Blackboard is big time. Blackboard Learn™ leads the higher education learning management world. Blackboard Learn serves more than 20 million learners.

And starting in 2011 (or thereabouts), Blackboard is going to be rocking the SCORM Engine in Blackboard Learn.

We are nothing short of thrilled to announce that Blackboard has signed a long term agreement with Rustici Software to deliver all SCORM and AICC based material in Blackboard Learn, their flagship product.

Ultimately, we’ll let Blackboard tell their story of why they opted to go with the SCORM Engine, but this is what we know.

  • Blackboard had a prior SCORM delivery setup based on an open source SCORM implementation, and they found it to be inadequate in supporting their customers.
  • Blackboard considered building their own SCORM implementation, but realized they could do it better and more cost effectively by working with us.
  • Blackboard considered other commercial SCORM technology… briefly.

Blackboard’s adoption of our rock solid SCORM technology will make things better for Blackboard learners and those people who provide content to Blackboard. This is a huge step for us as well toward one of our long term goals:

Rustici Software would like to provide the technology that makes every SCORM transaction go.

Consider this an invitation to all of the big LMS providers. Each LMS provider that adopts the SCORM Engine reduces the pain associated with eLearning for the industry as a whole. Blackboard’s adoption of the SCORM Engine is a big step toward our goal.

For more on Blackboard’s commitment to SCORM and open standards in general, check out today’s blog posts by Ray Henderson and John Fontaine.

Tim is the chief innovation and product officer with our parent company LTG, though he used to be CEO here at Rustici Software. If you’re looking for a plainspoken answer to a standards-based question, or to just play an inane game, Tim is your person.