Software vendor Microsoft Corp., US, and Janet, the UK’s research and education network, have signed a new peering arrangement as a result of which more than 18 million students, staff and researchers at institutions across the UK could start to benefit from a faster and more secure connection when using their institution’s cloud-based IT services.

This new agreement enables improved access to infrastructure and application services such as websites, virtual learning environments and research projects. Connecting the networks privately eliminates the need to traverse data over the public internet. This enables a high bandwidth connection for students and staff to use Windows Azure. Bandwidth is managed, ensuring high-speed delivery with no delay or latency.

The move to peer the Microsoft Windows Azure data centre to the Janet network comes as part of a new strategic alliance between the two organisations, signed at Goldsmiths, University of London.

The alliance agreement also means any UK education institution can benefit from standard terms and conditions on Microsoft’s cloud-based productivity software suite Office 365, negotiated by Janet. An early beneficiary of this arrangement is Goldsmiths, which is also one of a select group of institutions responsible for initiating work on the alliance.

Enterprise technology and innovative solutions provider Blackboard Inc., US, and Vital Source Technologies, Inc., an Ingram Content Group company, have launched pilot programs with a number of colleges and universities to test-drive an integrated offering that makes the VitalSource Bookshelf platform and its hundreds of thousands of e-Textbooks available directly within Blackboard Learn, the company's flagship learning management system (LMS).

Indiana University - Fort Wayne, University of Alaska Anchorage, and Fayetteville Technical Community College - are among the institutions participating in the field trial. With the integration instructors can preview and select e-textbooks, content and learning objects from the VitalSource Bookshelf platform that students can then access through a single sign-on.

Participants in the field trial will provide ongoing feedback to the companies about their experience to strengthen the offering. Participating instructors have expressed satisfaction with the ability to annotate e-textbooks, link to content from anywhere within a course or assignment and assess how students are progressing through content. Students have been enthusiastic about using e-textbooks on mobile devices through native iOS and Android applications, including deep linking that makes pages and features such as notes, highlights and annotations look the same on e-textbooks as they do in printed textbooks.

The integrated solution, expected to be available this summer, would offer two purchase models. Institutions that include textbooks as part of tuition could place e-textbooks directly into Blackboard Learn courses for immediate student access. Alternatively, a student-purchase option would give instructors the opportunity to make e-textbooks available for students to purchase or rent from within their Blackboard Learn course environment.

Vital Source Technologies, one of Ingram's fastest growing businesses, powers online access and full-book downloads through native apps on computers and leading mobile devices. 3 million students across 6,000 campuses in 200 countries currently leverage the company to access digital content that meets the needs of both upper and lower-level courses from 300 publishers in 17 languages.

McGraw-Hill Education, a division of the McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc., US, has formed a collaboration with ePals Corporation, an education media company and a leading global learning network. The partnership pairs world-class content from McGraw-Hill Networks, McGraw-Hill Education's award-winning digital social studies learning program for Grades 6-12, with ePals' global community and social learning platform. The collaboration will allow teachers and students to connect with peers in more than 200 countries to enjoy the type of authentic, global learning experiences that are required for 21st century education and workplace success.

McGraw-Hill Education's digital learning resources will provide users of ePals and McGraw-Hill Education products with a new source of dynamic educational project- and activity- based learning experiences aligned to McGraw-Hill Education's trusted content. With a strong focus on critical thinking, reading, writing and other academic skill development, these interactive experiences will aid teachers in meeting Common Core as well as other standards. McGraw-Hill Education's resources on ePals will be directed initially toward middle school and high school social studies topics. Additional core curriculum content from McGraw-Hill Education on ePals is planned for the future.

Launched in 2011, McGraw-Hill Networks combines engaging print and digital resources to help students discover and learn essential social studies content. The programme can be personalised and customised for each student to support differentiated instruction, and transforms social studies instruction and learning into an exciting and interactive experience.

McGraw-Hill Education, a division of the McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc., US, has announced the launch of McGraw-Hill SCOREboard, the first AP exam preparation tool built on adaptive technology to help students build the skills and background knowledge they need to succeed on their AP exams. The initiative is part of the company's ongoing efforts to prepare high school students for success in Advanced Placement (AP) courses and exams.

The launch of SCOREboard comes at an important time for U.S. high school students, who are increasingly taking AP courses as a cost-effective, efficient way to earn college credit. More than 950,000 U.S. public high school graduates took at least one AP Exam in 2012.

The latest addition to McGraw-Hill Education's growing array of adaptive and digital learning solutions, SCOREboard uses adaptive technology to adjust to students' individual learning needs, providing students with personalised learning plans that help them master course material as they prepare for their AP exams. SCOREboard, which McGraw-Hill Education developed in conjunction with adaptive technology partner Area9, supports the company's ongoing commitment to college and career readiness, helping to prepare students for the rigors of college-level work before they step foot on campus. Additionally, SCOREboard is designed to support the latest AP standards released by the College Board, including new AP standards for science.

Built using official AP guidelines produced by the College Board, the solution includes a personalised learning plan and comprehensive student and teacher reports. Through adaptive questioning, SCOREboard assesses student understanding and provides detailed, immediate feedback about students' areas of weakness. The personalised learning plan provides each student - after completing a diagnostic test - recommendations on AP topics that the student still needs to master. Four complete, timed practice exams for each course provide practical AP test-taking experience. Like the diagnostic test, these auto-graded exams give immediate feedback and include detailed scoring rubrics.

SCOREboard, part of McGraw-Hill Education's suite of adaptive learning solutions, builds upon the success of such innovative tools as McGraw-Hill LearnSmart, which has already helped more than one million college students improve their grades and was recently made available for high school students. The program can be used in conjunction with McGraw-Hill Education's ONboard Series for Advanced Placement, which is designed to improve students' performance in AP classes by developing the skills they need to succeed before they enter the course.

The program is available to schools via subscription and can also be purchased directly by students and parents at the price of $20.00 per course. Currently available for use on PC and Mac, SCOREboard will be available for iOS devices by Fall 2013.

McGraw-Hill Education has announced the launch of McGraw-Hill Learning Institute. The initiative is a professional development programme created to keep institutions and instructors up-to-date on the latest education technologies and provide guidance in determining which emerging technologies and best practices are right for their needs. As part of the McGraw-Hill Learning Institute launch, McGraw-Hill Education and Magna Publications have also announced a new agreement to jointly develop and offer professional development products and services to educators and institutions.

While education technology promises to help instructors better achieve their teaching and learning goals, technologies are emerging and evolving at a tremendous pace, it has been observed. It is challenging to know which technologies are right for a specific instructor's or institution's needs. The McGraw-Hill Learning Institute brings together faculty and thought leaders in education technology, course development and instructional effectiveness to share strategies, ideas and techniques for implementing instructional technology and research-based approaches to teaching in the college classroom. The Learning Institute designs and hosts faculty development experiences such as teaching and learning symposia, workshops and webinars.

The Learning Institute seeks to offer best practice-based training in areas such as teaching and learning in blended and online learning environments, flipped classrooms, teaching with technology, administration of learning environments, student engagement, course design and redesign and assessments. It can also work with institutions to develop customised curriculum design and professional development resources and online or classroom-based training to specifically meet the needs of their faculty.

Through its Teaching Professor and Online Classroom newsletters to its 20 Minute Mentor programmes to the Magna Commons, an on-demand cloud-based faculty development site, Magna Publications offers institutions a range of products dedicated to proven strategies for creating a better learning environment. As a result of the new partnership with McGraw-Hill Education, Magna Publications' library of resources will be made available through the McGraw-Hill Learning Institute.

McGraw-Hill Education, a division of the McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc., US, has announced that it will make McGraw-Hill LearnSmart, its adaptive study tool, available for students in high school. The aim is to provide teachers and schools with a digital solution that has been proven to increase student engagement and improve learning outcomes.

LearnSmart, originally developed by McGraw-Hill Education with Area9 for the higher education market, will assist schools and teachers in overcoming one of K-12 education's biggest challenges: better preparing students for their current coursework as well as success in college and their future careers.

The tool seeks to personalise learning by using algorithmic technology to continually assess students' knowledge, skill and confidence levels and design targeted study paths based on the resulting data to bolster students' understanding in the areas where they need to improve the most. By allowing students to focus their outside-of-class study time on the topics and concepts that are most challenging to them, LearnSmart has been shown to help students study more efficiently, develop greater proficiency and earn better grades.

According to a study released last year, college students using McGraw-Hill LearnSmart were transformed from C students to B students, and B students into A students. This is stated to be a true testament to the power of adaptive learning technology and LearnSmart's ability to help students study smarter.

LearnSmart's ability to adapt to students' individual learning needs and styles reportedly stems from the vast amount of student data already in the system. Since the launch of the tool into the higher education market in 2009, more than 1 million students have already answered more than 1 billion questions through LearnSmart, giving McGraw-Hill Education a deep understanding of how students learn and perform within an adaptive learning environment.

LearnSmart supports the 'flipped classroom' model of education. Because it is assigned as homework to help students strengthen their knowledge in areas where they demonstrate weakness, it encourages students to come to class better prepared to focus on higher-level learning. By doing so, LearnSmart allows teachers to focus more on leading rich class discussions or facilitating collaborative learning experiences. With direct access to students' LearnSmart progress, teachers can use the results to tailor their lessons accordingly at the class and individual level.

At launch, LearnSmart will be available for Biology, US History, Spanish and a variety of AP & Honors level subjects, with additional courses to be added in the coming months. At the high school level, LearnSmart is available on any computer and accessible via McGraw-Hill Education's ConnectED platform.

Enterprise technology and innovative solutions provider Blackboard Inc., US, has announced that it has been selected by Ibmec, one of the leading teaching and research institutions in Latin America, as a strategic partner in online learning. The institution will now use Blackboard's LMS, mobile learning, Web collaboration and managed hosting solutions at all of its institutions across Brazil.

Ibmec, best known for its prestigious professional master degrees, has partnered with Blackboard, which is primarily represented in Brazil by the Educational Holding Grupo A, to help increase its post-graduation and MBA courses for the next three years and help support their strategy for enrollment expansion.

Blackboard's solutions allow thousands of higher education, K-12, professional, corporate, and government organisations to extend teaching and learning online, facilitate campus commerce and security, and communicate more effectively with their communities. Founded in 1997, Blackboard is headquartered in Washington, D.C., with offices in North America, Europe, Asia and Australia.

Scientific and medical information resources provider McGraw-Hill Professional, US, has announced that it is offering an enhanced purchasing programme for its McGraw-Hill eBook Library, a digital platform delivering access to its premium content (MHeBookLibrary.com). The new purchasing alternative – perpetual access – is designed to give libraries more flexibility in acquiring the company's digital content to meet the growing demands from their patrons for e-books.

The McGraw-Hill eBook Library includes nearly 2,000 titles in collections that are continuously updated with new e-books. Users can access hundreds of thousands of pages of content from authors who are said to be leading authorities in the areas of engineering, computing, medical, business and student study aids.

Academic libraries will be interested in reference works such as Harrison's Manual of Medicine, Fundamentals of Radar Signal Processing and the complete catalogue of course study aides, Schaum's Outlines. Public libraries may expect to find a wealth of titles on careers and business skills, student and career exam study guides and the series of ‘How to Do Everything' books on consumer technology.

Enterprise technology and innovative solutions provider Blackboard Inc., US, and Pearson, a US-based provider of educational content and services, have expanded the availability of an integration for Pearson's learning solution – MyLab & Mastering – with Blackboard Learn learning management system (LMS). Previously available in North America, the integration is now available in most markets worldwide.

The systems integration includes single sign-on, improved workflows and state-of-the-art Web services that enable instructors to find and access MyLab & Mastering within their Blackboard learning system. Faculty can synchronise gradebooks, transfer information and create corresponding links in both systems. Instructors are also able to customise their courses by choosing content and rearranging items in the content area and course navigation bar.

The expansion follows growing international interest in having quick access to Pearson's content and homework assignments, tutorials, gradebook and tools, learning solutions, and analytics directly in Blackboard's learning platforms. The integration, which was made available in North America earlier this year, is already being used by hundreds of institutions.

This joint announcement, made at Online Educa Berlin this week, marks a new level of convenience and simplicity for users. The collaboration is part of the companies' ongoing efforts to make it easier for teachers and students to find, use and share digital content and tools.

Blackboard Learn allows institutions to take advantage of improved stability, greater workflow efficiencies for instructors and administrators and social learning tools. Through open APIs and standards-based interoperability, the Blackboard Learn platform supports a wide range of integrations for content and tools.

Pearson's MyLab & Mastering has changed the way millions of students learn and has supported successful redesign of college courses to effectively use technology to improve achievement and manage costs. Students receive a personalised learning experience, with online tutorials, homework, quizzes and tests that are automatically graded for instant feedback - freeing instructors to spend less time grading and more time working with their students. Demand for the MyLab & Mastering programmes continues to soar across the globe at thousands of higher education institutions. MyLab & Mastering programmes are available for over 80 different discipline offerings representing thousands of distinct titles used by over 10.4 million students.

Enterprise technology and innovative solutions provider Blackboard Inc., US, has announced that Buckinghamshire New University is expanding its use of Blackboard as a strategic partner in online learning. The move is part of the University's plan to create a comprehensive online platform for its students.

The selection of Blackboard as a strategic partner followed an evaluation of commercial and open source learning management systems (LMS). The University determined that an extended partnership with Blackboard for the next five years would best enable it to meet the needs of its changing student demographics. By developing a single online environment for students to access services and learning resources, the University will grow participation among students, many of whom have full and part-time jobs and need a convenient way to access course materials.

Buckinghamshire New University is moving its LMS to the latest version of Blackboard Learn, and expanding its partnership with Blackboard to include web conferencing with Blackboard Collaborate and mobile learning with Blackboard Mobile Learn.

By leveraging Blackboard's technology and services, the University will establish a more dynamic interactive social learning experience. University officials anticipate cost savings with the adoption of web conferencing, which it plans to use in an administrative capacity for everything from admissions to human resources and IT support, as well as for academics with virtual office hours, and recording lectures and seminars.

In order to free up physical resources and increase speed, uptime and reliability of its LMS, the University will move to Blackboard's Managed Hosting service. Shifting the burden of hosting an LMS to Blackboard will allow University staff to focus on embedding excellent pedagogy within its courses.

Enterprise technology and innovative solutions provider Blackboard Inc., US, has announced that Parker University has selected Blackboard Learn to replace its current learning management system (LMS) following a three-month evaluation of four commercial and open source platforms. The selection was driven by the university's need to have an LMS that could support its ongoing growth in programmes and students.

In the evaluation, a committee composed of faculty and administrators rated Blackboard Learn among the highest options for teaching and learning, with the latest version's end-user functionality and the availability of training resources being two of the determining factors.

Recognising the soaring job outlook in healthcare, the long-time chiropractic college recently expanded its academic offerings to complement the chiropractic degree. Parker added an associate's degree in radiologic technology, a bachelor's degree in health information management and an MBA in healthcare management. Along with adding new programmes, Parker University is expanding online course offerings as a means to increase enrollment without straining physical space resources.

Blackboard's ability to host the LMS was cited as another important factor in the evaluation process - Parker University will move to the Blackboard Managed Hosting service in order to free up resources and ensure around the clock monitoring of system uptime. With the burden of hosting an LMS shifted to Blackboard, university staff can focus solely on creating excellent courses on the Blackboard Learn platform.

Parker University will start new online programs on the Blackboard Learn platform in January and will move existing traditional and blended courses to the platform next summer. The LMS will also be used to provide supplemental material for continuing education courses.

UK researchers' and educators' demands for high performance computing are now reportedly secured until at least 2022, thanks to an initial £30 million e-infrastructure investment from the UK Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) and the higher and further education funding councils.

The investment will build Janet6, the next generation of the UK's national research and education network, adding value across the sector from high-end research to universities, colleges and schools. It will also enable research to stay competitive on both a national and international level, and support the £60 billion contribution that higher education brings to the UK economy.

Research shows that as institutions use innovative methods to deliver digital resources to their students, so their use of different devices over the network grows. The pattern of data across Janet shows that data usage doubles every 18 months and this is unlikely to change.

However, in addition to this normal usage increase, there will also be a 'data deluge' from data intensive research, which means that future network demands are set to increase. The high capacity network means that research in biomedical sciences, climate science and genomics can continue at current rates, even with the need for the transfer of large data sets, as well as high performance computing, that are needed for research and analysis in these subject areas.

A seamless transition to the new network, and a proactive approach to network provision where it is needed, means that most customers should not see any disruption in service. The new network will reportedly continue to provide unseen yet essential support to the work of researchers and educators, enabling them to communicate easily and share large data sets across international boundaries.

Service provider SSE Telecoms has been awarded the contract to provide the fibre for the Janet infrastructure in the largest UK deployment of its kind, this year. The Janet6 infrastructure will be based on Ciena's platform, which will enable the network to easily scale from 100G to 400G and beyond as requirements change over time. Janet6 will be fully operational by October 2013.

Janet6 has been developed in the context of the Government's Public Services Network (PSN) programme, and as Janet6 unfolds, the Janet team will continue to work closely with the PSN programme to ensure maximum efficiency in public-sector ICT spend.

The Janet6 programme is aligned with, and co-funded by, the BIS e-infrastructure initiative. BIS investment in both the core Janet network and in extending Janet means that it can better serve additional data intensive research disciplines.

Healthcare publisher Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, part of Wolters Kluwer Health, US, has announced that it has completed several updates to Lippincott's Professional Development Programs, a series of online continuing education solutions for nurses in hospitals and other health institutions. Two new categories of e-courses are now available including pediatrics and hospital-acquired diseases. In addition, five new nursing competency evaluations have been incorporated into the programme.

Lippincott's Professional Development Programs consist of evidence-based online courses organised into programmes by key nursing specialties and topic areas. Each course is developed and designed to optimise nurses' clinical performance. In addition, nurses can improve their management and leadership skills with goals that include continuous improvement of patient outcomes and ongoing evaluation of nursing competence. Most programmes consist of e-courses, which include case studies and/or tutorial modules delivered in easy-to-learn, interactive formats. Competency evaluations assess a nurse's ability to think critically and analyse clinical situations.

The new Hospital-Acquired Conditions programme consists of six new courses each addressing a single hospital-acquired condition. Also new is the Pediatric Nursing programme, which has a total of 13 courses addressing pediatric diseases and conditions. Several existing e-courses also were reviewed and, as appropriate, updated to meet new guidelines including the 12-Lead ECG, ECG Rhythm Strip program, and the Preventing Ventilator-Assisted Pneumonia (VAP) course.

In addition to new courses, five new competency evaluation modules were added which expand the program's evaluation component to include seven programmes and a total of 17 modules. These programmes evaluate the knowledge, critical thinking and analytical ability of nursing staff. Designed for healthcare institutions, these evaluations assess nurses' competency levels by providing online case study assessments that require knowledge of the latest evidence-based rationales.

Competency evaluation module test questions have been updated to utilise embedded audio including heart sounds and breath sounds to provide a more complex and interactive testing environment. The programmes and accompanying test exercises help build confidence as competency, skills and performance improve. Pre-test and post-test embedded self-assessments, images, charts and video clips add realism and improve information retention.

The upgraded Lippincott's Professional Development Programs are available immediately by subscription to hospitals and other healthcare facilities.

McGraw-Hill Education, a division of The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc., US, has announced the appointment of Stephen Laster as the company's chief digital officer. Laster will lead the company's digital initiatives, including creating compelling digital learning experiences for students and inspiring creative innovation across all aspects of the organisation.

The appointment of Laster is the latest representation of McGraw-Hill Education's transformation from a provider of print-based education materials to a developer of digitally-based products and services.

Laster joins the company from Harvard Business School, where he served as chief information officer since 2006. In that position, he transformed the school's technology organisation and delivered critical new systems and services, while establishing the school's first educational technology group focused on digital learning product development.

Laster will report to Lloyd G. "Buzz" Waterhouse, McGraw-Hill Education's president and chief executive officer, as the process continues to establish McGraw-Hill Education as an independent, digital learning and education services company later this year.

McGraw-Hill Education, a division of The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc., US, has announced an exclusive licensing agreement with educational innovator Time To Know to develop an all-digital, data-driven differentiated teaching and learning platform for one-to-one computing classrooms. This partnership will combine McGraw-Hill Education's proven content and educational services with Time To Know's unique digital teaching platform to create an engaging, purely digital personalised educational environment for each student while keeping the teacher at the center of the classroom.

By partnering with McGraw-Hill Education, Time To Know – whose platform has been shown to increase students' academic achievement and standardised test scores in pilots in Grand Prairie, Texas and New York City – will expand its presence and reach in the US.

Time To Know transforms the classroom by leveraging technology to empower teachers with the digital content and tools that they need to be effective and successful in improving student performance. Time To Know gives teachers access to comprehensive core content that progresses through a research-based learning cycle of teacher-led exploration, student experimentation, and class discussion followed by differentiated and guided practice and application for each student. At the core of the online program is a virtual 'dashboard' that gives teachers a real-time view of each student's progress on assignments. This information enables teachers to differentiate instruction as soon as they need to and reach struggling students through personal intervention and digital resources before they fall behind.

Time To Know also uses technology to engage students through animations, hands-on exploration of key concepts through widgets and applets, and personalised practice and periodic assessment that leads to mastery. This unique type of instruction fosters engagement and active student involvement, which leads to deeper conceptual understanding of the material, and supports the Common Core State Standards' goal of developing critical, high-order thinking in students.

McGraw-Hill Education's Time To Know solution will be introduced for Grades 4-5 math and English Language Arts classes this fall. McGraw-Hill Education and Time To Know plan to expand their partnership to include Grades 6-8 math in the next year. All programmes will be fully aligned to the Common Core State Standards. Team members from McGraw-Hill Education and Time To Know will work collaboratively on product development, sales and customer support activities.

In order to ensure that educators make a successful transformation in their classroom, Time To Know and McGraw-Hill Education will provide substantial professional development resources through instructional coaches that will conduct in-class observations and training sessions in order to increase teacher effectiveness and transform the classroom.

McGraw-Hill Education, a division of The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc., US, has announced the acquisition of Key Curriculum, a privately held developer of mathematics learning technology in the K-12 and higher education markets. The terms of the acquisition were not disclosed.

The acquisition of Key Curriculum is projected to strengthen McGraw-Hill Education's position as a leader in dynamic mathematics education technology at a time when the US market for digital STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) education technologies is increasing substantially.

Key Curriculum's solutions – which are developed by mathematics educators – seek to engage students and promote the deeper understanding of course material that is a primary focus of the Common Core State Standards. Sketchpad, Key Curriculum's signature product, enables students to learn math in a hands-on manner by allowing them to visualise, explore and experience the abstractions of math, from basic numbers to calculus.

Several of Key Curriculum's other solutions focus on data analysis: Fathom deepens students' data analysis skills and understanding of statistics, and TinkerPlots helps build students' understanding of data by transforming data into clear representations.

McGraw-Hill Education will continue to sell Key Curriculum products as standalone solutions, regardless of the curriculum adopted by the institution. Customers using McGraw-Hill Education's math programmes can expect deeper integration between these products and Key Curriculum solutions in the future.

Healthcare publisher Lippincott Williams & Wilkins (LWW), part of Wolters Kluwer Health, US, has launched Lippincott's DocuCare EHR, an educational electronic health record (EHR) programme. The tool helps nursing students learn how to electronically chart patient care, and prepares future nurses to meet expanding industry requirements for proficiency in health information technology and patient documentation.

Originally developed by nursing educators at the University of Tennessee - Knoxville, Lippincott's DocuCare EHR has been expanded and customised based on the input of hundreds of nursing instructors and students. This completely web-based learning tool is supported by Lippincott Williams & Wilkins (LWW) extensive collection of healthcare content and resources, providing valuable links to patient simulation and other point-of-care teaching tools.

Lippincott's DocuCare EHR includes over 70 pre-populated simulated patient records and cases. Each case includes relevant links to Lippincott's Nursing Advisor and Lippincott's Nursing Procedures and Skills, giving students access to diagnosis information, drug monographs, skills & procedures descriptions and videos, and other evidence-based, up-to-date content that is used in over 1,200 hospitals nationwide.

Instructors can bring classroom case studies to life by creating simulated patient records, building assignments, and evaluating student documentation performance. The programme is designed to better prepare students for practice, in a fully realistic, yet risk-free, simulated environment. LWW will provide faculty with specific training on how to use this new tool and integrate it into their curriculum.

As part of an ongoing partnership with healthcare solutions provider Laerdal Medical, Lippincott's DocuCare EHR also aligns with many of Laerdal's suite of simulation solutions. Students working with these Laerdal patient scenarios can record patient information directly into the DocuCare electronic health record.

Enterprise technology and innovative solutions provider Blackboard Inc, US, has announced that it has been selected by the Saudi Electronic University (SeU), the first government e-university in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, as a strategic partner to support their eLearning requirements. The announcement was made by Blackboard and its local partner, BME Holding S.A.L. (BME).

Following a formal and extensive evaluation process, which included functional assessment and review of vendors, SeU concluded that Blackboard Learn, Blackboard's flagship learning management system (LMS), is the most flexible and effective learning platform to meet their needs.

SeU found Blackboard solutions to offer advanced functionality and significantly enhanced collaborative learning opportunities compared to competing vendors. Executives at SeU determined that Blackboard solutions would be easier to implement and manage than the alternatives based on the company’s strong and proven product support and well-organised, global user community.

The Ministry of Higher Education (MOHE) in Saudi Arabia recognises that distance learning is critical to the future success of Saudi education expansion and quality. With the creation of SeU, the MOHE will work with the existing Saudi universities to centralise distance learning study programmes into a single organisation. SeU has a target to enroll 6,000 students for its initial launch phase.

SeU will leverage the Blackboard Mobile Learn solution to give students and faculty access to their course experience on mobile devices. Blackboard Collaborate, the online Web conferencing and collaboration platform will give students and faculty more opportunities to interact virtually, and the Blackboard Connect platform will increase the effectiveness for alert notifications and community outreach.

Consultants from Blackboard joined leaders from SeU for a five-day, on-site workshop to review the short-term implementation plan of Blackboard solutions, align efforts with the university's Strategic Plan and coordinate timing to make the solutions available to students in early September.

Gale, part of Cengage Learning and publisher of research and reference resources for libraries, schools and businesses, has announced Business Insights: Essentials, a new resource for research on business, companies and industries built on the same intuitive platform as the recently-announced Business Insights: Global. The new resource will replace Gale’s long-standing Business and Company Resource Center database.

Business Insights: Essentials contains all of the content and functionality found in Business and Company Resource Center. However, the information is now organised on a more intuitive, user-friendly platform. With this new resource, librarians can more effectively help faculty, students and patrons investigate investment opportunities; research businesses and find parent-subsidiary relationships; explore market and industry information, SWOT reports, investment reports and business associations; instantly analyse and compare financial and statistical data with interactive charting tools; study product and brand information; compare companies within an industry; and target new customers and inform on potential business opportunities, distribution channels and licensing opportunities.

Some of the new tools and features that can be found in Business Insights: Essentials include a robust business glossary of thousands of business terms culled from Gale encyclopaedias and Cengage Learning textbooks, Readspeaker (text-to-speech functionality), translation tools for the user interface and article-level translations, citation tools, and interactive charting with the ability to manipulate statistical data and customise charts.

Current Business and Company Resource Center customers can migrate to Business Insights: Essentials at no additional charge.

Enterprise technology and innovative solutions provider Blackboard Inc, US, and Learning.com has announced a partnership to help teachers create high quality online courses more quickly and easily with an integration that would make Learning.com's vast catalogue of rich K-12 content and tools available directly in the Blackboard Learn learning management system (LMS).

The integration, which is currently being piloted by a number of K-12 institutions and will be generally available soon, lets teachers and administrators find, use and manage more than 200,000 digital learning resources from the Learning.com catalogue seamlessly in the course platform, rather than having to move between systems. The Learning.com catalogue includes both free and fee-based resources from leading education publishers and individual educators that are aligned to academic standards.

With access to the rich collection of material from Learning.com - including curriculum and textbook content, multimedia, assignments, quizzes and more - teachers can design a more engaging and intuitive learning experience.

The Learning.com catalogue includes a growing collection of content from premier providers like USA Today, NASA, the Smithsonian, Waterford Institute, Adaptive Curriculum, and over 10,000 learning objects created and peer-reviewed by educators. Available content covers critical educational areas including language arts, library media, math, science, technology and professional development for teachers. All of the content can be searched by subject, grade level, academic standard, and keyword.

The partnership is part of Blackboard's ongoing effort to make it easier for teachers and students to find, use and share digital content and tools. The Blackboard Learn platform supports a wide range of integrations for content from leading educational publishers and content providers.

McGraw-Hill Education, a US-based content, software and services-based education company, is showcasing a number of new digital learning solutions at the International Society of Technology in Education's (ISTE) annual conference. The solutions are projected to facilitate personalised learning, promote college and career readiness, address assessments in the digital age and help schools meet pressing challenges, such as the transition to the new Common Core State Standards. Programs on display at McGraw-Hill School Education's booth (#4013) include CINCH Learning, ONboard Series for Advanced Placement and Reading Labs 2.0.

CTB/McGraw-Hill, an educational assessment partner, will be highlighting many digital solutions at booth #3913. These include the BrainPOP/AcuityIntegration and TerraNovaCommon Core, Form 2.

McGraw-Hill Education will offer product demonstrations, workshops and presentations by a variety of experts and authors. Conference attendees who visit both booths to experience programs on display will have an opportunity to enter a drawing to win an iPad. Additionally, CINCH Learning will be featured in the Intel Emerging Technology Hands-On Lab (Room 23C), "Sneak Peak @ the Future." Through this exhibition, Intel is inviting conference attendees to engage with some of the newest education technologies and participate in a treasure-hunt style experience for a chance to win an Intel Ultrabook. Attendees can register at http://www.tinyurl.com/IntelISTE.

Education materials publisher McGraw-Hill Education, US, and Western Governors University (WGU) have announced an agreement to establish a ‘pay-for-performance’ model in which McGraw-Hill will receive variable compensation for those WGU students who use MHE technology and services for a particular course and pass.

Through the partnership, McGraw-Hill Education will provide e-books and access to industry-leading adaptive learning tools including McGraw-Hill LearnSmart to Western Governors University's (WGU) online courses. Under this new pricing structure, the university will pay a significantly discounted flat fee for McGraw-Hill's course materials.

In addition, WGU will pay McGraw-Hill a premium for each student who uses the materials and passes the course (a passing grade at WGU is equivalent to a letter grade of "B" or better). Through this new pay-for-performance model, universities and learning companies share in the accountability for student success and students gain access to premium educational materials while keeping costs low.

The new business model supports WGU's philosophy of providing a mentor-guided, competency-based education that allows students to advance when they demonstrate mastery of all course competencies rather than accumulating credit hours by spending time in class. For each degree program, required knowledge and skills, called competencies, are defined in collaboration with education and industry experts, and assessments are developed to measure these competencies. WGU has drawn national attention for this innovative, competency-based approach to learning, which offers affordable, high quality education.

McGraw-Hill Higher Education, a unit of McGraw-Hill Education, US, has announced an expansion of its content and course integration service, McGraw-Hill Campus, through a strategic partnership with Instructure. The partnership will enable a deeper integration of McGraw-Hill Campus within Canvas across the country, making it even easier for instructors and students to access the comprehensive digital resources provided through McGraw-Hill Campus.

McGraw-Hill Campus, which launched in July 2011, grants faculty and students universal access to McGraw-Hill's world-class course solutions and online resources from within their college's existing LMS – whether or not they use a McGraw-Hill title. The service is available at no additional cost to the institution. McGraw-Hill Campus provides users with single sign-on access to all of McGraw-Hill Education's digital content from any LMS, streamlining and simplifying the user experience.

With one click, instructors and students can instantly browse, search and access the entire library of McGraw-Hill instructional resources and services including e-books, test banks, PowerPoint slides, animations and learning objects. Faculty can discover new resources to prepare for class, create tests/quizzes, develop lecture material and integrate interactive content.

For current McGraw-Hill customers, McGraw-Hill Campus also integrates with the company's other leading digital solutions, including McGraw-Hill Connect (all-digital teaching and learning platform), McGraw-Hill Create (state-of-the-art custom-publishing platform), McGraw-Hill LearnSmart (online adaptive study tool), Tegrity (a fully searchable lecture capture service), ALEKS (adaptive assessment and learning tool) and eventually SimNet (interactive, simulation-based software).

McGraw-Hill Campus also eliminates the need to register and log in with multiple services and websites – the No. 1 reason why professors and students reach out for technical support, according to McGraw-Hill's extensive field research. By reducing technical issues for students, faculty and IT administrators, McGraw-Hill is reducing the amount of time that schools and instructors spend dealing with IT problems, allowing them to focus on what matters most – teaching and learning – and enabling students to succeed by eliminating obstacles to accessing engaging digital learning.

Information services provider The McGraw-Hill Companies, US, has announced further steps to establish the new, independent company, McGraw-Hill Education, by the end of this year. The process of creating this new entity requires multiple changes across operating and support functions to both separate the education segment from The McGraw-Hill Companies and to stand up McGraw-Hill Education as an independent, digital learning and education services organisation. These moves will also facilitate the process of onboarding a new Chief Executive Officer of McGraw-Hill Education as the search enters its final phase.

To continue the process of building a world-class team to lead the new education company, the Corporation has announced the appointment of Patrick Milano, currently Executive Vice President and Director of the Program Management Office of the Corporation's Growth and Value Plan, to the new position of Chief Financial Officer and Chief Administrative Officer of McGraw-Hill Education. In his new role, Milano will be responsible for Finance, Manufacturing, Distribution and IT, reporting to Jack Callahan, Chief Financial Officer of The McGraw-Hill Companies, until the new Chief Executive Officer of McGraw-Hill Education is appointed. Joe Micallef, currently Senior Vice President, Finance and Operations, will work closely with Milano on standing up McGraw-Hill Education before retiring following a very successful career at the company.

Concurrent with these moves, Robert Bahash, the President of McGraw-Hill Education, will retire after 37 years of service with The McGraw-Hill Companies. David Stafford, currently Vice President and Associate General Counsel of The McGraw-Hill Companies, will become General Counsel of McGraw-Hill Education and will also play a key role building a public company legal team and preparing for the spin-off.

Maryellen Valaitis, currently Head of Human Resources in the education segment, will become Vice President of Human Resources of the new company, thus providing important continuity in ensuring McGraw-Hill Education has the best possible talent in the education sector. Vineet Madan, currently Senior Vice President of Strategic Services, will continue to lead strategic planning as McGraw-Hill Education enhances its leadership of digital and personal learning innovation. Bruce Marcus, currently Chief Digital and Information Officer of McGraw-Hill Education, will continue to lead the IT team and the higher education digital product development unit.

The business unit management team of McGraw-Hill Education will be led by: Brian Kibby, President, Higher Education; Dan Caton, President, School Education Group; Philip Ruppel, President, Professional; Ellen Haley, President, CTB/McGraw-Hill; and Talia Griep, President, International. All will report to Harold McGraw III, Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer of The McGraw-Hill Companies, until the new Chief Executive Officer of McGraw-Hill Education is appointed.

These moves underscore the progress already announced regarding the Growth and Value Plan, including the ruling received from the Internal Revenue Service agreeing to the tax-free status for the spin-off of McGraw-Hill Education, and the ongoing preparations to file the Form 10.

Education materials publisher McGraw-Hill Education, US, has a new partnership with the University of Minnesota Bookstores. The partnership allows the company to provide e-books to large numbers of students at reduced prices, helping to make college more affordable and improve student performance.

Through this two-year partnership, McGraw-Hill Education will provide its complete catalogue of e-books and adaptive learning products to University of Minnesota students at a significantly discounted rate. In this new business model, the bookstore – which has access to enrolment information and the course materials assigned for each course at the university – will identify the digital materials each instructor requires for their classes and then directly bill students' bursar accounts for those materials. The end result is that students will see significant savings and will have automatic and immediate digital access to their course content through their college's learning management system on any browser-enabled device.

The University of Minnesota, which enrolls nearly 65,000 students, participated in an earlier e-book pilot programme with McGraw-Hill Education, Internet2 and Courseload that was also designed to make e-books more affordable and accessible. This new partnership strengthens McGraw-Hill Education's relationship with the university as well as the University of Minnesota Bookstores, which provides significant value in its ability to interface seamlessly with university administration, faculty and students.

At the University of Minnesota, McGraw-Hill's e-books can interface with an entire suite of the company's online learning platforms, including McGraw-Hill Connect (all-digital teaching and learning platform), McGraw-Hill LearnSmart (online super adaptive study tool) and Tegrity (a fully searchable lecture capture service). LearnSmart, which has been used by nearly 1 million students since its launch, has been shown to improve students' course performance by one full letter grade.

The new e-book program will begin in the fall 2012 semester.

Cengage Learning, a US-based provider of teaching, learning and research solutions, and Blackboard Inc. have announced the availability of an integrated solution that gives instructors and students streamlined access to Cengage Learning’s rich digital learning solutions and core curriculum content directly through the Blackboard Learn learning management system.

The integration allows for single sign-on, embedded activity links and grade book synchronization for Cengage Learning’s MindTap platform, as well as single-sign on and placement of embedded links at the activity level for CourseMate.

The integration is made possible through Cengage Learning's standards-based, Web-services architecture – MindLinks – and the Blackboard Building Blocks programme which leverages the open APIs of the Blackboard Learn platform. For all CourseMate titles, the integration includes the ability to directly link within Blackboard Learn to individual assets, including student activities and the eBook.

Blackboard is part of the Cengage Learning MindShare Alliance Partner Program and Cengage Learning is a Blackboard Strategic Partner in the Blackboard Partnerships Program.

Cengage Learning, a US-based provider of teaching, learning and research solutions, has announced that it is working with NorthWest Arkansas Community College (NWACC) to develop a series of workforce development courses for professionals in the Bentonville, Arkansas area.

The courses being developed are a part of the $2.15 million ‘Acceleration, Resources, Knowledge’ (ARK) Grant, which was awarded to the region based on a proposal that was submitted to the Obama Administration’s Innovation Accelerator Challenge. The challenge, which was launched last May to support the advancement of 20 high-growth regional industry clusters, awarded grants to the regions who outlined superior proposed projects and best identified the economic strengths of their areas. As one of the winning regions, the ARK Grant will provide innovation, training and professional development to companies and professionals residing in Northwestern Arkansas, Eastern Oklahoma and Southern Missouri.

The grant allows for the creation of courses that will benefit both the local community and its workforce. In-person and online classes will be hosted by NWACC to train professionals on new technologies, software and other topics of interest to today’s workers. Among those to be offered, the first courses to be rolled out from this new partnership include Mobile Applications Programming and Microsoft Office.

Teaching, learning and research solutions provider Cengage Learning, US, has announced a new programme to recognise partner companies that add unique capabilities to Cengage Learning’s products and services for the benefit of customers. The MindShare Alliance Partner Program is launching with more than twenty participating companies.

Cengage Learning seeks to deliver the most integrated experience for faculty and students across the breadth of its product portfolio. As an extension of the Cengage Learning team, partners help create value for customers by adding essential components to the teaching and learning experience. Complementary, and often integrated, products and services allow customers to leverage the many assets and enterprise solutions already deployed on campuses today. Cengage Learning will continue to expand partner relationships to maximise customer value.

The MindShare Alliance benefits these important partner companies by streamlining development, driving awareness of their capabilities, and fostering innovation. Additionally, the MindShare Alliance provides other added benefits to partners including engagement with the Cengage Learning sales organisation, direct involvement in product development, opportunities to attend key conferences, marketing opportunities, connections with customers and the ability to reach up to 20 million faculty and students.

Enterprise technology and innovative solutions provider Blackboard Inc, US, has announced a partnership with Harper College to provide information and mobile access to campus services with the ultimate goal of increasing graduation rates. Harper has adopted Blackboard Mobile Central as part of its long-term strategy to enhance engagement and help students ‘finish what they started’ and produce more college graduates.

President Barack Obama recently challenged community colleges to produce an additional five million graduates by 2020 in an effort to increase US global competitiveness. Harper College found its unique, proportional share of this goal is an additional 10,604 graduates. In an aggressive effort to meet this goal, the college is undergoing several initiatives that will aim to increase student involvement and increase their likelihood of graduation. As part of this effort, the college deployed Blackboard Mobile Central to increase engagement and access to the campus community.

The Harper College app, which is accessed over 1,000 times a day, contains a suite of features within a single app including the campus directory, event calendars, news and information, maps, and more. Harper recently deployed new functionality including a ‘Construction’ feature that provides information and updates on the $250 million campus expansion project currently underway, and access to the ‘My Harper’ suite that connects to the student information system, course schedules and course catalogue.

Blackboard Mobile Central is used at nearly 250 education institutions worldwide and is available in native applications for Android; BlackBerry; iOS for the iPhone and iPod touch; Palm webOS, and on all Web-enabled devices. When enabled by their institution, users can download both mobile apps, at no cost, directly to their device from their respective app stores.

Officials from the US Department of Education (DoE) and the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) recently brought together leaders from the digital education industry to formulate a unified strategy for moving the nation’s K-12 classrooms into the digital age.

Among the education and technology industry leaders to take part in the Digital Textbooks Initiative Meeting was Dan Caton, president of McGraw-Hill School Education. According to Caton, McGraw-Hill School Education is working with the entire education community – from teachers and administrators, to partner companies like Apple, Intel and Inkling, to parents and students – to develop the technology that engages and immerses students in their education, while preparing them for success in college, career and beyond.

Led by FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski and US Secretary of Education Arne Duncan, the FCC and DoE Digital Textbooks Initiative Meeting is part of an ongoing initiative to spur national adoption of digital textbooks within the next five years. The working meeting addressed a wide spectrum of digital learning topics, including affordability, content, connectivity, device specifics, state policies and transition strategies.

Enterprise technology and innovative solutions provider Blackboard Inc, US, has announced the launch of Blackboard Education Open Source Services, a new effort to support clients using open source education technologies. With the announcement, the company will continue to focus on its flagship Blackboard Learn platform as well as ANGEL and Edline, while also helping institutions successfully manage open source learning management systems (LMS) including Moodle and Sakai.

The move complements Blackboard’s existing focus on supporting the entire education experience with products and services for learning management as well as mobility, real time collaboration, analytics, campus services and notification, and other needs.

Blackboard already serves hundreds of institutions that use Moodle, Sakai and other LMS systems in tandem with these additional education-focused solutions. In extending its focus to include open source options, Blackboard can support a wider variety of approaches to online learning and help institutions increase the value they get from technology of all kinds.

Blackboard Education Open Source Services will be guided by teams from two leading providers of services to institutions using Moodle - Moodlerooms and NetSpot. Each of the companies has been acquired by Blackboard but will operate independently to support their clients. Blackboard also announced the addition of Charles Severance, founding Chief Architect of the Sakai Project and current Sakai Foundation board member, to guide the company’s efforts to support clients using Sakai.

Senior leaders from Blackboard, Moodlerooms and NetSpot signed a Statement of Principles affirming that their work would continue a number of key initiatives currently supported by Moodlerooms and NetSpot, including contributions of software code to the open source community, financial support for the Moodle Trust, and continued support for community gatherings like Moodlemoots.

The announcement follows a series of steps Blackboard has taken to promote greater openness in education. The company has increased the openness of its own systems and policies and has been an active leader in supporting open standards through the IMS Global Learning Consortium.

Enterprise technology and innovative solutions provider Blackboard Inc, US, and the American Council on Education (ACE) have announced a renewed partnership and a $700,000 in-kind gift from Blackboard to support the ACE Fellows Program, which prepares senior leaders to serve colleges and universities nationwide.

Through this gift, Blackboard makes its learning management, Web conferencing and mobile learning solutions available to the ACE Fellows Program. The technology will enable greater communication between ACE Fellows and program instructors, enable collaboration with higher education leaders around the world, and provide a central location for program logistics, assignments, resources and online discussions.

The ACE Fellows Program, established in 1965, is designed to strengthen institutions and leadership in American higher education by identifying and preparing emerging campus leaders for responsible positions in college and university administration. Blackboard and ACE first partnered to support the programme in 2003.

Projects In Knowledge (PIK), a provider of cutting-edge educational programmes for physicians and other clinicians, has launched its latest free app for iPhone and iPad: Living Medical eTextbook: Non-Small-Cell Lung Cancer Edition. This point-of-care clinical tool enables oncologists and other clinicians to keep abreast of critical disease and treatment information and practical patient management strategies.

Non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC) is reportedly one of the most serious and common malignancies in the US. Scientific advances and ongoing research are creating a steady stream of improved strategies for diagnosis, staging, and treatment. With the NSCLC app, clinicians can tap into these developments and gain immediate access to updatable, peer-reviewed information on the latest clinical trial results, expert insights from top specialists, and smart links to external supplemental materials, such as journal articles, illustrations, and videos.

The app focuses on lung cancer screening, staging, histology, and biomarkers; new roles for chemotherapy; approved targeted agents; and emerging treatments. Making its debut in the NSCLC app is a newly developed search feature, which locates a specific word or phrase contained anywhere in the entire eTextbook. The app also offers complimentary continuing medical education (CME/CE) credit.

Healthcare information provider Wolters Kluwer Health (WK Health), US, has partnered with HealthStream, a provider of learning and research solutions for the healthcare industry. Under the deal, WK Health will offer the Lippincott’s Professional Development Programs product suite to HealthStream’s customer base of healthcare organisations. The partnership was announced at HealthStream’s Customer Summit, March 6 – 9, 2012, which is being held at the Gaylord Opryland Hotel & Resort in Nashville.

Lippincott’s Professional Development Programs are projected as evidence-based, interactive learning tools that are designed to help clinical nurses improve nurse competency and meet compliance standards. Each programme contains a series of online courses, case studies, competency evaluations, and/or tutorials delivered in an interactive format.

The 21 educational and training programmes included in Lippincott’s Professional Development Programs will be offered through the HealthStream Learning Center, HealthStream’s learning platform. Lippincott’s Nursing Procedures and Skills and Lippincott’s Nursing Advisor are already offered by HealthStream to its customer base of approximately half of the acute-care hospitals in the US. With this latest agreement, HealthStream customers can utilise all of Lippincott’s Nursing Solutions - a point-of-care nursing workflow product suite - to optimise nursing performance, increase clinical knowledge, ensure staff competence, and improve patient outcomes.

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Enterprise technology and innovative solutions provider Blackboard Inc, US, and Datatel+SGHE have announced a strategic partnership to integrate Colleague with Blackboard Learn 9.1 through Datatel+SGHE’s Intelligent Learning Platform (ILP). The planned integration will make it easier for institutions to manage information from their administrative and academic systems to improve the overall learning experience.

The partnership extends Datatel+SGHE’s vision for the Open Digital Campus to give clients more power to choose the technologies, delivery models, and solutions that fit their unique needs, and Blackboard’s work to establish a more open, interoperable platform that includes full support for the IMS Learning Information services (LIS) standard. The companies also currently offer a standards-based integration for the Blackboard Learn platform and the Banner administrative system.

The planned integration would help to create significant time and cost savings and greater ease of use for clients. Bringing together information from administrative and academic systems makes it easier for them to access data, manage information across campus systems and connect with constituents to improve the overall education experience.

The planned integration leverages the ILP to unify essential teaching and learning functions such as grades, collaboration, and course management. Datatel+SGHE surveys show that institutions that have leveraged ILP to integrate Colleague with their learning management system (LMS) have experienced increases in LMS adoption among their users by up to 48 percent, while eliminating time spent on administrative tasks by up to 33 percent and saving faculty hundreds of hours on grading and administration.

Teaching, learning and research solutions provider Cengage Learning, US, has announced an agreement with California State University (CSU) to provide discounted eTextbooks to students as part of the Affordable Learning Solutions campaign. One of the largest digital resources contracts signed by a university system, this three-year contract will allow more than 400,000 students on 23 campuses to access Cengage Learning eTextbooks at a substantial cost savings.

The Affordable Learning Solutions campaign is part of a CSU initiative to help control the cost of education for students. Cengage Learning was selected as a partner by CSU following an extensive request for proposals process. Beyond just a select number of campuses and courses, Cengage Learning will be providing eTextbooks for all academic disciplines and departments.

Cengage Learning eTextbooks can be purchased by CSU students through their campus bookstore and CengageBrain.com. The eTextbooks are device and Learning Management System (LMS) agnostic, can be accessed online or offline, and include interactive capabilities such as note-taking and highlighting.

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US-based Education to Go (ed2go) and iLearn, Inc. have formed a strategic partnership to help young adults and non-traditional students prepare for college level math utilising a technology-driven learning platform. iLearn’s programme will be offered as an online solution under the brand name ReadyMATH within ed2go’s global network of post-secondary partners, providing access to millions of adult learners who need help preparing for college level math.

ed2go, part of Cengage Learning, is a provider of turnkey online training and education solutions serving the adult education, career and corporate training markets. iLearn is a provider of technology to help schools improve student achievement in math.

Knowledge gaps in math exist for the majority of students preparing for college. ReadyMATH seeks to make it much easier to learn math by precisely identifying and addressing these knowledge gaps through the use of a comprehensive approach. Technology automates the delivery of modular assessment and dynamically generated custom-tailored curriculum along with integrated practice and the ongoing validation of mastery attainment. Real-time tracking and reporting tools containing visual progress charts and detailed information for each student can be used by instructors to see precisely how the student is progressing and intervene if necessary – maximizing retention and student success. By design, this methodology targets and condenses the required instruction to exactly what’s needed for each student – no more, no less – enhancing and accelerating the learning process.

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Teaching, learning and research solutions provider Cengage Learning, US, and enterprise teaching and learning platforms provider Desire2Learn Inc. (Desire2Learn) have announced the immediate availability of the integration of Cengage's digital content and solutions with Desire2Learn Learning Suite.

The relationship leverages the power of Cengage Learning's MindLinks and Desire2Learn Learning Suite integration to deliver improved ease-of-use for students, instructors and administrators. Full integration via MindLinks is available now for users of Cengage Learning digital solutions including Aplia, CourseMate, CengageNow, and MindTap, which includes single sign-on and seamless links to content via Desire2Learn Learning Environment.

Cengage Learning and Desire2Learn are working with customers participating in an Early Adopter Program in order to help define additional requirements around integration, enhanced grade linking and content customisation. The Program commences in January 2012 for testing during the Spring term.

MindLinks is a new service provided by Cengage Learning to allow for deeper integration of the company's digital suite into an institution's existing Learning Management System. The service works by using portable links that allow two-way communication between a Learning Management System (LMS) and a Cengage digital product.

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Teaching, learning and research solutions provider Cengage Learning, US, has announced the international advisory board for Nineteenth Century Collections Online, a new global digitisation and publishing programme that brings together rare nineteenth century primary source content from around the world.

The archive will include content from the ‘long’ nineteenth century (1789-1914) – monographs, newspapers, pamphlets, manuscripts, photographs, ephemera, maps and statistics – much of which is being digitised for the first time. The advisory board, which consists of leading international scholars and bibliographers of nineteenth century studies, will help select content for inclusion in the digital archive.

Gale, part of Cengage Learning, has done extensive market research to help inform the selection, curation, and organisation of Nineteenth Century Collections Online to ensure it reflects the needs of nineteenth century scholars and researchers. Overall, Gale has received feedback from more than 800 scholars and academic librarians, targeted for their nineteenth century research activities or their involvement with scholarly nineteenth century associations.

The advisory board for Nineteenth Century Collections Online will work to ensure the programme fulfills the needs of students, professors and researchers, and provides an in-depth, global view of the nineteenth century.

Nineteenth Century Collections Online is currently in development with the first modules expected to be available in spring 2012.

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Education materials publisher McGraw-Hill Education, US, is showcasing a range of new digital programmes and services at the ongoing 2011 EDUCAUSE Annual Conference in Philadelphia. McGraw-Hill's digital solutions seek to offer higher education institutions the tools and support they need to create a personalised, on-demand learning environment that drives achievement across the board, for institutions, instructors and students.

At the conference, McGraw-Hill Higher Education will unveil a new suite of mobile apps for Connect, the company's web-based course management platform. The mobile apps, which were developed based on extensive field research on how students study, use adaptive learning technologies to guide students through review exercises based on their knowledge gaps and the amount of time they have available to study. Through these mobile capabilities and McGraw-Hill Campus, a platform that allows single sign-on to Connect through any course management platform, McGraw-Hill is setting the standard for access, making educational content available anywhere, anytime, on any device.

McGraw-Hill Campus, a recently launched service, allows schools single sign-on access to McGraw-Hill's digital programmes through any existing learning management system at no additional cost. This service, featured at the EDUCAUSE conference, provides instructors with access to one cohesive system. This is seen to reduce administrative time, allowing them to spend more time on what is most critical: teaching.

The 2011 EDUCAUSE Annual Conference is expected to join the best minds in higher education to advance the industry through the use of digital technologies. McGraw-Hill Higher Education and McGraw-Hill Tegrity will be featured at booths #1818-1820 throughout the conference.

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Educational publisher Gale, part of Cengage Learning, US, has released Gale Business Insights: Global, a new international online business resource designed to empower students to progress quickly from basic research to higher levels of understanding. The resource is projected to be invaluable for undergraduate and graduate business school students, as well as academic faculty, librarians and professional researchers.

A three-year study, ‘Globalization of Management Education: Changing International Structures, Adaptive Strategies, and the Impact on Institutions,’ commissioned by the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB) revealed that globalisation is both the biggest opportunity and the greatest challenge for business schools worldwide. Schools must supply graduates who can work in a global business environment transcending countries and cultures. According to the AACSB task force, schools are struggling to provide international case studies and broader course content.

This echoes market research commissioned by Gale which shows students and professors want a resource that brings together international business and industry reference material, statistical data, case studies, journals and newspapers in one place. The most common assignments in business courses involve reading and analysing case studies and completing news-related assignments – activities that go beyond the textbook and require students to access different types of information from disparate sources. However, a majority of students and professors say it is not easy to find sources that are credible, relevant and current.

Gale Business Insights: Global is designed to relieve these pain points and give MBA and business students an edge in the international marketplace. Gale Business Insights: Global integrates case studies, analytical tools and in-depth statistical data with narrative content in a way that will help students succeed with their coursework and in the global business world. Researchers have the ability to download and analyse global data, industry and company profiles and market share information for a complete interactive experience that fosters understanding.

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Enterprise technology and learning solutions provider Blackboard, Inc., US, has announced that CourseSites, the company's free, fully hosted and supported online course system, has been updated to include a range of new features and support for five additional languages. Already used in more than 100 countries, CourseSites can now be accessed in Spanish, Dutch, French, German, and Brazilian Portuguese.

Launched earlier this year, the CourseSites user community now includes more than 16,000 K-12 and higher education instructors representing over 9,000 institutions and school districts. The expanded language support enables instructors and students around the globe to access the high quality, cloud-based online course option in their native language.

CourseSites has been updated to include functionality from the latest releases of Blackboard Learn for course management and Blackboard Collaborate for live virtual classroom, Web conferencing and instant messaging.

With the new capabilities and language support, CourseSites offers users of all types the ability to experience Blackboard's latest teaching and learning technologies in an integrated, free solution. CourseSites has proved popular with instructors who do not have access to a learning management system at their institution and are looking to experiment with online courses. It has also been utilised by instructors and administrators who want to preview Blackboard's latest solutions before their institution makes a purchasing or upgrade decision.

CourseSites contains a range of innovative features including social learning and sharing tools, dedicated homepages and URLs, templates to guide course development, themes to allow instructors to customsze the look and feel of courses and the ability to login using credentials from popular Web sites like Facebook and Twitter.

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Enterprise technology and learning solutions provider Blackboard, Inc., US, has announced that the University of Antwerp has moved to Blackboard Learn 9.1 to significantly improve the quality of teaching and learning across its consortium of six colleges in the region and to further develop educational projects that leverage Web 2.0 technologies.

With the increasing adoption of smartphones among students, the university, the third largest in Flanders, is also planning to support mobile learning with Blackboard MobileLearn through native applications for some of the world's most popular mobile devices and platforms.

The University of Antwerp is hosting the Release 9.1 platform centrally to support over 40,000 users across the consortium, providing significant cost savings to the consortium colleges while creating a more modern and engaging learning environment focused on the evolving needs of students. By incorporating a wide range of built-in social learning tools like blogs and wikis and the ability to integrate multimedia content from Web 2.0 sources, Release 9.1 helps create a richer and more integrated learning experience to drive stronger student satisfaction.

More than 1,500 institutions have moved or are planning a move to Blackboard's latest version to take advantage of its improved stability and digital content advancements, social learning tools to drive student engagement and greater workflow efficiencies for instructors and administrators.

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Enterprise technology and learning solutions provider Blackboard, Inc., US, has announced an upgraded integration for Blackboard Collaborate, its web, video and voice conferencing platform, with Blackboard Learn 9.1, the latest version of its learning management system. The integration enables users to create and experience virtual classes directly in their Blackboard Learn course.

With the integration, students, instructors and administrators can access all aspects of online learning - including virtual classes - within the same workflow. This is seen to lead to greater adoption and a more dynamic learning experience. Students have access to live virtual sessions and recordings with a single click, and greater opportunity to interact in real time in social learning opportunities with peers and instructors. Teachers and administrators can save time by eliminating the need for multi-system training and streamlining administrative tasks.

The integration gives greater control to instructors and administrators who can leverage the new interface to create live sessions in one click and configure settings to create a customised experience. Advanced administrative settings enable instructors to schedule multiple live sessions per course, set up sessions with telephony and webcam options, pre-load virtual class content and designate moderators and outside guests.

The fully-supported, Blackboard Collaborate Web Conferencing Building Block 3.0 for Blackboard Learn 9.1 joins a number of existing integrations available for earlier versions of Blackboard Learn.

Blackboard Collaborate also supports integrations with a range of learning management systems including Blackboard Learn ANGEL Edition, WebCT, Sakai, Moodle, Desire2Learn, Pearson LearningStudio and Fronter. The platform also includes an open Application Programming Interface (API) to support custom integrations and enhancements.

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The Texas State Board of Education has voted to make McGraw-Hill Education's CINCH Science programme available state-wide for use in Grades 5-12. The decision comes as the state works to find affordable digital solutions that meet its latest educational standards and prepare students for new state assessments.

While CINCH Science will be used in a supplemental role in Texas alongside the traditional print textbooks already in classrooms, the programme and its companion, CINCH Math, are the first comprehensive all-digital curricula available for the K-12 market. The programmes launched at last month's International Society for Technology in Education conference, and will be available for use in Texas schools beginning next month.

A cloud-based curriculum, CINCH Science claims to be the first programme of its kind compatible with most tablets, computers or mobile devices, allowing students to extend the learning experience by accessing content inside or outside the classroom. With educational games and social networking elements - such as the ability to highlight content and spark a discussion that appears like a Facebook comment thread - CINCH Science offers teachers a number of ways to engage students that go beyond what's offered by a 'traditional' digital textbook.

CINCH Science is fully customisable from the district down to the teacher level. The programme will help prepare Texas students for the State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness (STAAR), to be administered for the first time in the 2011-2012 school year.

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McGraw-Hill Higher Education, a unit of McGraw-Hill Education, US, has announced the launch of McGraw-Hill Campus. The new institutional service seeks to provide faculty with single sign-on access to all of McGraw-Hill's course content, digital tools and other learning resources from any learning management system (LMS).

The offering allows for secure and deep integration enabling seamless access for faculty and students to any of McGraw-Hill's course solutions such as McGraw-Hill Connect (all-digital teaching and learning platform), McGraw-Hill Create (custom-publishing platform), McGraw-Hill LearnSmart (online adaptive study tool) or Tegrity (a fully searchable lecture capture service).

McGraw-Hill Campus includes access to McGraw-Hill's entire content library, including e-books, assessment tools, presentation slides and multimedia content, among other resources. This is seen to provide faculty with open, unlimited access to prepare for class, create tests/quizzes, develop lecture material, and integrate interactive content. Access is provided regardless of whether instructors are using McGraw-Hill textbooks. More than 100 higher education institutions will be using McGraw-Hill Campus this fall.

McGraw-Hill Education will host a free webinar with Campus Technology to officially launch McGraw-Hill Campus on July 21 at 11am PDT / 2pm EDT. Leaders from Ohio University, Indiana State University and Mt. Wachusett Community College will discuss their goals and challenges around digital resources and why they selected McGraw-Hill Campus for their institutions. Attendees will get a hands-on demonstration of McGraw-Hill Campus and the opportunity to engage with the panelists and ask questions about available content, integration details and ease of access. Interested parties can register for the webinar at http://bit.ly/mhcampuswebinar, or visit http://www.mhcampus.com for more information about McGraw-Hill Campus.

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Teaching, learning and research solutions provider Cengage Learning, US, has announced a strategic partnership with Blackboard Inc. to create a deeper integration and full interoperability of Cengage Learning's digital content and solutions with the Blackboard Learn platform. Through the partnership, Cengage Learning becomes a Blackboard Strategic Partner in the Blackboard Partnerships Program.

The new partnership plans to provide direct access to Cengage Learning's digital content, core curriculum solutions and increased functionality for institutions utilising Blackboard's Web-based teaching and learning platform. Users of Cengage Learning's rich digital learning solutions and content will gain seamless access through automatic sign-on and grade book integration, creating a simpler and more intuitive user experience for both instructors and students using Blackboard Learn.

The effort plans to offer a better experience for users of online homework provided via CourseMaster products such as Aplia and SAM as well as CourseMate and course cartridges. The added level of integration is made possible through Cengage Learning's standards-based, interoperable, Web-services architecture (MindLinks) and the Blackboard Building Blocks programme and open APIs of the Blackboard Learn platform. The agreement will also include ongoing interoperability options for Cengage Learning's MindTap programme and future product development.

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Education materials publisher McGraw-Hill Education, US, has launched a series of K-12 products designed to meet schools' growing demand for digital solutions at the International Society of Technology in Education's (ISTE) annual conference. The digital solutions are expected to increase student engagement and effectively drive achievement.

The products address four principal themes in educational technology: bookless learning and mobile devices, serious gaming, interactive whiteboard instruction, and assessment solutions. McGraw-Hill is showcasing 24 digitally-focused products at its paperless booth, including four that are launching at the conference. These include CINCH Learning, Spark!, College & Career Readiness, Acuity for High School and LAS Links Online.

An all-digital, cloud-based curriculum for K-12 math and 7-12 science, CINCH Learning is projected as the first programme of its kind that students can access on any tablet, computer or mobile device they choose. Developed in partnership with 360Ed, Spark! is a suite of online courses designed to engage students with rich-media content and an online network that encourages them to collaborate and explore.

McGraw-Hill Education has created the all-digital College & Career Readiness programme designed to promote post-secondary success. This product builds students' knowledge of how to finance college, navigate the application process and choose a career path, and offers guidance from virtual mentors.

Emerging from the Common Core State Standards, the Acuity InFormative Assessment solution for high school helps teachers gauge student performance and deliver tailored instruction for every student. It is said to go beyond simple Common Core alignment to adapt to the new way that these new standards have asked students to think. LAS Links Online captures students' spoken and written responses digitally, allowing teachers to score responses anytime, anywhere.

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Teaching, learning and research solutions provider Cengage Learning, US, has signed a definitive agreement that significantly expands its strategic partnership with the National Geographic Society (NGS) including the acquisition of the NGS school publishing unit and extended use of the NGS brand.

Since 2007, Cengage Learning and NGS have collaborated to produce English language learning materials for kindergarten through adult education in the global marketplace. The newly expanded relationship will further leverage NGS's content - including images, video and articles - and Cengage Learning's pedagogical expertise in the US and global education market.

Specifically, under the terms of the agreement, Cengage Learning will acquire National Geographic's digital and print school publishing unit, which includes the National Geographic Science series, an innovative core elementary science curriculum, National Geographic Explorer! Magazines, and Hampton Brown's literacy and language programmes - resulting in the formation of a global literacy, English language learning and content publishing brand.

Cengage Learning is currently NGS's exclusive international English language teaching partner. The new agreement extends that relationship for the development, marketing and distribution of NGS-branded materials across education in the school, higher education and library markets worldwide including in the US for English language teaching.

National Geographic reaches 400 million people annually and is home to one of the world's largest content libraries. NGS assets include over 11 million images, 100,000 hours of NGS video, maps and illustrations and more than 120 years of articles from the Magazine and its other properties. Building on Cengage Learning's strong position in the classroom and the library market, National Geographic's brand and content is expected to add tremendous value across new and existing products.

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McGraw-Hill Higher Education, a unit of McGraw-Hill Education, and Greenway Medical Technologies, Inc. have announced the formation of McGraw-Hill's Integrated Electronic Health Records: An Online Course and Worktext for Greenway Medical Technologies' PrimeSUITE.

Developed as a comprehensive learning resource, the hands-on course will be available August 2011 and included in 2011-2012 curriculum for colleges and universities nationwide. The course will be offered through McGraw-Hill's Connect Plus. Connect Plus uses the latest technology and adaptive learning techniques to better connect professors to their students, and students to the information and customised resources they need to master a subject. It includes a variety of digital learning tools that enable professors to easily customise courses and allow students to learn and master content and succeed in the course.

McGraw-Hill based its selection of PrimeSUITE on the platform's ONC-ATCB certification levels, user engagement, interoperability, existing customer base and security capabilities, among other criteria. Users will utilise the Greenway solution in conjunction with patient data and the corresponding workbook to gain a better understanding of health information management, practice management, and EHR. The online course will be featured in a series of McGraw-Hill instructional Health Professions workshops in spring 2012 to demonstrate advancements in company product offerings and methodology.

Greenway's alliances with McGraw-Hill and national academic institutions are part of the company's efforts to aid in the creation of a national health IT workforce.

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Teaching, learning and research solutions provider Cengage Learning EMEA has announced that it has completed the acquisition of Nelson Thornes' Nursing & Allied Health list. Cengage Learning publishes under the imprints of Delmar, Wadsworth and Gale well known titles such as Gloria Pickar's Dosage Calculations, The Delmar Nursing Skills DVD series and Gale's Nursing Resource Center.

The Nursing & Allied Health list acquired from Nelson Thornes strengthens the healthcare portfolio by increasing the range of titles suited to local markets. Flagship titles transferred include Quinn's Principles and Practice of Nurse Education, Physiotherapy in Respiratory Care and the Foundations in Nursing and Health Care series.

Terms of the acquisition were not disclosed.

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Gale, part of Cengage Learning, US, and TheGreenInterview.com, a Canadian subscription website offering information on environmental subjects, have announced an agreement to enhance the content of GREENR. GREENR is Gale's electronic resource offering authoritative reference content in the area of sustainable development, the environment, energy and natural resources.

TheGreenInterview.com will be providing Gale with video interviews covering a range of issues connected to our planet, humans on Earth, damage to our ecosystem, alternative development ideas, sustainability and more. Transcripts and audio (MP3) files of the video content and biographies of the interviewees in each video segment will also be available. Additional Green Interview content will be added to GREENR in the future, as it is produced. The agreement also licenses to Gale two blogs from TheGreenInterview.com that discusses current and past environmental topics and developments.

TheGreenInterview.com, hosted by noted author, speaker and educator Silver Donald Cameron, provides an e-newsletter and video series that captures, in interview form, the ideas of the world's most prominent advocates of sustainability and environmental protection. The shows are produced and directed by Chris Beckett, and released in association with Mount Saint Vincent University in Halifax, Nova Scotia.

Launched in April 2010, the goal of TheGreenInterview.com is to amass an unparalleled library of extended video and audio interviews with the world's environmental leaders. The complete list can be found online at http://www.thegreeninterview.com/interviews. TheGreenInterview.com content will be added to GREENR at no additional cost to current customers.

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UK research and education is expected to benefit from a network running at 100Gbit/s, the equivalent of uploading 125 doctoral theses in just one second. Internationally other national research and education networks have conducted trials of 100Gbit/s technology but JANET, the UK's education and research network, is the first to run it for operational traffic.

The JANET network is designed to handle vast quantities of data from the world's greatest scientific endeavours and this latest advance ensures that the UK can collaborate and compete with the best there is. As bandwidth demand doubles every 18 months this upgrade is the latest crucial stage in the evolution of JANET.

As more organisations move towards cloud services and shared data centres and research projects produce vast quantities of data, the move to 100Gbit/s provides a cost effective means of meeting this demand.

The international reputation of the UK's education and research is seen as fundamental to the future economic recovery and prosperity of the country and, in a global marketplace, it can only achieve this with a world class infrastructure.

JANET's value to the schools sector in England was recently demonstrated by the Department for Education's decision to continue to provide central funding for the network in the forthcoming financial year.

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JANET (UK), the UK's education and research network, has announced the launch of its new high capacity data service for education institutions and research organisations, JANET 3G.

From June 2011, the data service will allow academic and support staff to remotely access vital resources such as research data, virtual learning environments and library catalogues while on the move. The service has already received over 60 enquiries in the first week of its launch, from both universities and colleges.

JANET 3G has been developed to provide a range of 3G data packages that combine value-for-money with features specifically configured for the education sector. It is designed to be easy to deploy, helping organisations to make the most of their existing investment in wireless networking. Offering seamless integration with the international roaming service, eduroam, their existing authentication mechanism can be used for mobile users, making security configuration much simpler.

By enabling the use of an organisation's existing IP addresses, JANET 3G also makes firewall configuration much easier.

Educational organisations are offered a wide selection of price plans enabling them to precisely match their users' needs while keeping control over costs. Data packages available range from low usage machine-to-machine plans to genuine 15 Gb data allowances for demanding users, providing a real breadth of choice.

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Teaching, learning and research solutions provider Cengage Learning, US, has outlined details of MindApps, a new partner programme designed to support the development of apps and services for the MindTap platform. MindTap, Cengage Learning's new delivery platform for digital products and services, engages students through interactivity while offering instructors choice in content and learning tools.

MindTap claims to be the first in a new category of Personal Learning Experiences. Browser-based and cloud delivered, MindTap is device-agnostic in order to engage students on virtually any platform or device, ensuring complete flexibility and freedom for students, instructors and institutions.

The new MindApps partner programme leverages the powerful, extensible web services framework of the MindTap platform to deliver on Cengage Learning's vision of improving student outcomes through increased engagement. With the framework in place and a robust ecosystem of app partners, MindTap delivers a wide variety of digital learning apps and services that combine Cengage Learning's authoritative content with the technology to improve the teaching and learning experience and build a strong user community.

MindApps are sourced from a broad community of providers, including commercial and non-profit partners, institution- and instructor-provided applications, as well as open community software and content sources. The MindApps partner programme supports the delivery and use of apps to meet specific needs of institutions as well as the instructors and students engaged in the learning experience. Apps may be deployed at the platform level, sold with titles or delivered via a soon to be launched apps marketplace.

Leveraging Cengage Learning's content and strong market presence, MindApp partners have the opportunity to reach new customers and increase their revenue through the newly established Partner Program. Many MindTap learning apps are customisable by title and some can be selected and added to the experience by the instructor, while others can be chosen by the student.

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McGraw-Hill Higher Education, a unit of McGraw-Hill Education, has announced the expanded availability of McGraw-Hill Create, an innovative platform that gives instructors unprecedented control over and customisation of university classroom content in English, Italian and Spanish - and by the end of 2011, Chinese and Marathi.

Expanding the reach of McGraw-Hill's content, Create is now available at colleges and universities throughout Africa, Asia, Australia, Canada, Europe, Latin America, New Zealand, the Middle East and India through the company's international subsidiaries. The McGraw-Hill Create platform enables instructors to easily customise digital content for their courses, combining their own course-specific materials with a range of other resources.

Instructors will now gain instant access to a vast library of McGraw-Hill resources to develop instructional materials adapted specifically to the needs of local markets. At Create's core is a Google-like search engine functionality that enables professors to immediately pull from a wide range of quality content, including 4,000 McGraw-Hill textbooks, 5,500 articles, 11,000 literature, philosophy and humanities readings, and 25,000 business case studies from prominent providers such as the Harvard Business School.

To simplify and streamline the custom publishing process, an index and table of contents is automatically generated for each Create project. Create allows instructors to easily save and archive projects to work on at another time or edit for in the future. Instructors can customise the look and feel of their Create project by selecting a cover design and adding their name and course information. Additionally, instructors can share Create projects with colleagues for review, making content customisation a collaborative experience.

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Education materials publisher McGraw-Hill Education, US, has announced the acquisition of Bookette Software Company. With this acquisition, McGraw-Hill seeks to further strengthen its digital capabilities at a time when there is sharpened focus on technology and innovation in education, and increased demand for online testing in the classroom.

Bookette's smart-scoring engine evaluates high volumes of student writing responses, enabling assessments to incorporate writing while easing the burden of scoring and providing constructive feedback to students. The software company's other online offerings include sophisticated programmes for test delivery and teacher training.

Market demand for these technologies is expected to increase considerably as federal and state governments work to develop common assessment systems for the K-12 market. Bookette's advanced software also will be leveraged to support McGraw-Hill's digital products and services, which facilitate classroom instruction.

Terms of the acquisition were not disclosed.

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Gale, part of Cengage Learning, has announced a unique partnership with the Economics for Equity and Environment (E3 Network). E3 Network is a national network of more than 200 economists whose applied research supports active environmental protection.

To help enhance Gale's GREENR resource, prominent E3 Network scholars and economists will be contributing essays on aspects of the environment from an economics and policy perspective. The essays will be added to GREENR over the course of 2011.

E3 Network scholars will contribute 10 essays targeted to college-level researchers over the course of the year. Additionally, E3 Network scholars will be writing valuable annotated bibliographies on environmental topics that will help guide students of sustainability, economics or public policy to the foundational literature and leading scholarship in their field.

The essays and annotated bibliographies focus on student and teacher needs in the classroom, and will help students understand the complex scholarly debates in which they are just beginning to take part. The first three essays in the series are currently available to GREENR customers. Future essays will cover the topics of forest carbon and ecosystem services, among others.

In addition, later this month Gale will provide complimentary access via the GREENR website to an annotated bibliography on green jobs created by the E3 Network. The annotated bibliography includes a list of influential publications reflecting the evolution of the relationship between green jobs and the environment, culminating in the most recent reports and analyses of green careers.

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Information services provider McGraw-Hill Companies, US, and technology solutions provider Wipro, India, have announced that both companies will work together to develop 'mConnect', an open-standard mobile learning platform designed to bridge the skills gap in emerging markets.

Initial pilots in India will focus on test preparation for entrance into universities and English-language training, seen as an increasingly essential skill in the global economy. The aim is to extend this programme later to other countries in Asia and in Africa.

mConnect will offer low-income, rural or otherwise underserved students and workers personalised, adaptive education and assessment programmes that can provide direct feedback in multiple modalities through cell phones, laptops and other mobile devices. For English language training students, for example, mConnect will provide opportunities to hear conversations, review new vocabulary delivered via SMS and get personalised instruction that customises the pace and presentation of material to match their learning needs.

India is seen to provide an important development ground for mConnect. The country is observed to be home to a growing, young workforce hungry for access to high-quality education to improve their career prospects. According to mobileyouth.org, by 2012, one in five of all mobile phones in use worldwide will be owned by a young person in India. Currently, one hundred million mobile phones are owned by youth in rural areas, who use them an average of 5.5 hours per day.

Specifically, mobile learning offers the ability to bring learning directly to the student, thereby bridging the geographic distances between students and their schools. It is also said to allow learners to study anywhere and at anytime, improving their ability to balance work and study. Also, it seeks to personalise and customise instruction by providing a means for teachers to provide relevant, individualised feedback to every student according to his or her ability to receive it both personally and technically. Further, mobile learning is seen to encourage feedback and early intervention by teachers; centralise curricula and ensure that content is continually updated; and create a more engaging, interactive experience, which has been shown to foster better learning outcomes.

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Education materials publisher McGraw-Hill Education, US, has announced seamless integration of its Connect platform and Blackboard Learn using certified standards initiated by IMS Global Learning Consortium at the HigherEdTECH summit. IMS Learning Tools Interoperability (LTI) v1.0 seeks to provide a single framework or standard way of integrating learning applications with platforms like learning management systems.

McGraw-Hill is reported to be one of the first major educational content providers to adopt the LTI framework. By doing so it seeks to increase options for students and instructors when selecting learning applications; reduce support costs for institutions; and enable easy integration of applications within the learning system or portal.

The partnership between Blackboard and McGraw-Hill Higher Education is expected to leverage the strengths of both organisations to develop a best-of-breed integration between Blackboard Learn and McGraw-Hill digital content and tools. The alliance is further projected to preserve the spirit of academic freedom and openness.

The IMS Global Learning Consortium seeks to advance technology that can affordably scale and improve educational participation and attainment. To ensure that the 'Learning Impact' of technology-enabled innovation is achieved around the world, IMS' community of educational institutions, suppliers and government organisations reportedly develop open interoperability standards. They also seek to support adoption with technical services and encourage adoption through programmes that highlight effective practices.

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Education materials publisher McGraw-Hill Education, US, has announced that it will provide unprecedented access to many of its K-12 online programmes to the California Learning Resource Network (CLRN). Part of the Statewide Education Technology Services initiative from the California Department of Education, CLRN seeks to provide educators with a 'one-stop shop' for the selection of digital learning resources aligned to the State Board of Education academic content standards.

As part of McGraw-Hill's broad commitment to developing and providing electronic teaching and learning tools to classrooms in nearly every district in the US, the company has submitted seven interactive digital programmes to Phase 3 of the CLRN Digital Textbook Initiative. The company claims to be the only major publisher to provide content through this phase of the initiative.

McGraw-Hill's interactive online courses are under review by CLRN and include some of the company's most popular titles for history, government, economics, and biology.

CLRN is intended to provide K-12 educators with the information they need to make informed decisions about selection, procurement and instructional use of supplemental digital learning resources. All content provided through CLRN is required to be aligned to the California Content Standards, and support, enhance or extend standards-based classroom instruction, providing additional materials for teachers.

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Education materials publisher McGraw-Hill Education, US, has announced the launch of McGraw-Hill Create, a platform that seeks to give instructors control over and customisation of higher education classroom content. With Create, instructors can expect to produce their own e-books or printed texts by selecting content from a vast library of resources and receive a digital proof in under an hour.

Increasingly, instructors are demanding content solutions that are tailored to the way they teach. Custom publishing is one of the fastest growing areas in the higher education market, rising by 25 percent on a yearly basis. But not all custom content is created equal. Results of a recent McGraw-Hill survey revealed that instructors are looking for low-cost solutions that offer the ability to integrate content from multiple disciplines, allow them to seamlessly incorporate their own material, contain enhanced search functions and promise faster delivery times. It is with these needs in mind that McGraw-Hill developed Create.

McGraw-Hill Education reportedly created the custom publishing concept nearly 20 years ago when it introduced the Primis platform. Create is seen to build on the Primis foundation by adding 21st century customisation options, an intuitive drag-and-drop user interface and speedy digital delivery.

At Create's core is a Google-like search engine functionality that enables professors to immediately pull from a wide range of quality content, including 4,000 McGraw-Hill textbooks, 5,500 articles, 11,000 literature, philosophy and humanities readings, and 25,000 business case studies from prominent providers such as the Harvard Business School. This search tool allows professors to view content across the library, or limit their search by category, such as discipline or copyright year. Through a recently announced partnership with Blackboard Inc., teachers will have access to the full suite of McGraw-Hill Create content through their Blackboard account, seamlessly integrating Create with their established and familiar classroom tools. Professors can also easily upload and incorporate self-produced content into their Create project.

Once a Create text has been fully customised, the instructor will receive a digital review copy in under an hour or a print review copy in three to five days. Existing platforms are often seen to take up to three weeks to deliver review copies. Once a professor finalises the book in Create, he or she can make it available for student purchase. Students may purchase Create e-books through the McGraw-Hill ebookstore or purchase Create print books through their campus bookstore.

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The Digital Marketplace, an initiative of the California State University Office of the Chancellor, has announced plans to launch a pilot to license digital course content from publishers Bedford/Freeman/Worth, Cengage Learning, McGraw-Hill Education, Pearson and John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Starting in the fall 2010 semester, pilot courses are scheduled at five CSU campuses. By offering faculty the choice of a licensing model, the CSU gives them the option of finding the highest quality content at the lowest cost. The purpose of the Digital Marketplace is to provide everyone access to quality, affordable educational content. Students will be able to purchase their personal-use subscriptions for the digital content through their local campus bookstore.

The pilot program will collect and analyse student and faculty user data during the fall 2010 term to learn more about usage and preferences for digital materials.

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McGraw-Hill Higher Education, a unit of McGraw-Hill Education, has partnered with CambridgeSoft to integrate ChemDraw - the molecular editor used by chemistry professionals - into McGraw-Hill Connect Chemistry. Connect Chemistry is a web-based assignment and assessment platform designed for organic chemistry courses. The collaboration between McGraw-Hill Education and CambridgeSoft marks the first time that the latter has worked with a publisher to develop a homework tool for students. CambridgeSoft is a provider of software and services for discovery, analysis and collaboration to the life sciences and chemical industries, academia and government.

McGraw-Hill Connect is a research-based, interactive assignment and assessment platform that incorporates cognitive science to customise the learning process. The online platform is based on McGraw-Hill's extensive, ongoing research of professors instructional processes and students study habits. It includes a variety of digital learning tools that enable professors to easily customise courses and allow students to learn and master content and succeed in the course.

Both students and professors are expected to benefit from the introduction of ChemDraw into Connect Chemistry. Students will be better able to practice drawing chemical structures, one of the subject's most important concepts, and professors will be able to more effectively test students knowledge, evaluate their progress, and deliver feedback.

McGraw-Hill and CambridgeSoft have been collaborating for over a year with more than 100 organic chemistry professors to create a functionally modified version of ChemDraw that focuses specifically on the scope of the course. The result is an accurate assessment and drawing tool that seeks to bring professional-grade quality to a challenging course area.

ChemDraw will be available for classroom use as a component of McGraw-Hill Connect Chemistry in the spring of 2011. It will initially be offered with three McGraw-Hill texts - Organic Chemistry 3rd edition, by Janice Smith; Organic Chemistry 8th edition, by Frank Carey and Robert Giuliano; and Chemistry: The Molecular Nature of Matter & Change 6th edition, by Martin Silberberg.

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Learning management systems provider Blackboard, Inc., US, has announced a partnership with McGraw-Hill Higher Education, a unit of The McGraw-Hill Companies. Both parties will introduce a new, best of class learning management offering that joins McGraw-Hill's media-rich content, assessment engines, and industry leading adaptive learning tools with the latest capabilities of Blackboard's web-based teaching and learning platform, Blackboard Learn.

Through the partnership, the companies will make McGraw-Hill's content and digital tools available to institutions that are already using Blackboard Learn to enhance workflow and access to these resources in one place. This initiative will bring together the capabilities of Blackboard Learn with McGraw-Hill Connect, an all digital higher education learning platform that allows instructors to incorporate third party content as well. The combination will enhance ease of use for faculty and student users of the McGraw-Hill and Blackboard Learn product suites. This is the first time Blackboard has enabled the full integration of a major educational publisher's content and digital tools.

Access to McGraw-Hill Connect, which covers 34 academic disciplines and includes more than 250 titles, will be significantly expanded. McGraw-Hill's platform is currently being used by more than 1.8 million students and instructors at some 600 colleges and universities nationwide. The integrations will create seamless access to McGraw-Hill Connect to manage course content, create assignments and track student performance. In addition, users will also gain access to a range of popular tools that come with the platform.

Both the new learning management offering and the integration for Blackboard Learn are expected to be ready for classroom use in early 2011. McGraw-Hill Connect will also continue to be available separately. As part of the partnership, McGraw-Hill becomes a Blackboard Strategic Partner in the Blackboard Alliance Program.

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