In an effort to maintain its position as the leading learning management system, Blackboard had decided to move into mobile devices and acquire Terriblyclever Design, creator of iPhone applications. Terriblyclever Design was founded by Stanford students in 2007 and since then, the company has created several successful iPhone apps for universities including: Stanford University, Duke University, Texas A & M University, and UC San Diego. The apps offer students and campus personnel a variety of features including the ability to use an interactive campus map, browse the university’s catalog, locate the campus shuttle, watch campus related content on YouTube and iTunes, and search a campus directory.
Blackboard now plans to expand the iPhone app offerings to many more universities. In an article from The Chronicle of Higher Education, Matthew Small, chief business officer of Blackboard was asked why Blackboard would invest so much in a young company. Mr. Small commented, “Every single school is going to have an iPhone application. For Blackboard, the question is, How do we bring teaching and learning to where students are, which is on mobile devices?” He went on to say, “If you’re going to hire top iPhone development experts, they’re going to be students.”
