=20
1. We were a Blackboard school with the two servers in our server room, a=
nd we were also hosting for three other schools in our region. (The arran=
gement was a special deal with Blackboard.) However, costs were increasin=
g because a subsidy we had been receiving ran out and none of the schools=
, me included, were interested in trying to subsidize the complete costs.=
BTW, I inherited the situation when I arrived last year and my goal has =
been to move everything off site unless absolutely needed. I switched to =
Moodle hosted at a Moodle Partner (remote-learner.net) and the other scho=
ols did their own thing--two went to Sharepoint Portal on their servers a=
nd one to Moodle on its servers. Some of my teacher's complained but, gi=
ven our usage, the switch made sense.=20
=20
2. I don't believe that Blackboard is a viable long-term partner unless t=
hey change the way they do development. I participate in other activities=
on 7.2 and 7.3 (different organizations) and both have flaw. For example=
, a teacher cannot subscribe you to a discussion--you have to subscribe y=
ourself, and you can only do it by THREAD! Somebody starts a new thread--=
you'd better subscribe. But the messages announcing a new posts aren't he=
lpful--they just tell you there was a new post. At least in Moodle you ca=
n get the text of the post. Oh, and you can't reply to a forum post in 7=
=2E3 with Firefox--their editor freezes Firefox. This is just an example =
of their problems. Moodle also has issues, but it's much easier to use an=
d once teacher's see the paradigm, they expand it much faster. We are run=
ning 1.7 in Moodle. When 1.9 is stable, we will migrate to that and repla=
ce the built-in wiki component with NWiki. BTW, I'm using Moodle for bud=
get requests as I can create a database within Moodle. (It will take a li=
ttle hacking to get the data out since it doesn't export the data yet in =
CSV, but I don't need server access.)
=20
3. We already did--I'm not looking back. And I say this both as the syste=
m admin for Moodle and Blackboard, but also as a user. Moodle is clunky =
in a couple of places (for example, not batch create course, but I just s=
ent the file to the partner and they took care of it), but at least you c=
an tell it's being improved by following the forums. Blackboard is a blac=
k hole. I was also a Blackboard administrator at my other school as well =
and Moodle is just easier and more powerful. (I just doesn't look as sexy=
).=20
=20
=20
Derrel Fincher
Director of Information and Communications Technology
Graded - The American School of S=E3o Paulo
(Associa=E7=E3o Escola Graduada de S=E3o Paulo)
dfincher@graded.br | http://www.graded.br ( http://www.graded.br/ )
(55 11) 3747-4837 | Fax (55 11) 3742-9358
>>> On 9/25/2007 at 9:53 AM, in message <fc.0119edca009d16770119edca009d1=
677.9d17b8@da.org>, Karl Schaefer <karl.schaefer@da.org> wrote:
Sorry for the cross posting in advance.
As a school we are conducting a 5 year strategic plan and a key component=
of it is continued development of a Virtual Learning Environment. Within=
this process we have looked at Blackboard, StudyWiz and Moodle's Roadmap.=
We presently use Moodle with dynamic success and a faster adoption rate
then any technology we have brought to school. We are in our second year
of use. There are folks at my school who believe that Moodle/Open-Source
is not as strong a solution as Blackboard. Without getting into the merit=
s
of this argument, I am looking for information on why schools choose
Blackboard instead of Moodle or StudyWiz.=20
I have looked at the http://www.edutools.info/compare.jsp?pj=3D4&i=3D592,=
555=20
comparison and consulted the http://schoolcomputing.wikia.com/ but am
looking for real world reasons why a school would choose Blackboard
instead of Moodle.
If you have the time or inclination, please answer these 3 questions.
1. How did your school make the decision on VLE?
2. Are you pleased with Moodle or Blackboard or wish it had these
features: ______?
3. Would you switch if you could?
*********
Karl Schaefer
Digital Learning Coordinator
Durham Academy Middle School
3116 Academy Road
Durham, NC 27707
@@@@@
528Blog
http://528tech.edublogs.org/=20
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