Moodle ends partnership with Blackboard

July 27, 2018

Perth, Western Australia – Moodle, the open-source software company and maker of the world’s most-used learning platform, has announced that it is ending its partnership with Blackboard Inc.

Blackboard, which has been trading as Moodlerooms in recent years, will transition out of Moodle’s Certified Moodle Partner program in the coming months. After September 2018, Blackboard will no longer be allowed to use the Moodlerooms name or the Moodle trademarks that had been licensed to them to advertise their Moodle-related services.

Blackboard became a Moodle Partner in 2012 when it began acquiring several companies that were already Moodle Partners, including the US-based Moodlerooms Inc. Moodle Partner companies help support Moodle by paying royalties on their Moodle-related revenue.

Martin Dougiamas, CEO and Founder of Moodle, said: “Blackboard has always been a sensitive and sometimes confusing subject in the Moodle community, since Blackboard has of course continued to develop and sell its own competing products.”

“While we thank Blackboard for being a solid contributor to the Moodle project during the past 6 years, the fact is that the proportion of our revenue coming from our partnership with Blackboard has been steadily declining every year since 2012. Now is the right time to clarify the situation between us and focus more tightly on our exciting roadmap around our open software.”

Moodle has experienced strong growth in recent years with a number of products based on its flagship open source product, which is the most popular learning platform for schools, universities and companies around the world. Moodle itself hosts over 23,000 Moodle sites on its MoodleCloud SaaS platform, with many more being hosted by over 80 certified Moodle Partnerships worldwide or self-hosted by institutions.

Last year Moodle joined with a French investment partner, Education For The Many. The investment helped push development of the Moodle core software, including Moodle’s mobile and desktop app, MoodleCloud and professional development tools for educators such as MoodleNet and a Moodle Educator Certification program. In June, Moodle opened a second headquarters in Barcelona, Spain.

Moodle CEO Martin Dougiamas added: “The organisations, partners and developers in the Moodle community are our priority. If any Moodle-related staff or clients at Blackboard require assistance or advice of Moodle HQ or a Certified Moodle Partner, we’re here and happy to help.”

Moodlerooms clients will not be affected by these changes in the short term. As always, Moodle recommends that organisations needing services for their Moodle platform choose Certified Moodle Partners for Moodle services. For further information, visit https://moodle.com/about-partners/, or contact Moodle directly via https://moodle.com/contact.

About Moodle
Founded in Perth, Australia, Moodle produces an open source learning platform with over 100,000 registered sites including more than 130 million users worldwide. In pursuit of their mission of “empowering educators to improve our world”, Moodle’s software gives educators and learners powerful, flexible software tools for online learning and collaboration.

Moodle software is used as a key part of operations for: schools and Universities such as the UK Open University, University of Barcelona, Monash University, Columbia University, Shanghai International University and Mumbai University; corporate users such Mazda, Allianz, Vodafone and Coca-Cola, as well as other organisations such as the United Nations, World Vision International and the US Defence force.

Contact details

Media Contact

Kaye Cheung
Head Marketing and Communications
kaye@moodle.com