September 9, 2013
The World Languages Team is pleased to announce the successful launch of its first Pearson Blackboard Building Block Initiative with MySpanishLab at the University of Massachusetts, Boston. Thanks in large part to the ambitious technology initiatives implemented across the UMB program by Susan Mraz, Language Coordinator for Spanish and Portuguese, this new Blackboard Kiosk integration not only provides students and instructors with one central access point to all of their online course materials, but also simplifies the workload for instructors with the ability to import grades into their Blackboard gradebook directly from MySpanishLab.
With the new technology integration implemented in both web-enhanced as well as online first-year Spanish courses at UMB, students now benefit from 14-day temporary access to their MySpanishLab course materials, if needed, before they purchase access. Additionally, single sign-on capabilities from their UMB Blackboard courses will allow for seamless navigation between course materials housed on both Blackboard and MySpanishLab, giving instructors greater freedom to use new technologies that can all be accessed from one central location.
The World Languages Team at Pearson would like to extend our gratitude to Susan Mraz and the entire Latin American and Iberian Studies Department for their hard work and dedication over the summer to making this integration an overwhelming success. Additionally, we would like to thank Mary Simone, John Mazzarella, and the staff of the Digital Learning Studio at UMB for their time and support. We look forward to much continued collaboration to help develop new ways of supporting faculty while providing students with the best opportunities for increased learning outcomes.