There was a question recently posted (by me - hope it's not a problem I'm bringing it up again): http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2011805 http://news.ycombin

There was a question recently posted (by me - hope it's not a problem I'm bringing it up again): http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2011805 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2011805 which gives a lot of insight into the issue. I'm currently a student and my university uses BlackBoard. The software is simply awful. Every professor chooses a different ugly template for their own course, so there is no consistency. In my university, the more able professors have started making their own websites to put up lecture notes, tutorials and grades. Even the new updates are just a skin of their poorly designed product. No new functionality is added(or even improved), but instead it's just a 'prettier version' of the older system. And the amounts they charge universities for such tools is crazy. But as someone already mentioned, they have a monopoly in the education sector, and they make it really difficult for universities to switch to an alternative tool [1]. [1] http://www.dowling.edu/mydowling/tech/bbdocs/bb-exp.html http://www.dowling.edu/mydowling/tech/bbdocs/bb-exp.html