CourseInfo LLC
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Founded in 1996, CourseInfo began as a student level project working with a number of instructors at Cornell University.
- 1996-97, Daniel Cane, a current student, and Stephen Gilfus, a teacher's assistant, joined together to officially form the partnership known as CourseInfo and developed the company into a small course management software provider. The product at the time was called the Teachers Toolbox.
- 1997-98 the team expanded to increase its development and market reach and was joined by 5 other Cornell University students, namely, Tim Chi, Stephano Kim, John Knight, John Yang, and Lee Wang. During this time the company restructured to form CourseInfo LLC.
CourseInfo LLC CourseInfo - "Making Education Easier"
In 1998 the team met two principals of Blackboard LLC in Washington, DC. The two companies joined together to form what is now known as Blackboard Inc.
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[edit] Products
- 1996 Dan Cane begins writing simple automated scripts for websites for instructors using the Perl scripting language.
- Early 1997 the "Teachers Toolbox" was born and included a series of named "Generator" tools including the coursesite generator, announcement generator, quiz generator, survey generator and other tools. Version 1.0 is released.
- Mid 1997 the "Interactive Learning Network" ILN 1.5, was released and installed at several academic institutions including Cornell University, Yale Medical School and University of Pittsburgh. Gilfus drove the features and functions through instructor feedback and web design while Dan Cane, Tim Chi and the others developed the core technology of the product. The ILN was the first e-learning system of its kind to leverage and install on top of a relational database MySqL. Access control was added to provide security around course content. Guest access was provided for course shopping. http://www.cquest.utoronto.ca/env/aera/aera-lists/aera-c/97-11/0123.html
- 1998 The CourseInfo product line (then the Interactive Learning Network or ILN) became the foundation for Blackboard's e-learning product line as Blackboard's CourseInfo.
- Prior to the Blackboard/CourseInfo merger Blackboard was focused on developing a prototype for IMS Instructional Management Systems.
- Stephen Gilfus, Dan Cane and John Knight remain with the company. Dan is a company VP and head of Research and Development, while Stephen is a company VP and heads up the global services and consulting division. John is in software development.
[edit] Blackboard overview
Blackboard Inc. was formed on the joining of two companies. CourseInfo LLC, founded by Daniel Cane and Stephen Gilfus, and Blackboard LLC, founded by Michael Chasen and Matthew Pittinsky. Blackboard began as a consulting firm contracting to the non-profit IMS Global Learning Consortium. In 1998, Blackboard LLC merged with CourseInfo LLC, a small course management software provider that originated at Cornell University. The combined company became known as Blackboard Inc. The first line of e-learning products was branded Blackboard CourseInfo, but the CourseInfo brand was dropped in 2000. Blackboard went public in June 2004. Blackboard software is used by over 3700 education institutions in more than 60 countries.
[edit] References
A link to an article on the companies Cornell University roots can be found here at http://www.news.cornell.edu/Chronicle/97/10.16.97/Web_company.html
Cane; Daniel E. (Washington, DC), Chi; Timothy R. (Fairfax, VA), Gilfus; Stephen R. (Woodbridge, VA) are listed as inventors of U.S. Patent 6,988,138 .
