Stephen Gilfus
Encyclopedia
Stephen Gilfus is a founder of Blackboard Inc.
and CourseInfo LLC
.
, attended Pittsford Mendon High School
and graduated from Cornell University
in Ithaca, New York
in 1997 as an academic scholar with a Bachelors of Science degree from the undergraduate business program within the Cornell University Department of Applied Economics and Management
While at Cornell, he focused on the development of new businesses through his studies as a part of a burgeoning new series of studies within Cornell's Entrepreneurship Personal Enterprise program. In 1997, during his senior year at Cornell University, he co-founded CourseInfo LLC
, a small e-learning
company focused on the development of an innovative course management system. As a founder and as Vice President of Marketing and Sales for CourseInfo he directed the businesses initial vision, writing the companies first business plan and developing its foundational sales and marketing strategy. - The Scientist : UCLA Taking A Leading Role In Mandating ... "It's a Web course-management tool," explains Stephen Gilfus, CourseInfo's vice president for marketing. "The entire structure is set up to provide areas...
In 1998, CourseInfo LLC, founded by Daniel Cane and Stephen Gilfus, and Blackboard LLC, founded by Michael Chasen and Matthew Pittinsky merged to form Blackboard Inc. The first line of e-learning products was branded Blackboard CourseInfo, but the CourseInfo brand was dropped in 2000. Gilfus was one of the primary designers and inventors of the CourseInfo and Blackboard Learning System products as head of corporate and product strategy for the company and published the companies Blackboard's Product Strategy and Roadmap.. As the company expanded it's market and business relationships Stephen along with Matthew Pittinsky (both company co-founders) jointly wrote a Blackboard Product Strategy & Vision White Paper on Building Blocks (B2) Initiative outlining the launch of a "Building Blocks Initiative" introducing new thought concepts to extend the Blackboard Platform and allowing for greater extensibility of the technology as an open platform for allowing for technology extensions. In 2001 the company (Blackboard Inc.) began to explore "mobile learning" initiatives and Stephen joined a Mobile Steering Committee established and led by the President and CEO of McGraw-Hill Ryerson to answer the question "What can “ anytime, anywhere” access to learning material contribute to the education experience?" Results where published in the following report: "Harvesting Fragments of Time" - Mobile Learning Pilot Project (Evaluation Team Report) Further to Blackboard's development path Stephen led the companies initiatives to introduce new learning standards as the Head of Corporate and Product Strategy collaborating with NDU, the National Defense University
, and the ADL Co-Labs to design, implement and deploy a free Blackboard SCORM 1.2 through Blackboard Building Blocks. SCORM (Sharable Content Object Repository Model) is a specification of the Advanced Distributed Learning
(ADL) Initiative, which comes out of the Office of the United States Secretary of Defense
.
During this time, around 2004, still with Blackboard, Stephen began to assemble data from the experiences of thousands of Blackboard customers and authored the "Educational Technology Framework", a model used to contemplate organizational, technological, and social impact of educational technologies on academic institutions – sometimes referred to as “The Gilfus Model of Educational Technology Adoption”. The model was updated in 2010.
From 2004 to mid-2008, Gilfus was Vice President of Blackboard's Education Consulting Practice where he led a team of professionals focused on integrating and extending the Blackboard Platform, Serving over 450 academic institutions in integrating into PeopleSoft
, Datatel
, SCT
and other SIS applications as well as creating custom applications. Gilfus worked closely with several customers and was one of the key strategists behind Fairfax County Public Schools
launch of the Blackboard platform for Fairfax 24/7 Learning. He also led a core team of individuals that designed and implemented Pearson's Course Compass, a private-label version of Blackboard for Pearson Education
. Gilfus worked cross-organizationally within Blackboard, holding key leadership positions throughout the company in Marketing and Sales, Product Management/Development, Strategic Development, Global Services, and the Office of the CEO as a facilitator and change agent and over the many years he has had various titles throughout the organization with his final initiative as a lead to Blackboard's K12 strategy.
In February 2007, Gilfus left Blackboard to found Gilfus Education Group, an independent consulting and management company based in Washington, D.C. In mid-2007, Gilfus founded Gilfus Venture Partners and joined New Market Venture Partners as an investment partner. He is also an "Entrepreneurship@Cornell" advisory council member.
Blackboard Inc.
Blackboard Inc. is an enterprise software company with its corporate headquarters in Washington, D.C. and is primarily known as a developer of education software, in particular learning management systems. Blackboard was founded by CEO Michael Chasen and chairman Matthew Pittinsky in 1997 and...
and CourseInfo LLC
CourseInfo LLC
CourseInfo LLC, one of the two companies forming Blackboard Inc. was founded in 1997 by Dan Cane and Stephen Gilfus while at Cornell University. They joined together to officially form the partnership known as CourseInfo and developed the company into a small course management software provider....
.
Biography
Stephen Gilfus grew up in Pittsford, New YorkPittsford (town), New York
Pittsford is a town in Monroe County, New York, United States and is an affluent suburb of Rochester. The population was 29,405 at the 2010 census....
, attended Pittsford Mendon High School
Pittsford Mendon High School
Pittsford Mendon High School is a public high school in suburban Rochester, Monroe County, upstate New York. It is one of two high schools in the Pittsford Central School District, the other being Pittsford Sutherland High School...
and graduated from Cornell University
Cornell University
Cornell University is an Ivy League university located in Ithaca, New York, United States. It is a private land-grant university, receiving annual funding from the State of New York for certain educational missions...
in Ithaca, New York
Ithaca, New York
The city of Ithaca, is a city in upstate New York and the county seat of Tompkins County, as well as the largest community in the Ithaca-Tompkins County metropolitan area...
in 1997 as an academic scholar with a Bachelors of Science degree from the undergraduate business program within the Cornell University Department of Applied Economics and Management
Cornell University Department of Applied Economics and Management
The Charles H. Dyson School of Applied Economics and Management is a unit within the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences of Cornell University in Ithaca, New York. Dyson houses Cornell's undergraduate business school as well as graduate education in applied economics...
While at Cornell, he focused on the development of new businesses through his studies as a part of a burgeoning new series of studies within Cornell's Entrepreneurship Personal Enterprise program. In 1997, during his senior year at Cornell University, he co-founded CourseInfo LLC
CourseInfo LLC
CourseInfo LLC, one of the two companies forming Blackboard Inc. was founded in 1997 by Dan Cane and Stephen Gilfus while at Cornell University. They joined together to officially form the partnership known as CourseInfo and developed the company into a small course management software provider....
, a small e-learning
E-learning
E-learning comprises all forms of electronically supported learning and teaching. The information and communication systems, whether networked learning or not, serve as specific media to implement the learning process...
company focused on the development of an innovative course management system. As a founder and as Vice President of Marketing and Sales for CourseInfo he directed the businesses initial vision, writing the companies first business plan and developing its foundational sales and marketing strategy. - The Scientist : UCLA Taking A Leading Role In Mandating ... "It's a Web course-management tool," explains Stephen Gilfus, CourseInfo's vice president for marketing. "The entire structure is set up to provide areas...
In 1998, CourseInfo LLC, founded by Daniel Cane and Stephen Gilfus, and Blackboard LLC, founded by Michael Chasen and Matthew Pittinsky merged to form Blackboard Inc. The first line of e-learning products was branded Blackboard CourseInfo, but the CourseInfo brand was dropped in 2000. Gilfus was one of the primary designers and inventors of the CourseInfo and Blackboard Learning System products as head of corporate and product strategy for the company and published the companies Blackboard's Product Strategy and Roadmap.. As the company expanded it's market and business relationships Stephen along with Matthew Pittinsky (both company co-founders) jointly wrote a Blackboard Product Strategy & Vision White Paper on Building Blocks (B2) Initiative outlining the launch of a "Building Blocks Initiative" introducing new thought concepts to extend the Blackboard Platform and allowing for greater extensibility of the technology as an open platform for allowing for technology extensions. In 2001 the company (Blackboard Inc.) began to explore "mobile learning" initiatives and Stephen joined a Mobile Steering Committee established and led by the President and CEO of McGraw-Hill Ryerson to answer the question "What can “ anytime, anywhere” access to learning material contribute to the education experience?" Results where published in the following report: "Harvesting Fragments of Time" - Mobile Learning Pilot Project (Evaluation Team Report) Further to Blackboard's development path Stephen led the companies initiatives to introduce new learning standards as the Head of Corporate and Product Strategy collaborating with NDU, the National Defense University
National Defense University
The National Defense University is an institution of higher education funded by the United States Department of Defense, intended to facilitate high-level training, education, and the development of national security strategy. It is chartered by the Joint Chiefs of Staff, with Navy Vice Admiral...
, and the ADL Co-Labs to design, implement and deploy a free Blackboard SCORM 1.2 through Blackboard Building Blocks. SCORM (Sharable Content Object Repository Model) is a specification of the Advanced Distributed Learning
Advanced Distributed Learning
Advanced Distributed Learning is the product of the ADL Initiative, established in 1997 to standardize and modernize training and education management and delivery. The Department of Defense Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness oversees the ADL Initiative...
(ADL) Initiative, which comes out of the Office of the United States Secretary of Defense
United States Secretary of Defense
The Secretary of Defense is the head and chief executive officer of the Department of Defense of the United States of America. This position corresponds to what is generally known as a Defense Minister in other countries...
.
During this time, around 2004, still with Blackboard, Stephen began to assemble data from the experiences of thousands of Blackboard customers and authored the "Educational Technology Framework", a model used to contemplate organizational, technological, and social impact of educational technologies on academic institutions – sometimes referred to as “The Gilfus Model of Educational Technology Adoption”. The model was updated in 2010.
From 2004 to mid-2008, Gilfus was Vice President of Blackboard's Education Consulting Practice where he led a team of professionals focused on integrating and extending the Blackboard Platform, Serving over 450 academic institutions in integrating into PeopleSoft
PeopleSoft
PeopleSoft, Inc. was a company that provided Human Resource Management Systems , Financial Management Solutions , Supply Chain and customer relationship management software, as well as software solutions for manufacturing, enterprise performance management, and student administration to large...
, Datatel
Datatel
Datatel, Inc. is a private company that provides fully integrated software and professional services to build Enterprise Education Platforms for higher education. Founded in 1968 by Tom Davidson. It was originally a data processing service company, but has focused on higher education since 1979...
, SCT
SCT
-Businesses and organizations:* Slovenija ceste Tehnika, the biggest Slovenian construction company* Southampton Container Terminals, a port operator in Southampton, England* Southern Cross Ten, an Australian regional television network...
and other SIS applications as well as creating custom applications. Gilfus worked closely with several customers and was one of the key strategists behind Fairfax County Public Schools
Fairfax County Public Schools
The Fairfax County Public Schools system is a branch of the Fairfax County government which administers public schools in Fairfax County and the City of Fairfax...
launch of the Blackboard platform for Fairfax 24/7 Learning. He also led a core team of individuals that designed and implemented Pearson's Course Compass, a private-label version of Blackboard for Pearson Education
Pearson Education
Pearson Education is an international educational publishing and technology company providing textbooks and other educational material, such as multimedia learning tools...
. Gilfus worked cross-organizationally within Blackboard, holding key leadership positions throughout the company in Marketing and Sales, Product Management/Development, Strategic Development, Global Services, and the Office of the CEO as a facilitator and change agent and over the many years he has had various titles throughout the organization with his final initiative as a lead to Blackboard's K12 strategy.
In February 2007, Gilfus left Blackboard to found Gilfus Education Group, an independent consulting and management company based in Washington, D.C. In mid-2007, Gilfus founded Gilfus Venture Partners and joined New Market Venture Partners as an investment partner. He is also an "Entrepreneurship@Cornell" advisory council member.
Published Works
- April 25, 2000, Blackboard Learning System, inducted into the archives for inclusion in the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History's IT Innovation Collection - received ComputerWorld Smithsonian Award for its leadership in using information technology to improve society.
- Gilfus, Stephen (2000-12-20). "Product Strategy and Development Roadmap"(PDF). Blackboard Inc. (Product strategy for the core Blackboard platform from V4 - V6 and beyond.)
- Gilfus, Stephen; Pittinsky, Matthew (2000-01-01). "Product Strategy and Vision White paper on (B2 - "Blackboard Building Blocks" Initiative" (PDF). Blackboard. (Pragmatic partner program for the extension of the Blackboard platform.)
- Roberts, Judy; Beke, Jensen, Mercer (2000-12-20). "Harvesting Fragments of Time". McGrawHill Ryerson. (Team Researcher) (Led by McGraw-Hill to design a model around "mobile learning" device distribution for students.)
- Gilfus, Stephen et al. (2001-01-10) "Blackboard 5: Introducing the Blackboard 5 - Learning system". Blackboard Inc. (1st extension of the product strategy outlined in 2000. This is V.5)
- Gilfus, Stephen et al. (2002-03-23) "Blackboard 5 - Release 5.5 Overview". Blackboard Inc. (A Release 5.5 Update.)
- Gilfus, Stephen (2002-09-15) "Release of Bb SCORM Player". Blackboard Inc.. (SCORM 1.2 Player in collaboration with the National Defense University, ADL Co-Labs, and the DOD)
- Gilfus, Stephen (2004-12-20) "Educational Technology Framework". Blackboard Inc. - Stephen Gilfus (Partial outline of the ETF, for educational technology adoption.)
- Ellis, Cathy (2004-04-23) "Benchmarking Blackboard– From Champions To Transformers". BbMatters. (An independent article on the Educational Technology Framework.)
- Ganis, Frank; Gilfus, Stephen (2009-04-10) "Social Learning" Buzz Masks Deeper Dimensions". Gilfus Education Group (One issue with today’s offerings for social software in education is that they are being presented as “social learning” solutions, but they are not being designed, packaged or integrated with the greater concepts of social learning theory in mind.)
- Gilfus, Stephen; Ganis Frank (2009-10-25) "Intelligence Emerges from Enterprise Education Platform". Gilfus Education Group (One of the most acute information technology gaps at colleges today is the huge discontinuity between the LMS and the ERP.)
- Gilfus, Stephen (2009-10-27) Gilfus Education Group, Predicts Top Five Education Innovation Trends Gilfus Education Group
- Gilfus, Stephen (2010-12-20) "Educational Technology Framework 2010". Blackboard Inc. - Stephen Gilfus (Updated Educational Technology Adoption for 2010, for educational technology adoption.)
- Gilfus, Stephen; Ganis Frank (2010-12-10) "Promise of Community Changes Technology Paradigms". Gilfus Education Group (The changing paradigm of Learning Management Systems and web 2.0 social networking technology.)
Presentations
- Gilfus, Stephen Cornell eClips Presentation Matthew Pittinsky Provides Introduction to Dan Cane, Steve Gilfus and Lecture on Company, Blackboard
- Gilfus, Stephen Cornell Class Presentation describing the founding of Blackboard View the Cornell University Presentation transcript
- Stephen Gilfus, Blackboard Founder, Discusses Academic and Professional Background at Entrepreneurship at Cornell Celebration 2009
External links
See also
- History of virtual learning environmentsHistory of virtual learning environmentsA virtual learning environment is a system that creates an environment designed to facilitate teachers in the management of educational courses for their students, especially a system using computer hardware and software, which involves distance learning...
- History of virtual learning environments 1990sHistory of virtual learning environments 1990sIn the history of virtual learning environments, the 1990s was a time of growth, primarily due to the advent of the affordable computer and of the Internet.-1990:...
- CourseInfo
- Blackboard Inc.Blackboard Inc.Blackboard Inc. is an enterprise software company with its corporate headquarters in Washington, D.C. and is primarily known as a developer of education software, in particular learning management systems. Blackboard was founded by CEO Michael Chasen and chairman Matthew Pittinsky in 1997 and...