Northwestern Creates New Integration Tool: Bboogle

With support from Blackboard, Inc. and Google, Inc., Northwestern University Information Technology (NUIT) has created a collaboration tool called Bboogle designed to enrich classroom instruction by facilitating better faculty-student communication. Bboogle is being evaluated this fall for general availability to faculty in winter quarter.

Bboogle integrates elements of the Google Apps ™ for Education Service (Google Apps™) into the University's Course Management System (CMS), powered by Blackboard, allowing University instructors to collaborate with students through real-time document sharing and editing, calendar sharing, and discussion boards.

Google Apps is popular among Northwestern students who have been using the service for several years to creating and sharing electronic documents over the Internet, and for general e-mail management.

More information will be provided to the University community as it becomes available.

Northwestern students will be able to use the familiar Google Apps service to communicate more directly with their classroom instructor.