Desire2Blog

My Top 5 Questions about "The Settlement"

2009-12-16T08:25:00.006-06:00

News broke on Tuesday afternoon (12/15) that Desire2Learn and Blackbored (Blackborg, Blackbeard, BlackAngel, Dr. Evil, etc. - a.k.a. Blackboard) have reached an agreement to end their 3+ year patent dispute. Very little info has been released about the deal that was reached, and it appears as if there won't be a great deal of additional info coming any time soon.

The whole "we're ready to move on" thing doesn't strike me quite right. These are the top 5 questions (or so) that I have (for today, anyway).

Doesn't this move by D2L signal the possibility that there is some validity in Blackboard's lousy "Alcorn" patent? By walking away from this fight aren't we currently left with a patent that is no longer being vigorously challenged? I assume that the USPTO re-examination will proceed with or without this settlement, but they move as slow as molasses and you never know what their final ruling might be. At the current time, doesn't Blackborg still have this Alcorn patent that they can wield against other small competitors? But, the main question in this first group of related questions is "Doesn't cross licensing the patent portfolios indicate that there is something there to license?" Granted, Bb has more patents (rats) than just the Alcorn patent, but still we don't know what they are licensing and what that means for the future of product development for either vendor. It strikes me as a little too cozy, "Gee, we really like your stuff, can we use it?"
What happened to the whole "we're in it to win it" attitude on behalf of D2L? Sure, I know that business decisions have to be made that sometimes represent a change in course, but this one strikes me as especially hollow. John Baker has personally told me on more than one occasion that D2L was carrying the fight forward for all of the other companies out there, not just for themselves. This settlement without reaching a resolution about the patent validity still leaves a whole lot of unanswered questions about the LMS market and patents that can have a very negative effect on the educational community.
Why would D2L be taking down their patent blog (sometime today, or so it says)? This is a good record of all the filings and maneuvers (albeit from a D2L slant - still, much of it is factual) and this is widely viewed as a rather historic fight in realm of LMS geeks. Why is it necessary for this public record to go away? One of the main reasons for having a blog in the first place is to have an archive of events. postings, etc. There's a lot of useful information in that blog site, why turn out the lights? (Update: during the time that I was writing this post, most of the material was removed from the site. Another update: now everything but the final post is gone.)
As a client who is concerned about financial stability of the vendor and future price increases (and all that other stuff), is D2L getting their 3.1 million dollar judgment back from Blackbeard? This will clearly be one of those details that both sides choose not to talk about but I think it is an important piece of the puzzle. I understand that lawyers and litigation are expensive so they may have wanted to end the money drain right now, but if D2L is forfeiting the 3.1 million by abandoning the fight, then again it raises questions for me as to why.
Has this whole ordeal made D2L more like Blackboard? Has the ongoing litigation turned them into a corporate culture similar to the evil empire? For example, D2L has been very vocal and public about this whole mess while Blackboard has been mostly silent. Now at the end, both are silent - which looks like D2L is more like Bb than they used to be. If they are going to cross-license software (or whatever), aren't we looking at less differentiation between products rather than more? Just by lying down with the enemy, don't you give the enemy more credence and begin to look more like them rather than less like them? If D2L begins behaving more like Blackboard, then Blackboard has won and all of us in education have lost.

Notes:

There is wide speculation that this settlement is the first step toward an acquisition of D2L by Bb. I highly doubt that, but at this point I find predicting what these two companies will do to be an exercise in futility.
The Alcorn patent is also known as the '138 patent and in most of the actions was reduced to claims 36-38.
Regardless of my question about whether D2L is becoming more like Bb, I have many friends who work at D2L and I wish them all the best. I'm just a bit worried about what their futures may hold, both as a company and as individuals.
I felt more confident about D2L's future before this settlement than after. Call me crazy.

I smell a rat!

Now Hiring - Fabulous Salaries

2009-11-20T07:40:00.005-06:00

Don't let all the news about budget cuts and layoffs scare you away. Here at Lake Superior College we are hiring adjunct faculty for as much as $545,000 annually. Here's the catch. You won't earn all that because it is only a part-time job (so you might earn 1/2 of the $545K if you teach half-time) and it clearly states that there are no benefits included with this position. (Click to view enlarged photo)

A hat tip to @bergjj for the heads up on this one.

Online Course Student Evals

2009-11-02T14:13:00.005-06:00

During a recent 2-day eLearning Quality Workshop in North Dakota we again had a brief discussion about student evaluations for online courses. Part of the discussion centered on the overall validity of student responses on course evals and part of it centered on the evaluation surveys themselves; particularly how long should they be and how can you get good response rates on a voluntary submission basis. (Flickr CC photo by kodomut)

A few years ago we (Lake Superior College) redesigned our end-of-course survey rather dramatically, from 32 questions to 10. We were hoping that the response rate would go up significantly if the students could see at a glance that the survey would only take a couple of minutes to complete. The response rate did go up, but only by a few percentage points and it still is less than 20% overall for all online courses combined.

Near the end of each term, we set up separate course shells within D2L for each online course and then enroll all the students but not the faculty members into those courses. Those extra "courses" appear in the students' course listings when they login to D2L near the end of the term and they can click in to take the survey. We post info there about the anonymity, that faculty won't get results until 2-4 weeks after the end of the term, and profusely thank them for their participation. We send out emails to all students informing them that the evals are open (they don't really read our email) and post messages on the front page of the D2L home page.

So, my questions for you fair readers are these:

a) do you have any advice for how to get the response rates substantially higher for student evals?
b) how do you convince students that their responses are anonymous and won't influence their final grades?
c) has anyone tried evaluating only after the course has closed and grades have been posted? If so, how?
d) do you have the "killer eval" that asks all the right questions and that you're willing to share?

Please reply in the comments section with anything you might want to say.

I'll close with the eval that we use at LSC as shown below.

--------------------------------

Thoughtful student evaluation can help improve teaching effectiveness. This survey gives you the opportunity to express anonymously your views of this course and the way it has been taught. Your assistance is appreciated.

For all questions, please use the following scale:
1 - Strongly agree
2 - Agree
3 - Disagree
4 - Strongly disagree
5 - Choose not to answer or Don't Know

1. The instructor has created a course layout that is easy to navigate (locate quizzes, lookup grades, find directions to assignments, etc.).
2. There was agreement between the posted course objectives (as listed in the syllabus) and what was taught in the course.
3. This course challenged me intellectually.
4. The course materials used in this class helped me learn the subject matter.
5. The instructor posted information about how best to communicate with him/her and was readily available to students.
6. The instructor provided feedback in a timely manner.
7. The feedback received on my coursework was helpful.
8. Policies for determining grades in this course were clearly explained.
9. I was satisfied with the amount of interaction with other students in this course.
10. Overall, this instructor has created a valuable learning experience for students.

Finally: Please provide any additional comments about the course that you believe will be helpful to the instructor of this course.

Great Net Neutrality Video

2009-10-26T10:30:00.006-05:00

This new video (Oct. 23, '09) about net neutrality is very well done. Progress appears to have been made to convince the U.S. Congress to NOT screw up our (short, but important) tradition of network neutrality. If you are not yet familiar with this issue, this video would be a good starting place.

Just a few other quotes about the importance of net neutrality:

"Net neutrality is fundamentally important to allowing universities fulfill
their educational mission." (Educause)
"A simple principle that means internet providers, such as cable and phone companies, should not block or discriminate against legal content on the web." (CommonDreams.org)
"the fundamental concern is that the provider of broadband service not be able to take advantage of that to act in an anticompetitive fashion against others that are trying to provide competitive applications using the same broadband facilities." (Google's Vint Cerf)

All is not perfectly rosy just yet. Here's a short article that makes clear that we may have concerns about whether there can be agreement on what "legitimate content in the continuing development of the Internet." might look like when it comes to dealing with the FCC. (THR.com)

Online Discussion about Obama's CC Initiative

2009-09-17T13:54:00.006-05:00

Yesterday I served as moderator for two hours for an online discussion forum about President Obama’s American Graduation Initiative The "Jam" was organized by the Knowledge in the Public Interest, the Brookings Institution, the Education Commission of the States, and Jobs for the Future. Community college educators from all around the country joined in the conversation. My topic was one of six different discussions and was titled "Accessing Online Education: Funding to Create Free, Web-based Courses."

Plan is for $500 Million ($50M each year for 10 years)
H.R. Bill 3221 should be voted on this week. Senate bill in earlier stages. UPDATE: 3221 passed right before I posted this. Senate bill still coming.)
Here's the text from Obama’s speech in July about the proposal to
- “…build a new virtual infrastructure to complement the education and training community colleges can offer. So we're going to support the creation of a new online, open-source clearinghouse of courses so that community colleges across the country can offer more classes without building more classrooms. And this will make a big difference especially for rural campuses that a lot of times have struggled -- attract -- have to struggle to attract students and faculty. And this will make it possible for a professor to complement his lecture with an online exercise, or for a student who can't be away from her family to still keep up with her coursework. We don't know where this kind of experiment will lead, but that's exactly why we ought to try it because I think there's a possibility that online education can provide especially for people who are already in the workforce and want to retrain the chance to upgrade their skills without having to quit their job." (see video in previous post)

So, what were people saying in the Jam? Here are a few excerpts:

1. How would this open-source clearinghouse of courses fit into the massive development of online courses that has already occurred at community colleges? In other words, would it fill in gaps in online course content that haven't been effectively filled at this point, or would it be duplicative of the many efforts already underway? Some suggestions were for a concentration on developmental (remedial) courses. Another suggestion was to focus on emerging academic programs that don't already exist (or at least not much of an existence).

2. Another major area of conversation centered around the words "free" and "open." The first term (free) doesn't actually appear in Obama's remarks, but it does appear in the White House Briefing Room (in the phrase "freely available courses"). J.S. from Honolulu asked the following: "Does 'open' mean:

Free to use as you will with absolutely no cost?
Free to use without citing or acknowledging sources?
Freedom from any and all constraints in transporting the content -- as is or in modified form -- to different sites?
Complete freedom to alter the content?
Freely and easily accessible with no site subscription fees or complex registration and log-in procedures?
Stable or "permanent" URLs?
Options for different levels of privacy in terms of tracking or "footprints"?

All good questions, but no answers at this time.

Lastly, I'll paste the text from the Briefing Room linked above:
"Create a New Online Skills Laboratory: Online educational software has the potential to help students learn more in less time than they would with traditional classroom instruction alone. Interactive software can tailor instruction to individual students like human tutors do, while simulations and multimedia software offer experiential learning. Online instruction can also be a powerful tool for extending learning opportunities to rural areas or working adults who need to fit their coursework around families and jobs. New open online courses will create new routes for students to gain knowledge, skills and credentials. They will be developed by teams of experts in content knowledge, pedagogy, and technology and made available for modification, adaptation and sharing. The Departments of Defense, Education, and Labor will work together to make the courses freely available through one or more community colleges and the Defense Department’s distributed learning network, explore ways to award academic credit based upon achievement rather than class hours, and rigorously evaluate the results." (my emphases added)

From that, John S. made the following recommendations for how it could be crafted:

- Provide funds for grant projects which develop new online degree programs in emerging fields. (I could name several for which I've heard reports of demand.) This would help focus the project on workforce development and degree completion, which is the stated goal of the overall initiative.
- The interactive individualized open courseware is fine, but projects should show how the courseware will lead to higher graduation rates as a criterion for funding. If they could actually do that, it would be tremendous.
- Outline a framework by which open, free course materials will be disseminated. (SCORM is not a dissemination mechanism; it is an interoperability mechanism.)
- Fund a project or two which explores how successful inter-institutional collaborations currently work and how they could be scaled to promote easier 'swirling'.
- Fund a project or two which explores offering "academic credit based upon achievement rather than class hours." But let's use the experience of existing institutions and see if a project can help expand the acceptance of those approaches. For example, how 'bout a project which supports the creation of a national online course catalog with inter-institutional articulation a la SOC/SOCAD? Or what could be done to expand the capacity of the existing institutions (Empire State, Thomas Edison et al.)?
- Allow for the use of broader evaluation methods which measure outcomes more richly. Why should we individualize inputs (as in individualizing courseware) but continue to standardize outputs? (And reliance on experimental or quasi-experimental methods, randomized controlled trials, bias toward standardized tests, does not constitute "rigorous evaluation.")
- Fund a project which changes how graduation rates are currently calculated. According to a recent AACSU report, the current methodology is highly flawed. (I was shocked to learn that I would not count as a successful graduate because I was a transfer student.) This is not just mere window dressing; it would help IHEs and the general public have a better sense of the actual success rate.

All in all, it was a productive and very long discussion thread about the initiative. I'll probably pull out a few more things for future postings.

Obama's Free Online Course Initiative

2009-09-16T16:31:00.003-05:00

Looking for your thoughts about the $500 Million ($50M per year for 10 years) that President Obama announced for the "creation of a new online open-source clearing house of courses" during his appearance at Macomb Community College on July 14, 2009. The relevant part of his speech is snipped and shown below.

There seem to be very few details about this project at this time. It seems like a reasonable strategy for experienced distance educators to try to provide some guidance for how this initiative is developed.

Please share your thoughts about how this should be crafted.

5 Reasons Microsoft Won't Buy Blackboard

2009-09-09T08:16:00.000-05:00

Inside Higher Ed's BlogU recently posted the following article: 5 Reasons Microsoft Will Buy Blackboard. While reading the story I couldn't help but think how different the article might have been if I'd written it. A little something like this ...

The top 5 reasons why we WON'T see Microsoft buying Blackboard by the end of 2010:

1. Because they suck! (they = Bb of course)
2. Because Microsoft is trying harder not to suck so much.
3. Because buying Blackboard would only prove that Microsoft is more evil rather than less.
4. Because most of the people in the education space (including lots of Blackboard users) think that Blackborg is a terrible partner for education. Not exactly the best way for Microsoft to become more relevant in the education sector.
5. Because they suck!

Please let me know if I've missed anything.

Setting Online Expectations - Academic Freedom

2009-09-08T08:01:00.001-05:00

In previous posts, I highlighted part A and part B of the information from St. Petersburg College about their expectations of and for online students. Today I'll take a look at their part C - Academic Civility and Freedom of Expression.

This is what St. Pete has to say about this:

Expectations: Students may expect that:

They will be able to pursue their studies in a stimulating, open environment where the pursuit of truth, free expression of ideas, responsible criticism, and reasonable dissent are recognized as basic to the educational process.
Students have the right to exercise their academic freedom within the responsible confines of the course material.
A process exists for students to express and document concerns they may have about specific action, inaction or behavior by any member of the College faculty or staff.

Responsibilities: Students have the responsibility to:

Act in accordance with standards of reasonable behavior, respect and civility. This standard would prohibit behavior that is disruptive or interferes with the teaching/learning process, including:
- the posting of inappropriate materials in chat rooms, emails, bulletin boards, or Web pages;
- use of obscenities;
- personal attacks on fellow students or faculty;
- sexual harassment; or
- comments that are demeaning or disrespectful to another's ideas and opinions.

That seems to be pretty well stated. I think the bigger (err, harder) question has to do with Academic Freedom on behalf of the faculty when it comes to e-Learning. Don't get me wrong, I think that academic freedom is extremely important and needs to be protected - however, I think that it is often misunderstood. In fact, what I really believe is that academic freedom is tossed on the table in many situations where it is not a question of academic freedom in the first place. Or, to state it another way, academic freedom does not equal freedom - you are not free to do whatever you want just because you work in academe.

With regard to e-Learning, I have been waiting for quite some time for a battle to ensue regarding the intersection of academic freedom and access to technology. Several years ago I heard a negotiator for the state (employer) side of the negotiated contract language (union contract) state unequivocally that the choice of using or not using the state-supported IMS (D2L in our case, but no matter) is NOT a question of academic freedom. In other words, faculty cannot (according to him, at least) just claim academic freedom as the reason why they are choosing NOT to use the state/school-supported IMS, and instead choose to use a different IMS. Because of the licensing, support costs, and several other tech-related factors, and because the IMS is simply the vessel through which they teach, the question of academic freedom does NOT apply in this situation. Part of his rationale was that there is nothing "academic" about the choice of whether you use the supported IMS or not.

I think this is a fascinating argument. I also don't pretend to know the answer. IANAL, but I sure like to pretend as if I am from time to time. I would love to hear your opinions about this question. Please submit a comment (I moderate them due to high levels of spam, but try to approve them quickly) and share your thoughts.

Setting Online Expectations - Academic Honesty

2009-09-03T08:47:00.008-05:00

In a previous post I highlighted part A of the information from St. Petersburg College about their expectations of and for online students. Today I'll take a look at their part B. Part C is coming soon.

From SPC: Part B. Academic Honesty and Integrity

Expectations. Students may expect to:

Pursue academic studies in a positive and ethical context, where academic standards are upheld.
Have their academic work assessed fully and equitably in a learning community where competition is fair, integrity is required, and cheating is punished.
Understand and agree with recognizable standards on plagiarism.
Have access to a stated procedure for filing academic grievances and appeals. (See Board of Trustees rule 6Hx23-4.36.)

Responsibilities. Students are expected to:

Be honest and forthright in their academic endeavors.
Familiarize themselves with the College's academic honesty policy and standards as specified in the online Academic Honesty Policy, Board of Trustees rule 6Hx23-4.461.
Adhere to these standards of academic honesty and integrity as a condition of enrollment at SPC.
Understand that failure to comply with these standards may result in academic and/or disciplinary action, up to and including expulsion from the College.
Recognize their ethical obligation, as members of the College community, to report any violation of the SPC Academic Honesty Policy.

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OK, I'm not just trying to be picky here, but look at that statement again: "Students may expect to understand and agree with recognizable standards on plagiarism." Does that make sense? Umm, no. That should be filed under the next category, more like "Students are expected to understand and agree with recognizable standards on plagiarism." (Although that also strikes me a little bit like "students are expected to agree with everything that I tell them." What if they don't agree with the "recognizable standards?")

Possibly in the first category there should be something like this:

"Students may expect to receive information and/or instruction from their faculty as to what constitutes cheating and plagiarism."

Everyone seems to want to punish students for academic dishonesty, but they seem to assume that students already know the same things that the faculty know about what is and what isn't cheating. That's a very poor assumption. Somewhere we need to spend the time teaching students about this or else the students will always be at a disadvantage. (P.S. I doubt that any Academic Honesty Policy really does a very good job of "teaching" student about these important issues.)

Anyone who has read my postings before is probably waiting for something like the following:

Students may expect to have their intellectual property (original writings or other creations) protected from low-life companies that seek to make a profit from them without compensation.
Students are expected to never give up their intellectual property to low-life companies that seek to make a profit from them without compensation.
The college administration and faculty are expected to honor the intellectual property of all students. Any attempt to force students to submit their intellectual property to low-life companies that seek to make a profit from students' work without compensation to the students is to be avoided, thwarted, or denied with extreme prejudice.

Overall, I think this section from SPC is very good. I just have to take my shots at the abomination that is Turnitin dot bomb every chance I get, and this was a chance to do so.

Setting Expectations - Jeannette Campos #2

2009-09-02T08:11:00.005-05:00

Continuing from the previous guest post by Jeannette Campos, here are five more suggestions that she gives for shaping expectations about online learning.

6. Make No Assumptions: Establish a baseline of what your faculty do, and do not, know about instructional design. Faculty need to understand the relationship between instructional objectives, instructional strategies, instructional tools and evaluation methods. Be prepared to do a lot of intensive coaching around how to design and develop online, prior to how we deliver online. Take time for the basics. The learning will be so much more solid if it is supported by good ISD.

7. Professional Development: Schedule weekly learning lunches and support them with an online resource center for faculty. In my experience, this predictable and consistent support really made a difference. I also had great success facilitating a week long intensive seminar for all faculty developing online courses for the first time. Prior to that workshop, I standardized the folder structure, naming conventions and branding pieces (images, fonts and colors) to be used in all classrooms. Although the faculty were responsible for developing with these tools, the tools were really about setting and stabilizing expectations for the student: courses follow conventions, logical structure, predictable navigation and message design standards. Wow, learning is so much easier now that we aren’t confused and distracted!

8. Support: Break it down. Often times there isn't enough systematic support for online learning initiatives. To help you achieve a lot with a little, consider shaping expectations by breaking support questions down into four types: student support, BlackBoard functionality, faculty non-instructional support and faculty instructional support. Use your resources! Consider hiring a Federal Work Study student to handle the first three types of requests, and dedicate a capable and competent staff member for the instructional support issues. I think you'll find that both students and faculty alike are calmed knowing how to frame their request and seek help.

9. Engage: Involve them and make it fun. In my experience, online learning is really misunderstood and somewhat feared. Engaging the faculty, staff and leadership is very important. Shape the expectation that instructional technology is possible (for everyone!) and not so hard, so crazy, so radical, and so different from orthodox classroom instruction. It’s evolutionary, not revolutionary. Also, the more engaged the approach (student services, academic advising, library, etc), the greater the chance for student success.

10. Spell it out: Look to the abundant research out there to help you determine "what makes good online course design.” Consider using the research to determine what competencies you want the online learning on your campus to achieve. Then, use a research-based, competency approach to support your faculty development. Faculty like that they have a target that doesn't prescribe the methods they must use. They like it because it tells them “what right looks like” without removing their creative license to satisfy the standards. You can also use the competencies to certify courses. Faculty like this because the competencies provide a blueprint for the architecture of their online classroom. Last, it helps shape and manage the expectation of the students because they know, if they see the “certified logo” that this class passes muster.

There you have it. That's the end of Jeanette's thoughtful response to my question about shaping expectations for online teaching and learning. I really appreciate her taking the time to provide this feedback. Many of the things she mentions are similar to efforts we have made at Lake Superior College over the years, but a few of the things are either things we haven't gotten around to or things we decided not to do (such as "certify" a course for meeting design standards). Thanks very much Jeannette.

Expectations for Online Students - What does St. Pete Say?

2009-09-01T10:47:00.002-05:00

One of the better resources that I have discovered about identifying and communicating a college's expectations about online learning comes from a place where I have lots of friends. St. Petersburg College in Florida is rightfully considered to be a leader in the field of online teaching and learning. They have a very large online enrollment, a skilled support staff and administration, an engaged online faculty group, and plenty of awards to prove it.

This is the first installment where I take a look at their list of expectations and opine about how a similar list might look when we are finished (if it's ever really "finished") with this project at Lake Superior College.

From St. Petersburg College:
-----------------
Part I. Guidelines/Expectations for Students
A. Academic Participation

Expectations. Students may expect:

The opportunity to be active participants in a stimulating and challenging education that is international in scope, interactive in process and diverse in content and approach.
A course outline or syllabus that provides information regarding course content, teaching methods, course objectives, grading, attendance/participation policies, and student assessment guidelines.
Instructors who are responsive and available to discuss students' progress, course content, assignments, etc. at mutually convenient times from the first day of the term through the last day of the term. Individual instructors' schedules, availability, and procedural details will appear in the course syllabi. (See Instructional Performance Targets that follow.)
To have access to instructor feedback and grading on projects, exams, papers, quizzes, etc., so they are able to determine where they have made errors or need additional work.

Responsibilities. Students are expected to:

Have baseline computer and information skills. Since computer literacy is a general education requirement, students are encouraged to either take a face-to-face or online literacy course or take the literacy test prior to taking online courses.
Log into their courses during the first week (for the traditional semester) or within 48 hours (for non-traditional classes like modmesters, express, or "dynamically dated" classes) of the beginning of the session to confirm their participation. (Students who register after the session has begun will be responsible for any assignments or material already covered.)
Take an active role in each class, participating fully in class discussions, assignments and other activities throughout the entire session. If some event interferes with that participation, the student is responsible for notifying the instructor in advance.
Review the course syllabus and other preliminary course materials thoroughly as early as possible during the first week of class.
Be responsible for raising any questions or seeking clarification about these materials, if necessary, within the first week of the session.
Submit assignments and papers on time, and take tests by the posted dates. Acceptance of late work and any penalties for late submissions are up to the discretion of the instructor, based on the expectations outlined in the course syllabus.
Complete the "Student Survey of Instruction" for each class to evaluate the instructor and the course.

-------------------
That's a pretty good list. A few questions come to mind.
1. Are any of the included items either unclear or confusing to a typical student?
2. Should any of the included items be removed from the list?
3. Is there is anything missing that should be included in the list?
4. How will these expectations be communicated to potential and current students?

Before trying to tackle some of those questions, permit me to make one (possibly obvious) observation. The first section about what students may expect seems to be as much about shaping the college's expectations about faculty and online teaching as it does about shaping students' expectations. Clearly the only way that students may expect learning that isinternational in scope is if the faculty member provides the opportunity for that happen. Similarly, the only way that students can expect certain things to appear in the syllabus is if the college expects the faculty to include those items. Etc., etc. Clearly this is not rocket science.

So what's missing? Let's start with a somewhat snarky (but sensible) answer:

If students are expected to have baseline computer and information skills, doesn't it follow that:
Students may expect that their instructor has baseline computer and information skills
and by the way, where exactly is that baseline? and is "baseline" good enough, or is that minimally acceptable, or what?

What else is missing? How about a less snarky answer?

What can students expect as far as having access to course information? In other words, when will their login enable them to get to "their stuff" in the course?
How about this? Students may expect to be able to access the course shell and review the course requirements for 5 working days (Mon-Fri) prior to the first day of class.
And how about this? Students may expect to be able to access the course shell, review their work and the assigned grades for a minimum of 5 working days (Mon-Fri) after the last scheduled day of the course.

Something else that is missing is an item that always seems to catch students by surprise when taking an online course (although maybe this belongs in the next section (next post) about academic honesty and integrity):

Students may expect that an online course instructor could require them to take one or more proctored examinations or other assignments. Students at a distance from the campus will need to make arrangements to have an approved proctor available.
Ideally, there would be information available to students prior to enrolling in each online course about these requirements. It may be very difficult for some students to comply with these requirements depending on their circumstances.

There are other possibilities for this section, but I think I'll stop there. Any comments regarding this section of the SPC list of expectations will be appreciated.

Coming soon: SPC's Part B: Academic Honesty and Integrity and Part C: Academic Civility and Freedom of Expression

Setting Expectations - Jeannette Campos #1

2009-08-31T10:46:00.000-05:00

As mentioned in the previous post, we will be formalizing a list of expectations regarding online learning at Lake Superior College. I also mentioned a guest blogger who gave me lots of useful input about this project based upon her experiences in online learning.

Jeannette Campos is the guest blogger. Jeannette teaches instructional systems development in the graduate program at UMBC, at The National Labor College and to agencies within the Department of Defense. She hosts a blog, From the Fox Hole, and she owns and operates a business with her husband, Carlos, called Fox Trot 6 (FT6). FT6 is a service-disabled veteran owned small business specializing in the design of learning solutions for non-profit, higher education, commercial and government agencies. FT6 specializes in instructional systems design, training and development, instructional technology and workplace learning. Jeannette and I became connected through Twitter.

In this first guest post she draws on her experiences as an online student, online instructor and online learning strategist to share her observations about preparing and deploying an online learning initiative. This first post includes her observations in five different areas: Strategy, Attributes, System Requirements, Standardizing Syllabi, and Quantifying Behavior.

1. Strategy: Confirm that the leadership supports (AND understands) what learning online is. Ensure that learning online is aligned with the strategic goals of the college. For example, “We’ll put anything online just to increase our course count” is a commander’s intent that can fail miserably. Rather than increasing enrollment and decreasing cost, a college can actually cannibalize its own course catalog by offering the same courses through the day, evening and online divisions. This can result in depleted enrollments and course cancellations (the opposite of the intended effect). Leadership needs to have a sound vision and a strategic approach for online learning. (Often times they need your help). Go bravely!

2. Attributes: Start by providing a list of attributes that make for good online learners and instructors. I put together a two-column list that showed the qualities of online learners and online faculty. The qualities for each were essentially the same (no surprise), and even so, I think it helps to demystify online learning a little bit for the faculty. It also helps to set the stage for a partnership of learning between student and instructor. Last, this list of attributes will help your advising department to feel better prepared to encourage, support and recommend students for online learning options.

3. System Requirements: Create a list of minimum software and hardware requirements for both faculty and students who want to learn online. You can cross-reference the list with the computers available in your campus library to ensure that your students will have access to solutions if they cannot afford their own hardware and software. I also recommend checking out the internet service provider on your campus and trying to increase your bandwidth. During one semester that I observed, the campus internet could not support the increase in traffic that the online course components were generating and no one on campus could get online. This is a fast and easy way to kill your online learning initiative.

4. Standardized Syllabus: Consider creating a standardized syllabus as a dynamic file that includes hyperlinks and embedded audio and video. Verify that the syllabus addresses all of the common concerns that faculty have about learning online, such as; academic integrity, synchronous course policies, what to do if there is a power outage, netiquette, etc. Creating a dynamic file as a template really helps faculty feel prepared and it gives them confidence that their online courses will be postured for success. I have found that this has been a very helpful tool in shaping expectations for both faculty and students.

5. Quantify Behavior: One of my colleagues John Fritz, the Vice President of Instructional Technology, at UMBC is working on an extended research project related academic analytics. More specifically, John is trying to show the relationship between online activity and grade distribution reports, in order to demonstrate how “good students use BlackBoard”. It’s very powerful stuff, and preliminary data shows that, for students, the higher one’s level of engagement, the higher one’s likelihood of academic success. This type of evidence can be very compelling for a student who has never enrolled in an online course. Based on John’s research, my syllabus now always includes a statement telling my graduate students, “Students who successfully completed this course last semester “hit” the classroom XX times per week and spent XX hours offline.” This clearly sets the expectation and patterns behavior. I have seen this also help faculty learn how to model online behavior. Posting frequent announcements, remaining engaged, responding promptly to posts, etc., can help the faculty provide better instruction and builds the motivation for the student to get engaged, and remain engaged, in the course work.

The next post will conclude Jeannette's observations as she provides information related to: Assumptions, Professional Development, Support, Engagement, and Spelling Things Out.

Setting Expectations for Online Learning

2009-08-28T08:53:00.003-05:00

One of the major projects during the upcoming academic year at Lake Superior College will be to develop several lists of expectations regarding online learning. This is our thirteenth year of offering online courses and programs and we have always preached certain things about how to teach online and how to learn online.

However, we have never had a written list of what those expectations are. So, anyone who wasn't in the room when we were talking about these things probably never actually heard our expectations. This is a problem particularly when we bring in a new online faculty member and they might not get all the information that the long-term faculty have heard time and time again.

For example, we have always had the expectation that our online courses will NOT be electronic versions of independent study (also called e-correspondence courses). We expect faculty members to plan for and design into their courses a great deal of interaction - including student-to-student and student-to-instructor. BUT, no where does it actually state that in writing that we can point to.

Therefore, we will have a work group comprised of people throughout the college, plus student representatives, who will work to put together the following lists:

1. Expectations that we have for online students
2. Expectations that we have for online faculty
3. Expectations that we have for administrators of online learning

A couple of weeks ago I tossed out a quick tweet seeking ideas and resources from my Twitter network about this topic of expectations. I received a thoughtful response from one of my Twitter friends and I will be using her input to make a couple of posts regarding her experiences with shaping expectations in online learning. Coming soon.

Test Proctoring - Part Two

2009-08-25T09:22:00.002-05:00

Yesterday I posted the first installment about an email exchange on the MnSCU Deans list about test proctoring for online students. This is another reply received on that thread.
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As of this fall '09, (a college) is not testing our own online students in the on campus Testing Center due to space and proctoring personnel limitations. Consequently we will not be testing online students from any other campus either.
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To which I replied with the following:
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It's me again. Something that (colleague) said triggered a thought that I should have put into the first email.

At LSC, we have NEVER had a policy of providing an exam proctoring service on-campus for students taking LSC online classes from us. Just like faculty who teach in the classroom, if an online faculty member wants to give a proctored exam, then that faculty member is expected to make arrangements for a space and time on campus when he/she will proctor (probably not even the right word when they are giving their own exam) the exam. We do not pay faculty to teach and then turn around and also pay staff members to give exams for those faculty members. Notable exceptions include certain accommodations for disabilities services and the occasional extenuating circumstance.

I think any institution would be making a big mistake in encouraging (or permitting) online faculty to assign examinations that must be proctored, but then expecting other people to do all the proctoring work. Of course I could be wrong. Let's just call that a strong opinion that is deeply held.

One more note about test proctoring for online courses at LSC. Test proctoring is required in something less than 10% of our online courses. We constantly encourage faculty members to choose assessment techniques that will not require substantial proctoring, but a few faculty members do choose to go down the proctoring road.

Barry
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So far I have heard one dissenting opinion from a Dean who thinks that it is perfectly fine for staff to give exams for faculty members who teach online. They have a multi-campus environment which might make it difficult for one faculty members to proctor "on-campus"exams in multiple places. Still, I think it is a slippery slope to establish the precedent of giving exams for faculty - whether they teach online, on-ground, or both. YMMV.

Test Proctoring for Minnesota Online

2009-08-24T11:29:00.003-05:00

The question shown below was sent to the MnSCU Deans list this morning at the start of the Fall 2009 semester.
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Colleagues,
We are receiving more and more request for proctoring, some of them from students at four-year institutions. What is your policy with respect to proctoring examinations for students taking online courses from other institutions?
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My answer to the list appears below. I decided to post it to the blog so that I can simply point to it in the future when this question comes up again.
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Never a dull moment when it comes to test proctoring for online students. This question comes up several times each year. Gary gets the prize for being the first one to ask during the fall term.

All MnSCU schools are part of Minnesota Online. As members, all are expected to provide test proctoring for local students taking online classes from other MnSCU students. In return, your distance students who live in other areas of the state should expect the same service from their local MnSCU institution.

http://mnonline.org/student/proctoring.html

As you'll see from the list linked above, not everyone chooses to play in the same sandbox. The MnOnline Council decided several years ago that all schools should provide this service as an integral part of being a "system." This is still the expectation as far as I know.

On a personal note: this is one of the many factors that led to a great deal of frustration on my part when involved with the MnOnline Council. Test proctoring is the poster-child example of how some schools are more cooperative than others when it comes to matters related to Minnesota Online. In my opinion, there still needs to be more of a mandate for schools to cooperate in situations such as these. However, as long as there is no penalty for non-compliance, some schools will continue to be less system-oriented than others.

In closing, I'll try to anticipate the next question about proctoring. NO, you cannot charge a MnSCU student a fee for test proctoring. All fees need to be on the board-approved list, and there is no such fee for test proctoring. It is appropriate to charge a fee for test proctoring (locally decided amount) for a student from a non-MnSCU school.

This has been the standard answer for the past several years, to the best of my understanding. If things have changed, or if I have misstated anything, please feel free to issue a correction.

Best wishes with the start of a new term, Barry
(Flickr CC photo by psd)

Twubs = Twitter Hub

2009-08-09T21:23:00.004-05:00

I've been working on developing a Twub (Twitter Hub) for use at EAT-IT 09 on Aug 12-13 at Inver Hills CC. One feature is the ability to embed the Twub info on any webpage, so here is an embed of the Twub. Just experimenting. The best experience will be to go to the actual Twub.

&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;a href="http://twubs.com/eatit09"&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;#eatit09&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/a&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;

ITC Grand Debate - Suggestions Needed

2009-07-27T14:01:00.004-05:00

The ITC Grand Debate is held each year at the organization’s eLearning conference. The 2010 conference will be held from February 20-23 in Fort Worth, Texas at the Omni Hotel. Last year I was a participant in the Grand Debate titled “Virtual Worlds are the Second Life for Online Learning.” That event has been well chronicled and I don’t care to discuss it more at this time. The purpose for this post is to solicit a few topic ideas for the 2010 Grand Debate.

The ITC Board of Directors meets later this week in California and we will choose the debate topics (and hopefully the debaters as well) for the next conference. A couple of the previous topics included: “Classroom Observation is an Administrator’s Right” (2008), “Cheating is Rampant in Distance Education Classes” (2007), and Open Source vs. Proprietary Course Management: Is Proprietary Software Dead?” (2006).

Through a couple of tweets I received the following suggestions about two weeks ago.

Generations: Net Gen Skeptics vs. Net Gen Evangelists. Statement: “Digital as a first language changes everything about how to teach the Net Generation.” (suggested by @cmduke)
LMS versus PLE (or distributed sources) – Statement: “An LMS is no longer useful in a Web 2.0 world.” Or “An LMS is even more critical and useful in a Web 2.0 world.” (suggested by @dietsociety)
eLearning vs. ITV
Multiple learning styles. Statement: Through online learning we are able to adequately deal with groups of learners possessing different learning styles.
Online learning enables meaningful and effective individualized instruction. (suggested by @brueckj23)

Please leave a comment to this post of you have one more possible debate topics for the group to consider. It should be relevant to an eLearning audience (for example, I question whether a topic about ITV courses is relevant as we go forward), it should have two good sides that can be argued strongly, and we need to have some ideas about who could make those arguments during the debate. Thanks in advance!!
(CC photo by hive)

Screenjelly and ShareTabs

2009-07-23T13:12:00.006-05:00

Just a quick note to introduce two new web apps that you might find useful. Add Screenjelly to the list of web-based screencasting tools. In April I posted a comparison of Screencastle and Screentoaster for the very specific task of recording the creation of a chart in Excel.

Screenjelly is restricted to a time limit of 3 minutes, which may make it less useful than the others, although it worked very easily and would be great for quickies. I used Screenjelly to demonstrate a new service called ShareTabs. Jane Hart tweeted about it this morning:

Basically with ShareTabs you can provide a list of weblinks in a much more useful and visible format. I was thinking about how this could be used for aggregating web content for an online course, so I made this quick little screencast to demonstrate how you can embed a ShareTabs page inside Desire2Learn (and also how to use Screenjelly). Here's a link to the ShareTabs page of 6 Twitter links that I used for the demo.

See this video at Screenjelly.

D2L09 UNconference Video

2009-07-13T17:05:00.003-05:00

The D2L UNconference was a blast last night at the Liffey, an Irish pub in St. Paul. Kyle Mackie (@kylemackie) did a great job as emcee or chief organizer. Here's a short video (4.5 mins) containing several snippets from the evening, although not all presenters are shown. This video has absolutely zero value, as you'll soon see.

There is a good chance that the full video of some of these segments will see the light of day, but probably not from me. I'm just saying.

D2L UNconference at 6:30 today

2009-07-12T15:55:00.005-05:00

50 or so of the early-arrivers for D2L09 FUSION will be gathering at 6:30 today for the UNconference prior to the official start of the conference tomorrow morning. Check out the attendance list to see who is going to be having the most fun in St. Paul tonight.

The tag for the conference is D2L09. I expect lots of Twitter activity since many people that are coming are tweet-aholics. Here is a FeedFlash of tweets tagged with D2L09.

I expect there will be much more to report about this as it unfolds. Live streaming might occur if we have good connectivity. We'll be at the Liffey in St. Paul starting at 6:30.

Call for Keynote Presenters

2009-06-17T21:19:00.017-05:00

EAT-IT 2009 will happen on August 12-13 at Inver Hills Community College in Inver Grove Heights, Minnesota. EAT-IT stands for Emerging Academic Technologies and Instructional Techniques (yes, I spent 30 minutes coming up with a name that would fit the acronym.) More information about the conference at the Innovations in e-Education blog.

Here's a little different twist. We're NOT going to ask keynote speakers to come to this conference, they're going to ask us (we hope!). The conference is called EAT-IT! The focus of the conference will be Emerging Academic Technologies and Instructional Techniques. More info here.

So here's the deal. Submit the form below (or here) and tell us why we should hire you as a keynote speaker. Clearly you want to have a message that is on-topic for the conference. Additionally, consider the following:
* We need to know your total required fee. In other words, give us one price that represents the total amount that we will have to pay you. Don't say "fee plus expenses." As an independent contractor we can't separately reimburse your expenses anyway (in other words, roll the expenses into your fee).
* We would really appreciate it if you would also provide a 50-60 minute breakout session in addition to your 60-75 minute keynote (on the same day). However, you can refuse this if you're not interested.
* Feel free to submit more than one proposal if you have different topics that you think we might be interested in for the conference.

Why are we asking for proposals from potential keynote speakers?
* Why ask why? Why not ask why not?
* Because this might be a chance to see a great proposal for a keynote from someone who never gets asked to do a keynote. Newbies are encouraged to apply.
* Because maybe we'll have a chance at getting an expensive speaker at a bit of a discount. Sort of like unsold seats on an airplane - if these dates are open in someone's calendar then maybe they'll be willing to accept less money to have an extra gig. Maybe not, but it was worth a try.
* Because we'll be able to choose among proposals from people who really want to come to our conference - they'll have to persuade us to hire them rather than us having to persuade them to let us hire them.
* Because we'll be able to tell you up front that we won't be able to pay $5,000 for a keynote speaker. We're hoping to hire at least two different people, and we're expecting only about 75-100 people to attend this conference (it is prime vacation time after all) so we won't have a huge budget to work with.

That's it for now. Hope we get some innovative proposals.

e-Learning Leadership Development

2009-05-15T08:31:00.002-05:00

It seems obvious that there is a perceived void in the development of future leaders in the field of e-Learning. At least it certainly appears that way. I come to that conclusion based on the fact that there are three different efforts by reputable organizations to develop leadership academies focused on e-Learning. One by ITC (note: I am a board member), one by WCET (note: I am involved in the event planning and execution), and one by SLOAN-C.

From the Instructional Technology Council (ITC): (copied from website)

ITC 2009 Leadership Academy
July 26-28, 2009, Costa Mesa, California Application Deadline: May 20, 2009

See Academy Web site

The ITC Leadership Academy is designed to develop and enrich the leadership skills of distance learning professionals in higher educational settings. Ideal candidates include distance learning administrators or learning technologies administrators with three or more years of managerial experience in a distance learning program. Along with a group of approximately 25 fellow professionals from throughout North America, participants will gain the opportunity to:

• Understand your organization and create a sound leadership strategy for your environment

• Develop a leadership model that fits your institution

• Identify and acquire key tools for successful leadership in distance learning

• Build a network of colleagues and fellow practitioners

This three-day academy will be held in beautiful Costa Mesa, a community of Orange County, California. The deadline to submit an application is May 20, 2009.

Visit the Academy Web site for more information and an application form.

(end)

From WCET: (copied from website)

CatalystCAMP

Explore Leadership Strategies for eLearning Success with the Experts. In conjunction with the WCET Annual Conference on October 21-24, the first-ever CatalystCAMP is providing a unique professional development opportunity for emerging elearning leaders. CAMP participants will be teamed with national experts who will lead sessions addressing policy, technical, funding, and accountability issues currently facing higher education.

In these tight budget times, all available professional development funds must be spent wisely. By blending CatalystCAMP into the WCET conference schedule, it becomes a "2-for-1" savings on travel and also allows participants to augment their professional development program with selected conference sessions.

5 things YOU will do at CatalystCAMP

AWARENESS: Analyze external and internal pressures and what impact they may have on your institution.
ANTICIPATION: Identify needed changes and the rubrics for decision-making.
ARTICULATION: Plan what to do, how to do it, and when to do it.
ACTION: Implement, monitor, and manage change.
ASSESSMENT: Evaluate and evolve.

(end)

From SLOAN-C: (copied from website)

The Institute for Emerging Leadership in Online Learning (IELOL)

Has your institution recently launched or are you planning to launch an online program?

Do you have the next level of leadership prepared to embrace all that online delivery has to offer?

If you, like many, see developing the leadership capacity as a critical issue in establishing your an online program, you may be interested in participating in The Institute for Emerging Leadership in Online Learning, a unique blended-learning leadership development program sponsored by Penn State and The Sloan Consortium (Sloan-C).

"A key objective of the Institute is to get emerging leaders together with online learning pioneers to share their experiences," explains Dr. Gary E. Miller, executive director emeritus of Penn State’s World Campus and one of the Institute leaders. With so many of the early adopters at or near retirement age, there is a real need to foster the development of the next generation of higher education leaders in online learning, Miller notes.

The institute is a blended format, which means participants will meet as a group for an immersive experience then continue their learning in an online environment that culminates with a capstone project at The Sloan Consortium's annual conference in October, explains co-director Lawrence C. Ragan.

The group experience will take place August 10–13, 2009, at Penn State.

(end)

I have no doubt that all three organizations will provide valuable learning opportunities for participants. Maybe a better question is whether there are enough potential participants to go around.

Blackborg Goes Creative Commons

2009-05-12T18:17:00.005-05:00

In the category of chock one up for electronic communications, MikeLeSombre (his blog) changed his copyright on the image shown above after getting requests from several people (including me) asking him to reconsider his "All Rights Reserved" copyright and allow sharing through Creative Commons licensing. That's exactly what he did.

Now his image is licensed as CC Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 2.0 which means that his image will be used and shared far and wide - legally. Thanks Mike. You have many fans who appreciate your handiwork with this poster.

Resistence is futile* (see note above) All your IMS are belong to us.

Thanks from Online Student Scholarship Winners

2009-05-12T15:07:00.003-05:00

A few years ago I started a scholarship fund at Lake Superior College for students who are pursuing an online degree program or at least completing most of their courses via online delivery. Back then I was struck by the irony (or maybe sadness?) while attending the student awards banquet that none of the scholarships were going to online students. That just didn't seem right considering that about 15% of our enrollment was for online courses, but none of the financial support was being given to online students. They were clearly a hidden population. Now the online enrollments make up over 25% of our total enrollment, but I am happy to report that for the past several years we have honored online students on scholarship night. (CC photo by stuartpilbrow)

This year there were three online scholarship winners. Today I received thank you cards from each of them. They want to communicate with all the people who made their awards possible, so I will post their words here in an effort to let people know how appreciative they are.

#1: " Just a short note of thanks for selecting me to receive your scholarship through my education at LSC. I am currently seeking my dgeree in accounting to be able to hopefully upgrade my position with the State of Minnesota. I also am raising my 3 children, so any type of help such as this is greatly appreciated. Thanks, again."

#2: "Thank you very much for choosing me for the Virtual Campus Scholarship. I filled out 11 applications and I am pleased to have received one! I've been struggling to get my foot in the door to college for many years now, and now that I started classes I realized I enjoy college. When I try hard in classes I surprise myself because I never thought I could do that well. Thanks for helping me achieve my goals and believing in me. :)"

#3: "First of all, thank you for choosing me as one of the Virtual Campus Scholarship recipients. I have struggled to get half-way through my program and dealt with many hard things, hindering my abilities. But nothing is more important to me than graduating and being able to start my paralegal career with an A.S. degree in Legal Studies. I rely on financial aid and student loans to pay for college, but because I went over full-time both semesters, I had no funding left for summer classes. I am a single mom and unable to work for a few reasons, therefore, getting this degree as soon as possible is a major priority for me."

"I am very grateful that I was one of the many people chosen. I really needed this scholarship to attend summer classes. It is a great honor and privilege to have received this scholarship and I am so thankful. It has made my life somewhat easier and not as stressful in a few areas of my life. I really do appreciate receiving this scholarship more than words can say."

So there you have it. Those are the reasons that we needed the fund. Thanks so much to the other employees who donate money to the e-Campus scholarship fund and /or help out with the few fundraising events we hold each year. You all make a difference.

Blackboard Hearts Angel

2009-05-07T22:34:00.012-05:00

I haven't posted anything about the Blackboard purchase of Angel during the first two days of the hub-bub because as my mother once told me, "If you don't have anything snarky and bitchy to say, just don't say anything at all." As I was preparing to write this post (and while mulling over her words of wisdom), I decided that I need to set the record straight regarding this much-maligned purchase. (CC angel photo by adselwood)

What a fabulous move by Blackboard! Once again, the Blackboard suits in the white hats have pulled a marvelous coup in the LMS market. Current Angel clients should embrace the fact that they have now been adopted by the mothership - where there will always be a bird in every pot, a car in every garage, and a lawyer in every chair.

I'm totally perplexed by all the negativity being expressed by various members of the education community. I even heard a few people remark that Michael Chasen appears to be a complete slimeball in this video from the fabulous Fox Network. I beg to differ. Mr. Chasen appears to me to be a completely sympathetic character; one who is only striving for the betterment of education and one who is not at all slimy. Just knock off all the talk about him being slimy. Clearly that is not the case. I see no slime whatsoever. (And it's certainly not his fault that the woman interviewing him is absolutely clueless.)

I have many friends at colleges and universities that are Angel clients. I have received emails/tweets/wall posts from several of them who want to cry on my shoulder and are expecting my sympathies in return. Get off my shoulder. Get over it. Put down that bottle of whiskey. This is absolutely the best thing that could have happened to you. The Angel platform is certain to live a long and fruitful life now that they have Blackboard's financial backing, BB's cadre of dedicated employees, their best-in-class architecture, and their much-deserved patent on the basic functionality of the LMS. Without this purchase by Blackboard, Angel was heading to a certain death and then where would all the Angel users be? Think of this as your BAILOUT, and Obama didn't even have anything to do with it. Or did he?

At Inside Higher Ed, both the article and the comments are mostly negative about this purchase. Don Gardner, Associate Vice President for Academic Technology at California State University, Long Beach is quoted as saying that Blackboard has provided "consistently poor customer service" and that Long Beach was in the process of switching to Angel because of Angel's superior customer service. Note to Dr. Gardner: since Blackboard is buying Angel they are also buying Angel's fabulous customer service. Therefore, you are going to be getting that great customer service from a company that is 12 to 15 times larger than Angel was, which means of course that you can expect the customer service to be even better than what you were hoping for under Angel - maybe even 12 to 15 times better.

In that same article, Fred Lokken, Associate Dean for Teaching Technologies at Truckee Meadows Community College in Nevada said he objected to the "predatory" way that Blackboard is fighting with Desire2Learn over patents. "Is the idea to own the market so that we have no choice?" Yes, Mr. Lokken. That is exactly the point. That is the American Way, and Blackboard is the poster child for illustrating the American Way of doing business. Every b-school student can learn a lot from watching the shrewd moves that Blackboard makes in dominating the education market with their superior technology and innovative innovations in the user interface and tool set.

"Chasen stressed that the attraction of Angel to Blackboard was respect for just the qualities that Angel's fans praise: teaching tools and customer service. He pledged that Angel customers would continue to receive strong support, that the new version of Angel that is coming out just as this deal is being announced would in fact come out, and that pricing would remain stable." (also from IHE) In this section Mr. Chasen lays out the the basic strategy for the Angel and Blackboard platforms. It reminds me greatly of the old days of General Motors. Pound for pound, Buick cars were always more expensive than Pontiacs. Many of the features of Buicks and Pontiacs were very similar, but Buicks were the big dogs (not as big as Cadillac, but big enough) and Pontiac was the younger, less mature, less expensive sibling. Considering the price differences between Blackboard and Angel, and considering that Mr. Chasen has stated that the pricing would remain stable, I think it's safe to say that LMS customers will now have the choice of buying the more expensive Buick Blackboard or the less expensive Pontiac Angel. And wouldn't those also be great names for cars?

Commenter Dane said "As one who has used Blackboard, I have found that, apart from whatever failings it has in service, it is one of the worst course management programs there is." Dane, you sound like a bitter, broken man. Clearly you are misguided in your opinions about Blackboard. Don't be a hater.

Commenter Kim says "Hmm ...Rapidly escalating prices, ignoring security issues, regularly purchasing competitors, aggressively pursuing patent protection, and deteriorating customer service. Should we not be concerned about the possibility of abusive monopolistic practices?" Yes, we should not. Just move along. Nothing to see here.

In a phone interview, when asked about whether this acquisition would have a stifling effect on competition, Mr. Chasen told Campus Technology "Actually there's more competition today with course management systems than ever before." That does sound perfectly reasonable to me. I have no doubt that Blackboard is actually pursuing a strategy of encouraging more competition, not trying to squelch it. In fact, it sounds like they would love to have a whole bunch of tiny little companies nipping at their heels. It helps keep them more agile that way, sort of like the postman.

Commenter Robert Blechman said "Given our recent economic history why would anyone think that one company controlling 80% of the market is a good idea? Who is going to raise the appropriate anti-trust objections to this merger?" Not me Robert, and not you either. You see, Angel was (still is) a privately-held company which means that most of the anti-trust legislation doesn't apply to this transaction. Translation: Blackboard can buy Angel and no one can stop it. Now that's smart positioning in my book.

Anonymous commenter said "I find it interesting that there has not been a single BlackBoard customer that has come to BB defense. Not one positive comment. It says a lot..." It says nothing. I have no doubt that these blog and news sites are deleting those positive posts because positivity just doesn't sell. There are lots of positive comments about Blackboard, they just don't show up on any public websites. Trust me.

And besides, just to prove you wrong Mr. Anonymous, consider this post to be one long, very positive comment in Blackboard's defense. Blackboard hearts Angel, and I heart Blackboard.

Do you have a mirror? (.dias tsuj I gnihtyreve esrever yletelpmoc tsuj woN)