Industry News

Class Technologies Partners with Open LMS

• By Rhea Kelly
• 06/08/22

Class Technologies, maker of the learning platform that adds teaching and learning tools to Zoom, has announced a partnership with Open LMS, commercial provider of the open source Moodle learning management system. The agreement makes Class and Class Collaborate (formerly Blackboard Collaborate) the preferred synchronous virtual learning solution for Open LMS.

Class recently embarked on a deal to acquire Anthology's Blackboard Collaborate virtual classroom tool, and Open LMS commercializes and maintains the Blackboard Collaborate plugin, making the new partnership perhaps a natural complement to the acquisition. The companies also share some common history. Class co-founder and CEO Michael Chasen co-founded Blackboard in 1997. In 2012, Blackboard bought out Moodlerooms, at the time the largest provider of the Moodle open source LMS, and launched its own open source services division. Blackboard continued as a certified Moodle partner until 2018, when the organizations cut ties and Blackboard rebranded Moodlerooms as Blackboard Open LMS. In 2020, Blackboard sold its Open LMS business to workplace digital learning and talent management company Learning Technologies Group, where Open LMS remains today as standalone business within the LTG portfolio.  

"Both Class and Open LMS share a common goal of providing users with an effective and engaging experience that ultimately helps learners reach their educational goals," said Phill Miller, managing director of Open LMS, in a statement. "This new partnership reaffirms our commitment to providing customers with the tools they need to create top-notch content in a new and integrated way while accommodating new learning models."

"Blended learning experiences continue to be the wave of the future," commented Class's Chasen. "I'm delighted to welcome Open LMS as a partner so instructors and learners at all levels will be able to have access to the benefits of each other's tools."