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Design and manage technical courses by combining powerful Web-based automated assessment software with popular course management system

Adept Scientific and Maplesoft announce the release of the Maple T.A.™ Building Block™ for Blackboard Learning System™. The Maple T.A. Building Block provides integration of the Maple T.A. online testing and assessment system, based on the world’s leading mathematical software environment, with the Blackboard Learning System.

The Maple T.A. Building Block provides students and teachers with access to comprehensive testing and assessment functions of Maple T.A. Instructors can create Maple T.A. assignments and tests within their Blackboard courses, while requiring only a single log-in point to access both systems. When students take a Maple T.A. test, the grade books of both Maple T.A. and Blackboard are automatically updated. The functionality of the Maple T.A. Building Block enables the instructor to design each part of the course using the most appropriate tool.

About Maple T.A.
Maple T.A. provides a complete infrastructure for creating, administering and grading free-form, online mathematics exams and assignments. Maple T.A. grades assignments with the Maple engine, the most trusted software for exploring mathematics and developing mathematical applications. Maple T.A. liberates educational establishments from the cost, effort and limitations of traditional paper-and-pencil assessment. It allows easy randomisation of questions to prevent cheating and encourage repetition of exercises. It also lets teachers include free-form mathematics questions in assignments, however many students are in the class.

About Blackboard
The Blackboard Learning System™ (www.blackboard.com) is a popular Web-based server software platform that offers curriculum-driven course management, an open architecture for customisation and interoperability, and a scalable design that allows for integration with student information systems and authentication protocols. Combined with the Maple T.A. Building Block and Maple T.A., Blackboard is now a viable option for technical disciplines. The course management components of Blackboard combined with the testing and assessment capabilities of Maple T.A. provide a fully-featured system for mathematics and other technical courses.

“Superior Testing and Assessment”
“Our customers told us that they wanted to take advantage of the features of the Blackboard course management system, but were unwilling to give up the superior testing and assessment capabilities of Maple T.A. to properly test the students’ knowledge of technical concepts,” said Louise Krmpotic, Product Manager for Maple T.A. “The Maple T.A. Building Block, Blackboard and Maple T.A. together form the most powerful course management and testing system on the market.”

The Maple T.A. Building Block is available for use with Maple T.A. Release 1.5.2 and Blackboard Learning System Release 6.

To learn more about Maple T.A. and the Maple T.A. Building Block, please visit www.adeptscience.co.uk/products/mathsim/mapleta/.

Maple T.A. and the Maple T.A. Building Block for Blackboard Learning System are supplied and supported in the UK and Ireland by Adept Scientific plc, Amor Way, Letchworth, Herts. SG6 1ZA; telephone (01462) 480055, fax (01462) 480213, email maple@adeptscience.co.uk. Adept Scientific is Maplesoft’s partner in the UK and Ireland, and also supplies and supports Maple 9.5 itself, the latest version of the worldwide standard for interactive mathematical software; MapleNet, a comprehensive mathematical infrastructure for the Web; and Maple Professional Toolboxes for specialized application areas.

Full details are on Adept’s World Wide Web site http://www.adeptscience.co.uk/.
With offices in the UK, USA, Germany and throughout the Nordic region, Adept Scientific is one of the world’s leading suppliers of software and hardware products for research, scientific, engineering and technical applications on desktop computers.