http://www.turnitin.com/static/resource_files/press_release_bb.doc

TURNITIN® TO INTEGRATE WITH BLACKBOARD SOLUTIONS

Industry-Leading Plagiarism Prevention Service to Offer Blackboard Learning System™ and Blackboard Portal System™ Interface

OAKLAND, CALIF. and WASHINGTON, DC– July 1, 2004 –iParadigms, the creator of Turnitin and iThenticate™, and Blackboard Inc. (NASDAQ: BBBB) announced today that iParadigms has joined the Blackboard Developer Network SM. This summer, iParadigms will use the Blackboard Building Blocks™ application program interfaces to integrate Turnitin’s plagiarism prevention service with Blackboard's Learning System™ and Blackboard Portal System™. Clients who use Blackboard® software will be able to use Turnitin to perform plagiarism checks without ever leaving the Blackboard academic environment.

Recognized worldwide as the standard in online plagiarism prevention, Turnitin helps educators and students take full advantage of the Internet's educational potential. Turnitin’s proprietary system instantly identifies papers containing unoriginal material and acts as a powerful deterrent to stop student plagiarism before it starts. All work submitted to Turnitin is checked against three huge databases of content: a continuously updated and archived copy of the Internet, an index of published works from the ProQuest® databases, and a database of previously submitted student papers.

“Because of Blackboard’s broad acceptance in the educational marketplace, we are excited about the possibilities for our clients,” said John Barrie, founder and CEO of iParadigms. “Clients who use Blackboard software will be able to completely integrate Turnitin’s plagiarism prevention service into their existing frameworks. In addition, the industry-leading positions of Blackboard and Turnitin in the U.K. make this a particularly good fit.”

“The combination of iParadigms’ Turnitin offering combined with the Blackboard Learning System and the Blackboard Portal System provides instructors with a seamless way to guard against plagiarism on campus,” said Dan Cane, Senior Vice President of Research and Development at Blackboard. “The open architecture of Blackboard’s technology through the Building Blocks Program ultimately provides clients with a wider variety of features and functions for their e-Learning initiatives.”

About iParadigms, LLC iParadigms is the leading provider of web-based solutions for digital originality checking of written materials. The company’s products include Turnitin ®, used by educational institutions, and iThenticate TM, used in the commercial world by publishers, news agencies, corporations, law firms, and governmental organizations. iParadigms also offers web-based educational tools for student collaboration, online paper mark-up, and online grade management through its Turnitin brand. iParadigms is headquartered in the San Francisco Bay area.

About Blackboard Inc. Blackboard is a leading provider of enterprise software and services to the education industry. The Company’s product line consists of five software applications bundled in two suites, the Blackboard Academic Suite TM and the Blackboard Commerce Suite TM. Blackboard’s clients include colleges, universities, schools and other education providers, as well as textbook publishers and student-focused merchants that serve education providers and their students. Blackboard is headquartered in Washington, D.C., with offices and staff in North America, Europe and Asia.

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For more information, contact: Malik AboRashid, Sales Manager, iParadigms, LLC, (510) 287-9720 Michael J. Stanton, Blackboard Inc., (202) 463-4860 ext. 2305