It is not uncommon at Penn to see students pull out their cell phones in the middle of a lecture and respond to an e-mail or text message from a friend.
But students may now have their cell phones out for other reasons - such as checking grades.
Last week, Blackboard released Blackboard Learn for Apple iPhone, a free application that lets students use their iPhone or iPod Touch to access information about their courses through notifications and alerts.
"Many of today's students and learners live in a mobile world, and now they can learn in one too," Blackboard President and CEO Michael Chasen said in a press release. "This application is part of our focus to help students more deeply engage in the educational experience by creating learning opportunities that are not bound by time or place."
Matthew Maurer, director of Public Relations at Blackboard, wrote in an e-mail that the application will help make students' lives less stressful.
"The purpose of the application is to keep students aware and engaged with what's going on in their courses and groups by making it easier to access that information through notifications and alerts," he wrote.
He added that the application is not intended to be an alternative to the Web-based interface and that many of the features available on the web version are not available on the iPhone application.
"Blackboard Sync is designed as a notification system to provide users with announcements and notifications about new course materials, newly posted grades and updates to forums," Maurer wrote.
While the application can be downloaded for free in the iTunes application store, universities still have the ability to block the application from student use.
Some users of this new feature have complained about the usefulness of the application.
"Pretty much its only function is to tell you that a new grade or assignment has been posted," wrote an anonymous reviewer of the application in the iTunes store. "I was really hoping for something that would display all the data in the app in an optimized way for the iPhone screen."
Blackboard Learn for Apple iPhone arrives only 10 months after Blackboard released a new Facebook application that alerts students about updates in their Blackboard accounts.
Maurer wrote that Blackboard's new application is very similar to the Facebook application, which was launched last May.
While there are concerns about the new feature, many students are also excited by the release of the application.
"Now students can check their work and grades without having the anxiety of running to the library," College freshman Kevin Leiby said.
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