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The best option for Blackboard higher education is, IMO, fuck the decision makers, ignore the faculty, cater to the students. Let students edit all the info, fa
by jules 11y ago
The best option for Blackboard higher education is, IMO, fuck the decision makers, ignore the faculty, cater to the students. Let students edit all the info, faculty will get on board when they see students using it, decision makers want control when faculty and students are using it -> $$$.
The reason is teachers only care about Blackboard insofar as they are forced to use it by the administration. They don't really get anything out of it. This is different than interactive lecture software like TopHat, which teachers like. Students on the other hand do get something out of a working Blackboard: they get info they want to see such as homework due dates, what to study for exams, homework help from other students, etc. Unlike with TopHat there is also a strong network effect necessary, which you would get out of focusing on students.
- tdaltonc 11y agoSo I think of this as "the Yammer strategy." But I don't know what academic activity students would want to engage in when they are not being forced to do so. What activity would students be voluntarily engaging in on your Yammer.edu that would be so awesome it would be viral, and then your best monetization plan would be to give schools backend access?
- jules 11y agoStudents want to know lots of info that is in blackboard, on the professor's personal web pages, and things that were said in the lectures, tips for exercises. In each lecture each student writes down: - What homework is due for the next lecture - Which chapters of the book were taught - Notes copied from the blackboard (real life blackboard), and recently I see more and more students take a picture of the blackboard with their phone instead Instead imagine a web application for doing this collaboratively. One student puts the lecture schedule in the calendar. When the prof says that homework is due on october 5, another student puts this in the calendar. Instead of having to go to 10 different personal web sites and 10 courses in blackboard, and look in your personal agenda, you can just take one look at the calendar to see which homework is due next week. Blackboard photos taken with smartphones get uploaded. If you don't understand something you can ask a question, and other students or the professor can answer. Some professors already put a lecture schedule on their personal websites, and if you make it easier than doing it manually in HTML they may be tempted to switch. It is really hard to convince professors to use such a system, and I think it's much easier to convince students. You need some students to boostrap it and enter the information for some courses, so that other students want to use it to find that info, and hopefully contribute some of their own info. Students take different courses, so if a student learned about this in one course they may enter the info of the other course they are taking. Some students take courses in different universities, so it can even spread beyond one university.
- tdaltonc 11y agoYou could maybe bootstrap it with a stackoverflow-like point system and by allowing people to ask questions across campuses. There's a lot to like about the Yammer strategy, but the key is (1) bootstrapping it (2) error checking and (3) dealing with the fact that 90% of student just cannot be bothered. What would the super-over-achievers like in exchange for their effort? Job offers/interviews (companies like conscientious team players)? Bragging rights (a la stackOverflow)?
- jules 11y agoMany people just like to help out their classmates. People already share this information, just inefficiently.
- nickzoic 11y ago> But I don't know what academic activity students would want to engage in when they are not being forced to do so. Plagiarism, mostly :-/.