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An Open Source Alternative to Blackboard?

Posted by Cliff on from the educational-options dept.

mandrake*rpgdx asks: "The college I work for is looking into creating an all in one online system for teachers and students to be able to take tests, give online courses and do other daily tasks. They are currently looking into the Blackboard system. Is there an FOSS alternative that I could suggest using at their next meeting?"

5 of 84 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Sakai by XCorvis · · Score: 3, Insightful
    We looked at Sakai briefly - we determined that it's really just not usable for a small insititution. You need to have a lot of money and resources to pour into it to get it going. One day it will be great, but it's not ready yet.

    Try Moodle instead.

  2. Many to choose from by i.r.id10t · · Score: 2, Insightful

    For pure open source, check moodle and sakai (sp?). For something that isn't F/OSS but is very customizable, check out Angel.

    Personally, I never liked Blackboard. I learned WebCT back in its infancy (v 1.1, 1.something beta for Win32) after struggling with TopClass for a few months. We were up and running with 12 completely online classes (english, library science, biology, etc) in just 2 weeks using WebCT.

    Also, I've been playing with Desire2Learn for a few months - they may be worthwhile in a few years, but not now.

    Check with the powers-that-be regarding license costs, server costs (our new webct servers are gonna be about $22k each next fall), whos going to admin them, if publisher prepared courses are desireable (usually are by instructors, but usually include so much as to be overwhelming and therefore nearly useless), etc. Also consider that many of the big players (webct and bb included) can host courses for you on their servers, etc.

    --
    Don't blame me, I voted for Kodos
  3. Re:Moodle? by alienw · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Blackboard is very primitive. I'm surprised they can actually sell it considering that it does not have many capabilities. At my school, hardly anybody uses it because one would have to restructure grading and so on around its very basic capabilities. It doesn't allow automatically dropped grades, and so on.

    I'd say the main problem with free alternatives is really stupid project names. Moodle? WTF? People need to realize that the name is even more critical than features or capabilities. Having a bad name will get you nowhere. It needs to be simple, non-offensive, non-weird, and describe the product. I wouldn't feel comfortable putting a name like "Moodle" on university publications.

  4. Re:OSS = Free by Mr.+Slippery · · Score: 2, Insightful
    They are almost never looking to contribute to or modify the project....which is fine, but lets say i knew of a free alternative to blackboard that wasn't open sourced...you're probably still interested right?

    One may not be "looking to" make modifications, but still want the ability to make them if cause arises.

    I'm not "looking to" do any serious repairs on my car, but I would certainly take any sort of vendor lock on repairs as a negative feature when next I buy.

    --
    Tom Swiss | the infamous tms | my blog
    You cannot wash away blood with blood
  5. Blackboard is awful, but... by soliptic · · Score: 3, Insightful
    A fairly major part of my life is spent as a VLE administrator, using Blackboard. I've even been to conferences on the bloody thing. It's awful; everyone in the office hates it. It's a usability joke - our students can never find the things we put up there, and we can hardly blame them. Every major forum system on the internet today (phpBB, vBulletin, etc) whips the living hell out of it. The forum features are so archaic they discourage use. The navigational system is poor and confusing. The admin options are inconsistent: sometimes login-power-sensitive on the display pages, sometimes only available in a separate control panel. Everything takes at least 2 more clicks than it needs to.

    However, it is very firmly embedded in academia, and I suspect you'll have a hard time dissuading them. There are mailing lists a plenty, those conferences I mentioned, a documented API/plugin architecture which already supports a fairly wide market of 3rd party extensions, which could provide another barrier to switching, etc.

    So, I would love to see an OSS VLE, because there's surely room for improvement, but I'm not aware of any that's really ready, and even if there is, it faces the usual uphill battle against entrenched investment and long term commitment in terms of extensions, staff training, etc.