I develop free software because of CUNY and Blackboard

A corporation; here, it's meant to refer to the Blackboard Learning System, which is Blackboard's course management software. Students can log in and view assignments, readings, etc. that faculty post.

It's closed source and a colossal pain in the ass to use. The institution I work at recently switched away from it to Moodle, which is the big open-source alternative (which, in the interest of full disclosure, I think is pretty great).

Re: I develop free software because of CUNY and Blackboard

#5

Post by calloc » Mon, Sep 19, 2011, 4:37 PM UTC

My school used eCollege, a Blackboard competitor. From what I have heard from professors that have used both they are both on par with each other in terms of being absolute shit.

When I was still in school the students attempted to push the administration to go for an open source alternative called Moodle which is miles ahead of anything else.

Speaking of Blackboard, apparently some security vulnerabilities were found: http://www.scmagazineus.com/zero-day-holes-found-in-blackboa...

Re: I develop free software because of CUNY and Blackboard

#6

Post by brainid » Mon, Sep 19, 2011, 4:37 PM UTC

TheEzEzz wrote: post #2

I just started a postdoc at NYU and have been forced into using Blackboard to teach my class. Inspiring alternatives can't come fast enough.

I am not sure how inspired it is, but Sakai is a very good open source alternative to Blackboard used at many Universities.

http://sakaiproject.org/

Re: I develop free software because of CUNY and Blackboard

#7

Post by younata » Mon, Sep 19, 2011, 4:44 PM UTC

herdrick wrote: post #3

What is Blackboard?

It's a company that pretty much owns the education market, despite their products being nearly universally considered to be harmful^H^H^H^H^H^H^Hhorrible.

For more information, see wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackboard_Inc

Edit: I should point out that my knowledge of blackboard is near non-existant, I haven't had to use it in any of my schooling (university in central florida, public education in silicon valley), so I don't have a useful opinion of it.

Re: I develop free software because of CUNY and Blackboard

#8

Post by sirlancer » Mon, Sep 19, 2011, 4:45 PM UTC

I'm working out of PSU on a humanitarian engineering and social entrepreneurship venture based in India. I have to say that Moodle is light years ahead of the competition. I'm speaking not just from a users perspective, but as a system administrator, it's an absolute dream to work with. Which operating system would you like to run your LAMP server from? OSX? Not my first choice, but it works fantastically all the same.

Re: I develop free software because of CUNY and Blackboard

#9

Post by krupan » Mon, Sep 19, 2011, 4:46 PM UTC

TheEzEzz wrote: post #2

I just started a postdoc at NYU and have been forced into using Blackboard to teach my class. Inspiring alternatives can't come fast enough.

My school used blackboard and it was horrible. Instructure (http://www.instructure.com/) is a start-up that is competing with Blackboard. Their product, Canvas, is available as open source and their CEO, Josh Coates, was founder of Mozy (which was pretty darn successful).

Re: I develop free software because of CUNY and Blackboard

#10

Post by stonemetal » Mon, Sep 19, 2011, 4:58 PM UTC

herdrick wrote: post #3

What is Blackboard?

It is a host it yourself website for Universities. It provides a way for teachers to provide lecture notes, give assignments, accept submissions, post grades, have a message board. All of the features are access controlled so only students in the class can see assignments, you only see your grades, etc.

Only it isn't done very well, and the company has a patent on using a website to manage a classroom or some such BS. So they sue rather than fix it.