Murray Goldberg (born October 1962) is a noted Canadian educational technologist and a faculty member in the Department of Computer Science at the

University of British Columbia The University of British Columbia (UBC) is a public research university with campuses near Vancouver and in Kelowna, British Columbia. Established in 1908, it is British Columbia's oldest university. The university ranks among the top thr ...

in Vancouver, Canada. Goldberg is best known for being the founder of the

elearning Educational technology (commonly abbreviated as edutech, or edtech) is the combined use of computer hardware, software, and educational theory and practice to facilitate learning. When referred to with its abbreviation, edtech, it often refer ...

companies

WebCT WebCT (Course Tools) or Blackboard Learning System, now owned by Blackboard, is an online proprietary virtual learning environment system that is licensed to colleges and other institutions and used in many campuses for e-learning. To their WebC ...

, Brainify, Silicon Chalk, AssociCom, and Marine Learning Systems. Goldberg was born in

Calgary Calgary ( ) is the largest city in the western Canadian province of Alberta and the largest metro area of the three Prairie Provinces. As of 2021, the city proper had a population of 1,306,784 and a metropolitan population of 1,481,806, maki ...

Alberta Alberta ( ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada. It is part of Western Canada and is one of the three prairie provinces. Alberta is bordered by British Columbia to the west, Saskatchewan to the east, the Northwest T ...

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by to ...

and raised in

Edmonton Edmonton ( ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Alberta. Edmonton is situated on the North Saskatchewan River and is the centre of the Edmonton Metropolitan Region, which is surrounded by Alberta's central region. The city an ...

. He moved to

British Columbia British Columbia (commonly abbreviated as BC) is the westernmost province of Canada, situated between the Pacific Ocean and the Rocky Mountains. It has a diverse geography, with rugged landscapes that include rocky coastlines, sandy beaches, for ...

to attend the

University of Victoria The University of Victoria (UVic or Victoria) is a public research university located in the municipalities of Oak Bay and Saanich, British Columbia, Canada. The university traces its roots to Victoria College, the first post-secondary insti ...

in 1980. Murray graduated from UVic in 1985 and then went on to earn an MSc from the

. In 2004 he was awarded an honorary Ph.D. from the Southern Cross University.''Murray Goldberg & WebCT Wins Hyperion Award''
/ref> Murray serves as director for various companies, sits on the board of trustees of Harvey Mudd College in Claremont California, is a mentor at the GSV Labs tech incubator in Redwood City California, and is a frequent consultant and speaker on the future of eLearning. Murray is also the chair of the British Columbia chapter of the Manning Innovation Awards.

Professional History

University of British Columbia

Murray began as a faculty member in the Department of Computer Science at UBC in 1993 and was awarded tenure there in 1998.''Goldberg short speaker biography'', New Mexico CHECS
/ref> In 1994, his first year as a faculty member at UBC, Goldberg won th

at UBC.
Goldberg took a leave of absence from UBC in 1998 to lead WebCT full-time.

WebCT

In 1995, as a UBC faculty member, Goldberg was researching the effectiveness of Web-Based learning environments.''CALOS: an experiment with computer-aided learning for operating systems''
Proceedings of the twenty-seventh SIGCSE technical symposium on Computer science education, p.175-179, February 15–17, 1996, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States''CALOS: first results from an experiment in computer-aided learning for operating systems''
Proceedings of the twenty-eighth SIGCSE technical symposium on Computer science education, p.48-52, February 27-March 01, 1997, San Jose, California, United States Goldberg found that the experience of building the courses for this experimentation was sufficiently time consuming and expensive that he decided to create a platform to enable the simple and rapid creation of web-based learning environments,''Goldberg Pioneers On-Line Education'', Synergy Magazine, Issue 2.1, October 1996
/ref>
/ref> WebCT. WebCT was widely accepted as a catalyst in the worldwide boom of on-line learning that accelerated beginning in 1997.''What you see is Now What You Get Taught'', South China Morning Post, November 18, 2000 By November, 2000 WebCT was purportedly serving 6 million students in 57 countries, and by late 2001, 10 million students in 80 countries at 2250 universities and colleges.
In 1999, Goldberg sold most of his stake in WebCT to Boston-Based Universal Learning Technology. The combined company took on the WebCT name.''BC University Spinoff Finds Virtual Success'', The Globe and Mail, January 31, 2000
/ref> Goldberg remained as president of the Canadian division of WebCT until 2002 when he left to co-found Silicon Chalk.

Silicon Chalk

In 2002 Goldberg co-founded Silicon Chalk and served as the president and CEO. Silicon Chalk created software for use in laptop or computer enabled higher education classrooms. The software facilitated the recording of classroom presentations, student note taking, polling, file sharing, and other features. The company never achieved widespread success, though did have users in 70 universities and colleges when it was sold to Horizon Wimba

Brainify

In 2007 Goldberg began work on Brainify
(website)
an academic social bookmarking and networking site for university and college students and professors. Brainify was launched in January 2009 and Goldberg acts as the President and CEO. Members from 250 institutions had joined within the first 20 days of its launch.

AssociCom

In June, 2010, Goldberg launched AssociCom]
(website)
a professional networking and discovery platform with an emphasis on enabling member discovery, learning and connection within professional associations and societies.

Marine Learning Systems

Also in 2010, Murray founded the company Marine Learning Systemsbr>(website)
Their product, MarineLMS, is a learning management system for training in the maritime industry, with BC Ferries as their first customer.

Selected Awards and Distinctions

* 2011 - ''Murray Goldberg named as one of the top 15 Canadians in Digital Media'' * 2004 - ''Murray Goldberg awarded the $100,000 National Manning Innovation Awards Principal Award for Innovation''. This is a National award, awarded once per year for innovation in any human endeavor Award video can be foun
here
* 2004 - ''Murray Goldberg granted an Honorary Ph.D.'', Southern Cross University, Gold Coast, Australia * 2001 – ''Murray Goldberg awarded the New Media Hyperion Award''. This award for excellence is awarded annually to those who have made a significant contribution in the creation or development of software tools, hardware or connectivity innovations. * 2000 – ''Murray Goldberg awarded the National CANARIE IWAY Award''. This is a national award, awarded to nominees who have pioneered innovative uses of technology related to the development of Canada's information highway. * 1994 - ''Murray Goldberg awarded the "Killiam Teaching Prize"''. These prizes, accompanied by a monetary award, are given annually at UBC to a small number of faculty members who have exhibited excellence in teaching.

External links

Video of Murray Goldberg presenting WebCT at CICEI in 1998

Notes and references

{{DEFAULTSORT:Goldberg, Murray Living people People in educational technology 1962 births People from Calgary University of British Columbia faculty University of British Columbia alumni University of Victoria alumni