Faculty committee looking into possible blackboard replacement
By: Courtney Hime
Issue date: 2/20/07 Section: News
The Academic Technology Advisory Committee is currently looking into a new course-management system to replace Blackboard.
ATAC has been considering the move since spring 2006. The committee presented the faculty with a survey to find out how Blackboard was being used. Harry Brown, chair of ATAC during fall 2006, explained that the results warranted research into other course-management systems.
"While there are faculty who are greatly invested in Blackboard who would oppose this, the results of that survey showed that faculty are demanding certain functions that Blackboard doesn't provide," Brown said. "This initiative, in great part, comes from the faculty themselves."
Carol Smith, Associate CIO for Instructional and Learning Services, said the push for a new system stems from the need to integrate Blackboard with the University's online systems. Smith has been working with the Faculty Information Technology Support (FITS) team and ATAC to best assess problems with Blackboard. The current version of Blackboard that DePauw is using is the basic version, which prevents integration with online systems.
Based on ATAC's research, the University can upgrade Blackboard for $50,000 to $60,000 more a year, or it can switch to an open-source course-management system. Smith said the committee decided to do additional research to explore all options before making the costly upgrade.
"We could go ahead and purchase the next level up, and that would enable us to have the integration ability. That's an option," Smith said. "But rather than jump in and do that, we said, 'Well, let's step back and see what others are doing and what other options are out there.' We haven't really made a decision until we've fully assessed everything."
ATAC has looked at several different options but is currently exploring Moodle, an open-source course-management system. Jeff Hansen, the current chair of ATAC, said the system solves some of the issues faculty currently have with Blackboard.
ATAC has been considering the move since spring 2006. The committee presented the faculty with a survey to find out how Blackboard was being used. Harry Brown, chair of ATAC during fall 2006, explained that the results warranted research into other course-management systems.
"While there are faculty who are greatly invested in Blackboard who would oppose this, the results of that survey showed that faculty are demanding certain functions that Blackboard doesn't provide," Brown said. "This initiative, in great part, comes from the faculty themselves."
Carol Smith, Associate CIO for Instructional and Learning Services, said the push for a new system stems from the need to integrate Blackboard with the University's online systems. Smith has been working with the Faculty Information Technology Support (FITS) team and ATAC to best assess problems with Blackboard. The current version of Blackboard that DePauw is using is the basic version, which prevents integration with online systems.
Based on ATAC's research, the University can upgrade Blackboard for $50,000 to $60,000 more a year, or it can switch to an open-source course-management system. Smith said the committee decided to do additional research to explore all options before making the costly upgrade.
"We could go ahead and purchase the next level up, and that would enable us to have the integration ability. That's an option," Smith said. "But rather than jump in and do that, we said, 'Well, let's step back and see what others are doing and what other options are out there.' We haven't really made a decision until we've fully assessed everything."
ATAC has looked at several different options but is currently exploring Moodle, an open-source course-management system. Jeff Hansen, the current chair of ATAC, said the system solves some of the issues faculty currently have with Blackboard.
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