Oct. 19, 2009 (PR Newswire) --

WASHINGTON, Oct. 19 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Blackboard Inc. (Nasdaq: BBBB), a global leader in education technology, today announced that it has been positioned in Gartner's Magic Quadrant for Corporate Learning Systems, an influential report evaluating the completeness of vision and ability to execute of vendors in the market.

Blackboard has seen significant growth in the corporate learning space where an increasing number of corporations of all sizes have adopted the company's teaching and learning platform to deploy training programs efficiently and cost effectively. In the Magic Quadrant report, Gartner "evaluates vendors based on their ability to articulate current and future market direction, innovation, customer needs and competitive forces."

The report notes that, "In 2009, we evaluated Corporate Learning System vendors for comprehensiveness of their offering. Those that presented more effective components and capabilities generally improved in the areas of analytics, learner ease-of-use and support for structured social and informal learning. The social learning platform has emerged as a key component."(1)

"With deep roots in education, Blackboard knows how to support the expectations instructors and learners have for acquiring and sharing knowledge," said Tim Hill, President of Blackboard Learn, Professional Education. "The corporate and government markets have embraced our solution set because they increasingly need an easy way to allow instructors, subject matter experts and learners to interact in engaging social learning environments. We routinely hear that this kind of collaboration helps directly impact business outcomes and objectives, often in ways beyond initial expectations."

Blackboard's intuitive solutions enable companies, government and professional organizations to upload, update and distribute custom learning content in a wide variety of formats and connect their learning programs to an active user community, regional support groups and training opportunities.

"The Blackboard platform fits within our transformational way of thinking and aligns with our company's values of accountability, commitment, collaboration, innovation and leadership," said Bill Reggio, director of sales training and development at Watson Pharmaceuticals Inc.

"The Blackboard learning environment lets our sales representatives engage with content and with the management team before, during and after the learning event and enables collaborative learning opportunities that increase their belief in the product and passion for success," added Jason Zeman, associate director of sales training and development at Watson Pharmaceuticals Inc.