3 ms·

I was excited for a second. This thing is extremely limited, and wouldn't get adopted by an institution for about 74 distinct reasons (e.g. data is stored in t

by axiom 16y ago

I was excited for a second. This thing is extremely limited, and wouldn't get adopted by an institution for about 74 distinct reasons (e.g. data is stored in the cloud, which is illegal...) Blackboard is a terrible terrible service, and all their customers hate them. They persist because they have ties to all the major schools and satisfy all the regulatory criteria required for LMS's. LMS software is about 90% about sales, deployment and support and only 10% about the quality of the software itself.

noodle 16y ago
yeah, me too. i hate blackboard. everyone does. but this thing isn't nearly fully featured enough (yet?) to be anything more than a blip.
TrevorBurnham 16y ago
Agreed. Blackboard offers a bazillion (unnecessary) features, and institutional buyers crave features, not elegance.
teej 16y ago
> They persist because they have ties to all the major schools and satisfy all the regulatory criteria required for LMS's. You forgot that Blackboard keeps a healthy portfolio of software patents and leverages it to keep out competition.
- dhimes 16y ago
  And they bought out their most powerful competitor, WebCT.
- axiom 16y ago
  Well, Desire2Learn managed to beat them off with a stick, and is doing quite well these days actually. But yeah, they're pretty evil in general.
snprbob86 16y ago
"data is stored in the cloud, which is illegal" Which data is illegal to store in the cloud? Could you please provide a source?
- xel02 16y ago
  In Canada it is illegal to store student information on servers outside of Canada. At least that is what I was told when I was asked to create a CMS.
  - robg 16y ago
    That just seems like a business opportunity - dealing with regulatory hurdles.
  - thesethings 16y ago
    There is at least one Canadian school amongst the 8 millions students using Google Apps as their official suite. http://www.google.com/a/help/intl/en/edu/case_studies/lakehead.html http://www.google.com/a/help/intl/en/edu/case_studies/lakehe... I'm betting that Google or a 3rd party will eventually piggy back a for-pay educational tool on the existing Google Apps school customer-base through their Marketplace.
- axiom 16y ago
  Grades, and almost any student info in general. Come on, if you've spent any amount of time in the education industry you know this.
  - snprbob86 16y ago
    There are hurdles, for sure, but none of it is outright illegal to store. You need permissions and protections, but I don't think any of the legal problems are unsolvable.
- deleted 16y ago
  [deleted]
- patio11 16y ago
thesethings 16y ago
Just to the cloud point, as of early May, 8 million students and counting use Google Apps as the official choice of their school. http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/05/schools-are-almost-out-for-summerand-in.html http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/05/schools-are-almost-ou...
gte910h 16y ago
Blackboard persists because they sue every competitor out of existence. They're crap and everyone in academia knows it.

by axiom 16y ago

noodle 16y ago

yeah, me too. i hate blackboard. everyone does. but this thing isn't nearly fully featured enough (yet?) to be anything more than a blip.

TrevorBurnham 16y ago

Agreed. Blackboard offers a bazillion (unnecessary) features, and institutional buyers crave features, not elegance.

teej 16y ago

> They persist because they have ties to all the major schools and satisfy all the regulatory criteria required for LMS's. You forgot that Blackboard keeps a healthy portfolio of software patents and leverages it to keep out competition.

dhimes 16y ago
And they bought out their most powerful competitor, WebCT.
axiom 16y ago
Well, Desire2Learn managed to beat them off with a stick, and is doing quite well these days actually. But yeah, they're pretty evil in general.

snprbob86 16y ago

"data is stored in the cloud, which is illegal" Which data is illegal to store in the cloud? Could you please provide a source?

xel02 16y ago
In Canada it is illegal to store student information on servers outside of Canada. At least that is what I was told when I was asked to create a CMS.
- robg 16y ago
  That just seems like a business opportunity - dealing with regulatory hurdles.
- thesethings 16y ago
  There is at least one Canadian school amongst the 8 millions students using Google Apps as their official suite. http://www.google.com/a/help/intl/en/edu/case_studies/lakehead.html http://www.google.com/a/help/intl/en/edu/case_studies/lakehe... I'm betting that Google or a 3rd party will eventually piggy back a for-pay educational tool on the existing Google Apps school customer-base through their Marketplace.
axiom 16y ago
Grades, and almost any student info in general. Come on, if you've spent any amount of time in the education industry you know this.
- snprbob86 16y ago
  There are hurdles, for sure, but none of it is outright illegal to store. You need permissions and protections, but I don't think any of the legal problems are unsolvable.
deleted 16y ago
[deleted]
patio11 16y ago

thesethings 16y ago

Just to the cloud point, as of early May, 8 million students and counting use Google Apps as the official choice of their school. http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/05/schools-are-almost-out-for-summerand-in.html http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/05/schools-are-almost-ou...

gte910h 16y ago

Blackboard persists because they sue every competitor out of existence. They're crap and everyone in academia knows it.