Bb Key to the Community Award

Each year Blackboard, Inc  (Bb) holds an annual users conference known as BbWorld in July. This years, three day conference consist of 255 live presentations, a high tech & educational based exhibit hall, and 9,000 minutes of inspiration. For the past three years SU has been honored to have staff and faculty attend the conference. Additionally, these staff and faculty members have presented on several topics to the 2000+ attendees. 

This year George Hoffman, Pamela Smulovitz, Mary Gardiner, and Melissa Stange will be representing the University. Past attendees have included Des Lawless and  Wanida Wanant. George will be moderating a Birds Of A Feather session and lead a VaBug member session. Melissa will be doing three presentations on Social Learning, Learning Tools Interoperability (LTI), and user responsibility. This year George Hoffman will also be serving as one of the six BbWorld VIP Bloggers! 

Last year Quaiser Absar and Institutional Computing were awarded a Blackboard Catalyst Award for Mobile Innovations. Read more here.  In 2011, George Hoffman & Melissa Stange were awarded a Blackboard Catalyst Award for Community Collaboration. Additionally, in 2011 Melissa's BbSupport leadership was also awarded a Catalyst Award in the area of Staff Development. 

This year SU has the opportunity to bring home another award through Melissa's work within the Bb community, she has been nominated for the Key to the Community Award. Melissa is SU's Blackboard Systems Administrator, servers as SU's Blackboard Idea Exchange (BIE) coordinator, actively participates in Product Development Programs, Bb Usability Studies, Bb Learning Cohorts, Bb's Beta program, serves on Bb's Bug Squad, and was one of two BbWorld 2012 VIP Bloggers. Melissa also coordinates Listening sessions for students with Blackboard representatives and was one of the co-founders of the regional Bb users group known as VaBUG. 

The award is the first ever Key to the Community Award.  According to Bb's website, the award will recognized clients who go above and beyond the call of duty to support, share, and contribute to the success of their peers and colleagues in the Blackboard Learn and Blackboard Collaborate client community.   Twenty three individuals have been nominated for the Key to the Community Award. Six winners will win the award. The winners will be awarded based on votes received from the Bb community.  So please, don’t waste any time and help Melissa bring the award home to SU, vote today! Voting ends on Monday, July 1st at 11:59pm ET.