Free Online Course System Expands to 6 Languages

  • 09/14/11

Blackboard has released an upgrade to CourseSites, a free online course system, which includes support for six languages, and other new features.

CourseSites, designed for kindergarten through college levels, can now be used in Spanish, Dutch, French, German, Portuguese, and English languages.

The service allows teachers, professors, and community educators to add a Web-based component to their courses, or host an entire course online.

New features of CourseSites include:

  • Access to media from NBC Learn for Higher Education, and McGraw-Hill Connect;
  • Enhanced interactive rubrics that use percentages, points, a point range, or no points, and weight categories;
  • The Needs Grading tool in the Grade Center, which provides instructors visibility and access to all items that need to be graded, including blogs, journals, wikis, and discussion board activity;
  • Blackboard Connect for Learn, which allows teachers to send students course-related text-message notifications; and
  • Timed assessment enhancement, which lets the instructor set time limits on tests and quizzes, and auto-submit.

Other capabilities of CourseSites include: collaborating with students in a live, online classroom, using chat, audio, video, interactive whiteboard, application and desktop sharing, and breakout rooms; course structure templates, such as lecture, guided discussion, or social learning; mash-ups, which integrate youtube.com, slideshare.com and flickr.com; the ability to create five course Web sites for free; functionality to select a personalized URL; themes that let teachers customize the look and feel of courses; and the option to log in through Facebook or Twitter.

CourseSites is powered by Blackboard Learn 9.1, and Blackboard Collaborate.

For more information, visit coursesites.com.

Featured

  • Training the Next Generation of Space Cybersecurity Experts

    CT asked Scott Shackelford, Indiana University professor of law and director of the Ostrom Workshop Program on Cybersecurity and Internet Governance, about the possible emergence of space cybersecurity as a separate field that would support changing practices and foster future space cybersecurity leaders.

  • person typing on a touch screen schedule plan calendar

    2025 Tech Tactics in Education Conference Agenda Announced

    Registration is free for this fully virtual May 7 event, focused on "Thriving in the Age of AI" in K-12 and higher education.

  • illustration of a human head with a glowing neural network in the brain, connected to tech icons on a cool blue-gray background

    Meta Launches Stand-Alone AI App

    Meta Platforms has introduced a stand-alone artificial intelligence app built on its proprietary Llama 4 model, intensifying the competitive race in generative AI alongside OpenAI, Google, Anthropic, and xAI.

  • glowing AI text box emerges from a keyboard on a desk, surrounded by floating padlocks, warning icons, and fragmented shields

    Study: 1 in 10 AI Prompts Could Expose Sensitive Data

    Nearly one in 10 prompts used by business users when interacting with generative artificial intelligence tools may inadvertently disclose sensitive data, according to a study released by data protection startup Harmonic Security Inc.