Rajeev Arora, vice president of marketing and strategy for Blackboard Collaborate, speaks about eLearning Wednesday with educators at Athens State University.

Athens State University played host Thursday to the second annual Alabama Community College System eLearning Symposium.

Rajeev Arora, vice president of marketing and strategy for Blackboard Collaborate, served as the keynote speaker.

The eLearning symposium is a system-wide professional development opportunity for those involved in online education. Educators said last year’s symposium provided unique networking opportunities among the system’s 27 educational institutions.

“The conference provides a tremendous opportunity to bring together our sister institutions, as well as the leading providers of eLearning technology, to advance our state’s commitment to providing the highest quality distance learning environment for our students to prepare the way for the future,” said Bob Glenn, president of ASU.

Other businesses attending from the Blackboard Alliance Program included Connect Yard, Follett High Education Group, NBC Learn, Pearson Education, SoftChalk, Tegrity, Brainshark, eXplorance, ShareStream, Sprint and McGraw Hill Higher Education. Representatives from the companies conducted sessions that offered more in-depth previews through live demonstrations of their products.

Blackboard is a global leader in enterprise technology and innovative solutions that improve the experience of millions of students around the world everyday, according to an ASU press release. A majority of community colleges use Blackboard as their learning management system.