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Service Aims to Connect Students' Social and Academic Worlds

    WASHINGTON, May 14 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Every day, millions of
students log on to the Facebook(R) Web site to connect with old friends and
meet new ones. Every day millions of those same students also separately
log on to their institution's Blackboard(R) system to access their course
materials, assignments, tests, and other important academic information.
Now, thanks to a free application from Blackboard Inc. (Nasdaq: BBBB),
millions of students will be able to access their social and learning
networks in one place.

    Blackboard, a global leader in educational enterprise technology,
announced today the launch of Blackboard Sync(TM) a safe and secure
application on the Facebook Platform to enable students to be better
engaged in their academic lives by delivering course updates and other
information through Facebook. Students who elect to use Blackboard Sync can
receive information on new assignments, discussion board postings, course
materials, and even new grades while logged on to their Facebook accounts.

    In addition, students can easily find and connect with their classmates
on Facebook, giving them the ability to turn routine social interactions
into social learning opportunities. With millions of students using both
their Blackboard system and the Facebook Web site every day, Blackboard
Sync enables students to learn more about their classmates through their
profiles and to leverage their Facebook accounts to create and join online
and offline networks and groups to collaborate and study together.

    "For more than a decade, Blackboard has worked to bring learning
opportunities to students, wherever they might be," said Michael L. Chasen,
president and CEO of Blackboard. "Today, Blackboard brings learning to
Facebook, giving millions of students the ability to simplify and be better
connected to their academic lives. By bridging their academic and social
worlds, Blackboard Sync allows students to participate in a new kind of
social learning community; one that we are only beginning to understand the
true potential of and one that can have a profound impact on their lives."

    "A huge amount of what I need to do to stay on top of my classes is to
make sure that I am completing tasks and that everything is planned out. By
making a significant percentage of that workload even easier, Blackboard
Sync can help me be a more successful student," said Zachary Girod, a
graduate student at the University of Maryland. "A lot of the work we do
involves group projects and collaboration. Having access to academic alerts
while I'm on Facebook lets me work more efficiently and informally with
classmates and learn from their experiences. With Blackboard Sync, it is
easier to take part in the social sharing of knowledge, learning, and ideas
in a friendly setting. Ultimately, that is what college should be all
about."

    Part of Blackboard's ongoing effort to help institutions meet the needs
of their students and to promote student engagement and achievement,
Blackboard Sync is available to all Facebook users that attend any of the
thousands of high schools, colleges and universities that use Blackboard
worldwide. Each student receives information from only the courses they are
registered in and that information cannot be shared. Institutions that
prefer to limit access to Blackboard Sync can block the application
entirely.

    "Students are increasingly demanding cutting-edge tools to communicate
and collaborate online, and Blackboard Sync is part of our effort to meet
that demand," said Karen Gage, Vice President of Product Strategy at
Blackboard. "By combining our community with the millions of students using
Facebook, Blackboard Sync is a major step toward creating a truly boundless
global community of social learners."

    For more information about Blackboard Sync please visit
http://blackboard.com/communities/beyond.

    Blackboard Inc. (Nasdaq: BBBB) is a leading provider of enterprise
software applications and related services to the education industry.
Founded in 1997, Blackboard enables educational innovations everywhere by
connecting people and technology. Millions of people use Blackboard
solutions everyday at academic institutions around the globe, including
colleges, universities, K-12 schools and other education providers, as well
as textbook publishers and student-focused merchants that serve education
providers and their students. Blackboard is headquartered in Washington,
D.C., with offices in North America, Europe, Australia and Asia.

    Blackboard

    Educate. Innovate. Everywhere.(TM)

    Any statements in this press release about future expectations, plans
and prospects for Blackboard and other statements containing the words
"believes," "anticipates," "plans," "expects," "will," and similar
expressions, constitute forward-looking statements within the meaning of
The Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Actual results may
differ materially from those indicated by such forward-looking statements
as a result of various important factors, including the factors discussed
in the "Risk Factors" section of our Form 10-Q filed on May 9, 2008 with
the SEC. In addition, the forward-looking statements included in this press
release represent the Company's views as of May 14, 2008. The Company
anticipates that subsequent events and developments will cause the
Company's views to change. However, while the Company may elect to update
these forward-looking statements at some point in the future, the Company
specifically disclaims any obligation to do so. These forward-looking
statements should not be relied upon as representing the Company's views as
of any date subsequent to May 14, 2008.

    Facebook(R) is a registered trademark of Facebook Inc.