HH Sheikh Nahyan Bin Mabarak Al Nahyan inaugurates first Blackboard Middle East Summit 2007

The inauguration was attended by HH Shaikh Rashid Bin Hamdan Al Maktoum, and HH Shaikh Saeed Bin Hamdan Al Maktoum, both students at Dubai Men's College, who were joined by Dr Abdulla Al Karam, Chairman of the Board of Directors and Director General of KHDA and Michael Chasen, CEO of Blackboard. The two-day premier event, being held at Dubai Men's College, features a host of conference workshops and training seminars including an opening address by Michael Chasen. Key topics to be discussed at the summit include -'Extending your e-Learning System with other learning technologies', 'Strategic e-Learning'; and 'Teaching Outside the Box' amongst others.

Capitalizing on the significance of the event, Edutech Middle East, a leading international learning solutions provider and strategic partner of Blackboard in the Middle East, launched the Arabic-enabled version of Blackboard Academic Suite, which integrates Blackboard's widely-accepted applications for higher education institutions, during the summit. The bundle of programs is expected to create a major impact and enhance the overall learning process in the region's universities, as they provide advanced teaching tools, allow users to share educational content and build a learning community among others.

With an Arabic user interface, students and teachers from the Middle East region can easily adopt the technology and utilize it effectively to produce better results. The new Arabic version allows users to view all features and tools in the Learning, Community and Content systems from right to left according to the orientation of the Arabic written language. The Arabic Language Pack can be selected at the system, course and user level, providing flexibility to all users to choose their preferred language. Moreover, Edutech's dedicated team of engineers will ensure that the advanced system will be seamlessly implemented and integrated into an institution's existing infrastructure.

Speaking at the sidelines of the summit, ASF Karim, Managing Director, Edutech said: "Higher education institutions across the region are making tremendous strides in utilizing state-of-the-art technologies that enhance teaching, administrative and student experience, and the Blackboard Middle East Summit serves as an excellent forum to present the latest solutions for the industry. Our strong partnership with Blackboard has enabled us to bring the latest technology-enabled tools for education institutions in line with our commitment towards the progress of the education sector, and we are confident that the launch of the Arabic Blackboard Academic Suite will generate maximum response from leading institutions across the region."

The Blackboard Middle East Summit brings together delegates spanning eight countries including Egypt, Lebanon, Jordan, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, among others, to learn about innovations in e-Learning. Blackboard President and CEO Michael Chasen was one of the many speakers at the summit and delivered the keynote address at the conference about e-Learning trends such as the use of Web 2.0 technology in education, in addition to presenting the new Blackboard product innovations including SafeAssign™, a new plagiarism prevention service.

Since its foundation in 1997, Blackboard has enabled innovations in education by providing a link between people and technology and has helped institutions as well as textbook publishers and student-focused merchants that serve the sector's demands. The US-based firm is now a recognized leader in enterprise software applications and related services that are targeted at the specific demands of the education sector and maintains offices in North America, Europe, Australia and Asia.

"With more than 30 academic institutions in the Middle East relying on Blackboard technology, we are confident that the launch of the Arabic-enabled solution will further boost adoption of Blackboard's solutions while reaffirming our leadership position in the region," concluded Karim.