The existing agreement originally dates from 1999 and allows higher, vocational, and secondary education institutions in the Netherlands and Belgium access to the Blackboard Learning System™ and Blackboard Community System™. The new contract extends the current agreement into 2010 and allows continuity for enterprise eLearning software in the Netherlands and Belgium. It shows mutual commitment among Blackboard, SURFdiensten and SLBdiensten for this market.

The new contract offers educational institutions the option to take advantage of new Blackboard webservices, including the SafeAssign™ plagiarism-detection and deterrence services and Scholar® social bookmarking services. SafeAssign empowers academics and students to protect the originality of work and also creates an opportunity to educate students on the importance of proper attribution and citation. Scholar provides an innovative way for users to connect with researchers studying similar topics at institutions around the world, allowing professors, students, and other academics to store and share online bookmarks related to their areas of study and interest.

Jan Bakker, Managing Director of SURFdiensten said, "Signing this contract with Blackboard is key for the huge installed base of Blackboard users in Dutch and Belgian higher education. We expect the solutions that Blackboard offers will satisfy not only our existing needs but also the future demands of students and faculty of our member institutions".

Charles Stork, Director of SLBdiensten, said, "We are very pleased with this renewal. This gives existing Blackboard users in vocational and secondary education in the Netherlands the opportunity to use Blackboard for three more years. We believe Blackboard will provide our member institutions a high-quality learning environment."

"We are delighted that we have expanded our agreement with SURFdiensten and SLBdiensten", says Michael Chasen, President and CEO of Blackboard. "Since our inception, our clients and partners in the Netherlands and Belgium have been valuable contributors to our product and corporate strategies. With this expanded relationship, we expect to work even more closely with education leaders in the Netherlands and Belgium."