational authors, editors and publishers, Blackboard Course Cartridges are pre-packaged course materials, formatted for the Blackboard Learning System and may include slides, documents, multimedia files, links to related websites, test banks, and quizzes. While some cartridges correlate to textbooks or eBooks, others are intended for use as stand-alone courses, and all the cartridge materials may be customized once downloaded to a specific course site.

The Blackboard Course Cartridge Catalog includes course cartridges in more than 200 precisely targeted disciplines. Blackboard's collection of course cartridges includes offerings in Academic Skills and College Life, Arts and Humanities, Business and Management, Computer Science and Desktop Applications, Education, Engineering, Interdisciplinary Studies, Law and Legal Studies, Medicine and Allied Health, Professional Fields, Science and Mathematics, and Social and Behavioral Sciences. This year alone, over 640 cartridges have been refreshed with updated content.

"Using the Blackboard content platform, publishers, institutions and instructors are positioned to find new ways to distribute and exchange large amounts of educational content," said Pittinsky. "Blackboard Course Cartridges -- and other Blackboard-compliant course packages created by publishers, institutions and instructors -- represent the leading edge of the broad-based content sharing that will characterize educational environments in the years ahead."

Publisher partners who now distribute products through Blackboard Course Cartridges include Bedford, Freeman, Worth; Elsevier; EMC/Paradigm Publishing; Houghton Mifflin; John Wiley & Sons; Lippincott, Williams and Wilkins; McGraw- Hill; Pearson Education; Power-Glide; and Thomson Higher Education. Please visit the Blackboard website at http://www.blackboard.com for a complete Blackboard Course Cartridge partner list.

In addition, a number of publishers license Blackboard software to power their own e-learning websites, including Pearson Education: CourseCompass(TM), Elsevier: Evolve(TM), Lexis/Nexis(R): Web Courses(TM), Houghton Mifflin: Eduspace(TM), and Thomson Higher Education: WebTutor(TM).

About Blackboard Inc.

Blackboard is a leading provider of enterprise software and services to the education industry. The Company's product line consists of five software applications bundled in two suites, the Blackboard Academic Suite TM and the Blackboard Commerce Suite TM. Blackboard's clients include colleges, universities, schools and other education providers, as well as textbook publishers and student-focused merchants that serve education providers and their students. Blackboard is headquartered in Washington, D.C., with offices and staff in North America, Europe and Asia.

Any statements in this press release about future expectations, plans and prospects for Blackboard and other statements containing the words "believes," "anticipates," "plans," "expects," "will," and similar expressions, constitute forward-looking statements within the meaning of The Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Actual results may differ materially from those indicated by such forward-looking statements as a result of various important factors, including the factors discussed in the "Risk Factors" section of our most recent 10-Q filed with the SEC. In addition, the forward-looking statements included in this press release represent the Company's views as of December 16, 2004. The Company anticipates that subsequent events and developments will cause the Company's views to change. However, while the Company may elect to update these forward-looking statements at some point in the future, the Company specifically disclaims any obligation to do so. These forward-looking statements should not be relied upon as representing the Company's views as of any date subsequent to December 16, 2004.

CONTACT: Melissa Chotiner, Public Relations Manager of Blackboard Inc., +1-202-463-4860, ext. 2404, mchotiner@blackboard.com; or Media: Stacey Finkel of DBC Public Relations Experts, +1-202-298-7600, ext. 219, stacey@dbcpr.com, for Blackboard Inc.

SOURCE Blackboard Inc.

Melissa Chotiner
Public Relations Manager of Blackboard Inc.
+1-202-463-4860, ext. 2404
mchotiner@blackboard.com
or
Media:
Stacey Finkel
of DBC Public Relations Experts
+1-202-298-7600, ext. 219
stacey@dbcpr.com
for Blackboard Inc.
http://www.blackboard.com
 

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