One CMS to Rule Them All

With Blackboard’s announcement that it would be taking over rival course management system provider Angel Learning, Blackboard is one step closer to a monopoly. After its rocky take-over of former rival WebCT in 2006, and lawsuits against its largest competitor, Desire2Learn, “Blackborg” (as some are calling it) is making no friends. An article in The Chronicle yesterday cited what must be obvious to faculty and administrators at many schools: we are being assimilated, like it or not, into one way of doing technology in the classroom. At least, that is, if you only look to buy your solutions; open-source competitors Moodle and Sakai have been stealing market share for some time, not just at small colleges but at many large institutions, too.

My small university, traditionally a business school, prides itself on keeping abreast of enterprise solutions, Blackboard among them. But a recent training seminar on Blackboard’s updated grading tool left some of us bewildered by its complexity and wondering why we needed a bulldozer to build a sandcastle. Nonetheless, the widespread use of course management systems has mostly positive implications for a wide range of faculty, both at “teaching schools” like mine and lecture-heavy research institutions. For many teachers I know who are wholly invested in students, classroom work, and the design and management of their classes, course management systems make much of the logistical complexity of teaching easier, more transparent, and greener.

But for those of us who balance teaching with research agendas and maintain professional identities beyond our institution, course management systems offer no effective, let alone attractive, means to promote our work and connect with our larger communities. Fortunately, new media provide many alternatives. Blogs such as this one provide flexible platforms for blending teaching with research in a format that students find accessible and the profession takes increasingly seriously. And course management can be integrated into a web presence. A case in point is NfoMedia’s blend of web and course management features. Lately, I have been resisting the dark side as I begin to prepare my fall courses. Update: The Chronicle reports that CUNY is considering using blog software in response to widespread discontent with Blackboard. Make sure to watch the accompanying video on why "colleges should move away from commercial course-management tools to reflect new Web trends like social networking."

How are you incorporating Web technologies into your teaching and professionalization?