So it seems the two largest suppliers of enterprise education software have become one. Blackboard has purchased WebCT for $180 million cash. I’m a college student that uses both tools daily, and the most positive thing I can say about this is: possibly future students won’t have to remember that their Econ homework is in WebCT, but assignments for my Systems Development class are on Blackboard, they’ll both be in the unwieldingly huge and difficult to use BlackboardCT Ack.
Further, both tools are compeletely sub-par. Let me tell you why.
One thing that I like to do with websites: I use bookmarks. A lot of people use bookmarks, say, to store the address of an important site (like an Econ assignment page) so they can access it with one click.
What happens when I try to bookmark my Econ assignment page, and load in in WebCT? WebCT prompts me to login, which I happily do. Then, I’m redirected to myWebCT, WebCT’s fancy-scmancy dashboard page. I didn’t want myWebCT. I wanted Econ! No such luck. Don’t even get me started about WebCT’s file download links.
On to Blackboard, apparently the bigger fish of the two companies. Would you like to login to Blackboard? I’ve used this new-fangled technology called “bookmarks” to store the login page for easy, one-click access right here. If you’re registerd with Terry, try to login.You’ll be suprised to see a strange error message:
Challenge token null
Challenge what? Try again and it works. Or, you could use visit Terry’s Blackboard homepage, NOT the login page itself, then click on the login button, and you’ll see no such inflamitory remarks about your tokens.
Further, neither tool has ANY sort of notification system. That is, I frequently get e-mails from my professors saying “I’ve added a new assignment to WebCT/Blackboard.” This seems to me like a common task: upload new content, then notify a list of contacts. But software that automates mundane, repetative tasks? Alas, that just makes too much sense. RSS feeds would be perfect for this, but really, who am I kidding.
Anyway, I’m glad to be using both WebCT and Blackboard for my last semester. I hope they’re happy together as one huge educational software conglomerate. Maybe then they’ll take a second to develop software that doesn’t require huge manuals and trainings for instructors and headaches for students. Here’s my plea:
Oh BlackboardCT, or whatever you would like to be called, great software conglomerate, I bow before you and ask of you only this: would you please write software that helps students learn rather than requires them to learn how to use it? Oh Blackboard CT, next time around, help teachers teach and don’t make more work for them by requiring them to attend lenghty trainings. BlackboardCT, please heed my call.
Really, it’s all insignificant. In 5 years we’ll all be wirelessly connected together and to the Library of Congress via our BrainChips™. I’m all for that, as long as BlackboardCT isn’t in charge.
That is all.