As a Blackboard Signature Partner™, ShareStream Facilitates Continued Interoperability between their Rich Media Blackboard Building Block and the Blackboard Learn Platform

June 09, 2010 02:21 PM Eastern Daylight Time

GAITHERSBURG, Md.--ShareStream, a leading provider of rich media platforms for higher education, K-12 and distance learning, announced this week that it has joined the Blackboard Alliance Program™ as a Blackboard Signature Partner™.

With the advent of online video, audio and podcasts, rich media has rapidly become an integral component of teaching and learning. The ShareStream Rich Media Platform, which was developed in collaboration with Georgetown University at its Sun Center of Excellence, provides a turnkey system for creating, managing and securely delivering rich media assets, designed specifically to fulfill rising demand from faculty, students and administrators for integrating rich media into online course delivery.

ShareStream’s Rich Media Building Block for the Blackboard Learn™ platform. allows educational institutions to extend the Blackboard Learn platform with a state-of-the-art rich media solution for the full lifecycle of media that is available seamlessly within the familiar context of the Blackboard Learn environment. Through implementation of ShareStream’s Blackboard Building Block™, Blackboard Learn administrative and faculty users are provided the capability to digitize large media collections in an automated fashion; upload media to "watch folders" that automatically transcode files to the appropriate end formats; edit media with an easy-to-use solution for time-based editing and clip-trimming; catalog media assets with metadata; store and manage media in an asset-management system optimized for large rich media files; manage digital-media licenses and control access to content via higher education-specific digital rights management; deep embed media thumbnails to Blackboard Learn course pages; deliver media to students within the Blackboard Learn platform via on-demand streaming, live streaming, downloads, and podcasts; and audit all user and content accesses via a reporting and business-intelligence tool, as well as other media-specific functionality. In addition to being able to view media related to their courses from within the Blackboard Learn platform, student users who are granted the required credentials can upload student-generated media, perform online video editing of their content, and submit their media to instructors or even other students enrolled in the class through ShareStream’s media dropbox.

ShareStream’s Building Block is live at multiple institutions across the country, and is currently used for extending the Blackboard Learn platform with cutting-edge rich media capability for over 400 courses at Georgetown University, one of the largest rich media projects for teaching and learning in the nation.

"Rich media is at the core of developing 21st century skills and is a valuable addition to the overall teaching and learning experience. As campuses continue to grow these resources, they will increasingly need platforms to manage these assets as well share the content across the campus," stated Matthew Small, Chief Business Officer of Blackboard.

“Becoming a Blackboard Signature Partner ensures that as ShareStream’s media platform evolves with new capabilities, ShareStream’s Blackboard Building Block will continue to provide seamless integration with Blackboard solutions,” stated David Weinstein, CEO of ShareStream. “This also opens the door for ShareStream to integrate its Rich Media Platform with the Blackboard Learn platform in new and exciting ways that bring additional value to ShareStream’s current Blackboard Building Block, which I look forward to bringing to ShareStream and Blackboard’s joint customers in the months to come.”

About ShareStream Resources, LLC:

ShareStream provides secure, enterprise-wide rich media-management platforms and streaming, downloading, and podcasting services designed specifically for the unique needs of higher education. The ShareStream Rich Media Platform, developed in collaboration with higher education at Georgetown University, provides educational institutions with the technological tools specific to their workflow to allow them to operate as state-of-the-art educational media organizations to achieve the maximum benefit from their content. For more information, please visit www.sharestream.com.

Blackboard, the Blackboard Alliance Program, the Blackboard Developers Network, and Blackboard Building Blocks are the trademarks or registered trademarks of Blackboard Inc. All rights reserved.

Contacts

ShareStream Education Resources, LLC

Gayraud Townsend, (917) 658-3845

gayraud.townsend@sharestream.com