Incidentally, "a sort of Hotel California" is actually a pretty good analogy for data lockin.
I develop free software because of CUNY and Blackboard
31–40 of 63 posts
Re: I develop free software because of CUNY and Blackboard
#32"The project is not pitched as a Blackboard alternative, for a number of reasons (primary among which is that the Commons’s Terms of Service prohibit undergraduate courses from being held on the site)." Is there any particular reason undergraduate courses prohibited?
Money. The site was started on a shoestring budget, and we don't have the resources (servers, support, etc) to serve the 300,000 undergrads at CUNY.
Re: I develop free software because of CUNY and Blackboard
#33What 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 silico…
Blackboard doesn't own the market. There are tons of campuses that are using alternatives, and more than a few that are migrating off of Blackboard onto other alternatives.
Re: I develop free software because of CUNY and Blackboard
#34For professors and instructors looking to try something new, see http://coursekit.com. We're in a private beta this semester and are still accepting classes.
Press: http://cl.ly/AGRE
For developers interested in the space, we're hiring: http://coursekit.com/jobs/engineer
Re: I develop free software because of CUNY and Blackboard
#35Absolutely stunned by the cost of Blackboard referenced here: http://bit.ly/pjCNow . No software that is as poorly made as Blackboard should ever cost that much. Glad to know my now former university is ditching BB for a different service.
Oh my, THAT'S how much Blackboard costs? I despise using this software. ANGEL is just as horrible if not worse. I do not know what else to say...
Re: I develop free software because of CUNY and Blackboard
#36Absolutely stunned by the cost of Blackboard referenced here: http://bit.ly/pjCNow . No software that is as poorly made as Blackboard should ever cost that much. Glad to know my now former university is ditching BB for a different service.
After seeing that figure, I'll be writing a letter to my current university asking them to ditch BB for a different service. What options should I suggest?
For those who don't want to click the bit.ly link, The 5-year contract is for $4,228,812.50 and can be seen at http://wwe1.osc.state.ny.us/transparency/contracts/contractt...
Re: I develop free software because of CUNY and Blackboard
#37The whole Blackboard thing is interesting. But what I found most refreshing is that the author actually presents himself as a bona-fide public servant, and seems to give a hoot about what that is supposed to mean.
These days as a society we have collectively accepted certain economic ideas as gospel. Public activity == parasitic. Private interests == the american way. It's refreshing to hear a different story.
Re: I develop free software because of CUNY and Blackboard
#38Absolutely stunned by the cost of Blackboard referenced here: http://bit.ly/pjCNow . No software that is as poorly made as Blackboard should ever cost that much. Glad to know my now former university is ditching BB for a different service.
After seeing that figure, I'll be writing a letter to my current university asking them to ditch BB for a different service. What options should I suggest? For those who don't want to click the bit.ly link, The 5-year contract is for $4,228,812.50 and can be seen at http://wwe1.osc.state.ny.us/transparency/contracts/contractt...
That's not too unusual, unfortunately, and not entirely the fault of one side. Selling to a system like CUNY, and the kinds of reporting, maintenance, and support requirements they have of these kinds of contracts, is hardly worth it unless you get big money. Maybe $1m/yr isn't the minimum for it to be worth it, but if you sell one of these big systems as a hosted enterprise solution and you're only getting $100k/yr, you'll have trouble breaking even. Just the trips out to meet with the various IT Strategy Boards and Educational Technology Review Panels and whatever will cost you $10k in travel, as one cost among many, and then there's some liability insurance to protect against things like security holes leaking grades, etc.
Re: I develop free software because of CUNY and Blackboard
#39Absolutely stunned by the cost of Blackboard referenced here: http://bit.ly/pjCNow . No software that is as poorly made as Blackboard should ever cost that much. Glad to know my now former university is ditching BB for a different service.
That's about $8 per CUNY student for both software and 5 years of hosting. Doesn't seem so bad to me-- I'd be surprised if a competitor would be much cheaper.
Re: I develop free software because of CUNY and Blackboard
#40Absolutely stunned by the cost of Blackboard referenced here: http://bit.ly/pjCNow . No software that is as poorly made as Blackboard should ever cost that much. Glad to know my now former university is ditching BB for a different service.
After seeing that figure, I'll be writing a letter to my current university asking them to ditch BB for a different service. What options should I suggest? For those who don't want to click the bit.ly link, The 5-year contract is for $4,228,812.50 and can be seen at http://wwe1.osc.state.ny.us/transparency/contracts/contractt...
I haven't looked into other options that much, but I know they're switching to something called Canvas: http://www.instructure.com/