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Vital Source Debuts Building Block for Blackboard Learn

The new platform, called VitalSource Building Block for Blackboard Learn, allows for a single login to both Blackboard and VitalSource Bookshelf and use on Blackboard Learn’s mobile app for Apple, Android, and Kindle Fire devices. 

Blackboard’s partnership with Vital Source Technologies will “deliver practical tools to educators,” says Jim Kelly, Blackboard’s vice president of business development. Instructors can search and sample VitalSource Bookshelf titles and embed them in their Blackboard Learn account for use during classes. They can link to media and interactive elements as well as annotate sections of text. Analytic tools measure class engagement data.

Students using the etextbook have “the ability to interact with the newest media-rich content and learning tools,” Kelly says. They can explore online content and technology and share notes, highlights, and annotations within the platform. The etextbooks also sync across devices.

VitalSource Bookshelf has more than 3 million users at 6,000 universities worldwide, and offers content from more than 350 publishers. Building Block has a student-purchase option where students can buy or rent the etextbooks from within Blackboard Learn. Universities with textbooks included in the price of tuition can offer the etextbooks free to students on the platform.

Source: Ingram Content Group