“Most of our incoming students arrive with smartphones, and a growing number of these phones are Android devices,” said Harlan Wallach, Media Architect at Northwestern University’s NUIT Academic & Research Technology group. “The ability for us to reach students through smartphones is key to the overall experience and efficiency of our university. Working with Blackboard we’ve been able to do that quickly and with very high quality native applications that support the wide range of mobile devices our students are using. We’re looking forward to exploring the ability to customize the app to meet the needs of individual schools and departments.”
Northwestern launched Blackboard Mobile Central on the iOS platform in December 2009, and is the first institution to expand access to Android smartphones. Northwestern has also enabled access to Blackboard Mobile(TM) Learn on selected devices to enable students and faculty to access their online course information on their smartphones.
“Supporting Android is part of our overall commitment to bring the best of campus life to users in a way that is convenient and engaging,” said Kayvon Beykpour, Vice President of Blackboard Mobile. “We’ve made a significant investment in delivering a unique experience to users of all platforms, and we’re excited to bring our mobile apps to the quickly expanding segment of mobile consumers using Android devices.”