Blackboard adds iPhone app capabilities to product suite
22 July, 2009
category: Education
A company created by two Stanford students to build iPhone applications that enables students to access a host of campus services, has been purchased by Blackboard. Purchase price, sources say, was $4 million. In addition, Kayvon Beykpour, one of the co-founders of Terriblyclever Design, is joining Blackboard as a vice president and will lead the company’s focus on mobile technologies for education.
San Francisco-based Terriblyclever was started by a group of students who worked with Stanford University to build iStanford, a set of iPhone applications to support campus life. Terriblyclever has also developed iPhone and mobile Web campus applications under the banner MobilEdu for Duke University, Medical College of Georgia, Texas A&M University and several other higher education and K-12 institutions.
“We started MobilEdu because we wanted to empower students and faculty by allowing them to engage with their university in a powerful and mobile way. Joining forces with Blackboard was the best way to work towards that vision,” said Beykpour.
MobilEdu allows education institutions to deliver a set of campus life services and content to mobile devices, branded for each institution. With an Apple iPhone, iPod Touch or other device with a mobile Web browser, MobilEdu users can navigate course catalogs and campus maps, e-mail professors and classmates and get real-time updates on their course schedules, campus events, news and sports teams.