The BlackBerry smartphone application enables many more users to enjoy an enhanced experience. This can be done while navigating course catalogues and campus maps, e-mailing professors and classmates, and receiving real-time updates of course schedules, campus events, news, and sports with Mobile Central (formerly MobilEdu), Blackboard Mobile's flagship suite of applications.

Originally optimized for users of Apple iPhone and iPod Touch devices, the best Mobile Central experience is now available to users of BlackBerry smartphones. The suite is also generally accessible to users of any smartphone or mobile-Web-enabled device.

"Institutions are looking for new ways to engage and support their communities, and we're building a mobile platform that helps them do that-, says Michael Chasen, President and CEO of Blackboard. "Increasingly, we hope to help institutions change expectations by enabling mobile services and interactions that represent the full range of the education and campus experience."

Originally developed by San Francisco-based Terriblyclever Design, LLC, which was acquired by Blackboard in July, Mobile Central is branded for each institution and accessed by users who download their institution's application. The category-defining suite of mobile applications for education is helping students, parents, faculty, prospective students, and alumni to connect to the campus experience in a way never before possible.

With Mobile Central, users have access to course catalogues, directories and maps, which with they can identify exact campus locations with GPS. They can also check campus news, schedules, and real-time scores for athletic teams. In addition, open APIs for Blackboard Mobile enable institutions to extend the platform's offerings to fully customize and personalize the school's iPhone, BlackBerry, and mobile Web interfaces.