Mobile Learning Provider Blackboard (News - Alert) and Barnes & Noble Inc., a leading operator of college bookstores, have made a partnership that aims to make it easier for millions of higher education students to access and use interactive e-textbooks as part of their online course experience.

Under the partnership, the companies will work to enable students to access and purchase e-textbooks and other course-related materials directly in Blackboard Learn, the Web-based teaching and learning platform.

The effort will help streamline the ability for instructors to assign content from Barnes & Noble's vast catalog of over one million titles, including e-books, e-textbooks, relevant study aids, test prep guides, periodicals, and hundreds of thousands of trade and professional titles.

The partnership will also create greater interoperability between Blackboard Learn and NOOKstudy by Barnes & Noble, a free, feature-rich software application that delivers a digital reading experience and enhances the academic experience through unique and customizable study features. NOOKstudy was built by students for students and works on the computer device they rely on the most, their PC or Mac. Among NOOKstudy's critical features include enabling students to navigate e-textbooks as they would printed ones, to view multiple books and sources at once, and to access complementary content. Students can also highlight and take notes that are searchable and customizable.

"This partnership will make it much easier for students to access the resources they need for their courses and leverage the best in interactive, digital content," said Matthew Small, chief business officer at Blackboard. "This is part of our overall strategy to transform the way that students and instructors use and share digital content."

"The integration of NOOKstudy with Blackboard Learn will allow institutions to offer students a digital choice for their educational needs," said Tracey Weber, executive vice president, Textbooks and Digital Education at Barnes & Noble.com. "We are committed to offering students simple and seamless access to all of their educational materials."

The integration is expected to be available to Blackboard clients later in the year as a Blackboard Building Block for institutions running Blackboard Learn Release 8 and higher. As part of the partnership, Barnes & Noble becomes a Blackboard Premier Partner in the Blackboard Alliance Program. The announcement was made at BbWorld, Blackboard's annual user conference held in Orlando, Florida.