Blackboard Inc. announced today the launch of Blackboard Collaborate™, an education-focused platform for real-time collaboration. Combining the features of the Elluminate and Wimba products, the platform offers Web, video and voice conferencing as well as presence, instant messaging and voice authoring.

The platform integrates with an institution’s learning management system and can also be used independently to enable a wide range of informal interactions across the institution including office hours, school services, student-to-student interaction, and more.