Dropbox and Blackboard Inc. today announced a strategic partnership designed to make it easier for students and instructors to upload, share and collaborate on documents — increasing the productivity, security, and collaboration at universities around the world. The partnership, first of its kind for both companies, makes Dropbox Blackboard’s Premier Partner for collaboration, workflows, and storage.
Dropbox’s integration with Blackboard will enable students and instructors to use one of the most powerful cloud collaboration platforms in the world alongside the industry’s leading learning management system (LMS). Users will be able to easily and securely access content stored in Dropbox directly from Blackboard Learn. The seamless integration is designed to simplify access to course material, save instructors and students time, and support greater campuswide collaboration.
“Dropbox is already the collaboration tool of choice for more than 6,000 universities and institutions across the globe,” said Jason Katcher, Head of Education for Dropbox. “By enabling existing Dropbox workflows within Blackboard’s LMS, our partnership will make collaboration between the platforms even easier, while providing additional visibility for schools. Dropbox continues to focus on pursuing partnerships and integrations that make it the best place for instructors and students to get work done.”
Dropbox Education is designed specifically for the needs of educational institutions and offers cost-effective pricing, shared storage limits, extended version history, and enhanced visibility and control to help faculty and staff at schools, colleges and universities stay productive.
Blackboard Learn allows educators to bring their classrooms online on one common e-learning platform with tools that enable engagement, collaboration, grading and tracking of assignments, and more.
“At Blackboard, we’re focused on developing technologies and services to help institutions create the most powerful learning environment for their users,” said Kathleen Vieira, Vice President of Partnership Solutions at Blackboard. “We are excited to partner with Dropbox to deliver a tailored experience which will enable students and instructors to use our strong learning management technologies alongside their collaboration platform of choice.”
Improving Education and Research with Better Collaboration
Dropbox has seen notable adoption within the higher education community with more than 6,000 institutions using the service. It continues to help universities become more connected and collaborative and has added many new education customers to its growing list of institutions globally, including Stevens Institute of Technology and Georgia Tech.
Powering Innovative Research at Stevens Institute of Technology
Stevens Institute of Technology has historically driven cutting edge research, with projects spanning varied fields such as business, big data analytics, and defense. Much of the research Stevens performed requires restricted access, and with contributors both on and off campus, data security is paramount. Stevens was looking for a solution that would provide visibility and control around who was accessing its data while also making the information accessible to everyone who needed it. Stevens chose Dropbox because of its ability to provide the necessary control and security of its information, while also enabling greater collaboration and accessibility both within and outside of the university.
Dropbox at EDUCAUSE Annual Conference 2016
To learn more about Dropbox’s solutions for higher education, stop by the Dropbox booth at the EDUCAUSE Annual Conference, the largest higher education EdTech event in the US, this week in Anaheim. Dropbox will be at booth #115 to discuss the latest product updates with administrators, professors and students. Dropbox is also participating in a breakout session on Thursday, October 27 at 4:30pm, during which representatives from Stevens, Georgia Tech, and Stanford Law will discuss how Dropbox is improving collaboration within their research departments.
Additional Resources:
- Learn more about Dropbox Education
- Read more about how cross-campus collaboration with Dropbox fuels research and innovation
- Explore the Dropbox blog
- Follow Dropbox and Dropbox Business on Twitter
About Dropbox: Dropbox’s mission is to simplify the way people work together. With more than 500 million users, we’re building the world’s simplest, most powerful collaboration platform. For more information, please visit https://www.dropbox.com/press
- 25 education trends for 2018 - January 1, 2018
- IT #1: 6 essential technologies on the higher ed horizon - December 27, 2017
- #3: 3 big ways today’s college students are different from just a decade ago - December 27, 2017