MERLOT Conference Reflections

I had an absolutely wonderful time at the 2005 MERLOT International Conference. It was delightful to meet so many faculty members who use Blackboard on a daily basis. Many of these attendees hadn't had the opportunity to go to the Blackboard Global Users Conference so I encouraged them to join Blackboard's Communities website at http://communities.blackboard.com and find a user group that meets in their region. If one of the 21 US Higher Education user groups didn't meet in their area I encouraged them to start one of their own :)

The MERLOT Search Building Block was the highlight of our booth. Attendees were amazed to see how easily instructors can use the Building Block to search for and retrieve links to MERLOT learning materials. I was happy to learn from the MERLOT team that since its release in April that it has been installed at 63 institutions. Traffic on the MERLOT servers has doubled - coincidence? I think not!

At the closing reception sponsored by Blackboard we enjoyed Tennessee grown wine. The vitners were on hand to guide people to selections they would enjoy most. Everyone seemed to really enjoy the experience and the wines were delicious!

Congratulations to the MERLOT team for putting on a solid conference with great sessions, enthusiastic and knowlegable speakers, and growing (and passionate) community of practice.