Higher Ed IT scandal: update
The scuttlebutt is that it wasn’t so much a merger as a major purchase by Blackboard.
This is all based on rumor and hearsay…but it’s certainly bolstered by the fact that the new company will be named Blackboard, the current CEO of Blackboard will remain CEO, and they are going to be moving toward a single course management system. Something tells me it’s not going to be Vista (WebCT’s flagship product).
Vista was a product we very seriously considered; it’s far more technically sound than Blackboard, but we ended up not going with it for a variety of reasons, most of which were related to ease of use (or lack thereof). Still, it would be a shame to see all that functionality go down the tubes.
It’s pretty geeky of me that I’ve spent so much time thinking about this over the last 30 hours. I recognize and embrace that fact.
Now you know how we Oracle HR people feel about the whole PeopleSoft/Oracle thing 🙂
I also work in Higher Ed I.T. whatchacalit, and we use WebCt Vista. I can’t tell you how many horrid mishaps we’ve had with lost information, utter confusion with use both with professors and students and the like. Hopefully something good will come of this.
You guys are so lucky you have Blackboard. Our Dean had it at her previous position and goes on and on about it. 🙁
Well, we don’t actually have Blackboard, not for much longer anyway. We have Desire 2 Learn and will be phasing out Bb and WebCT over the next year.
Honestly, Blackboard is a pretty bad product. We’ve had lots of trouble with it. So don’t be too jealous of your Dean; she probably never had to support it.
She didn’t. That’s a very good point. When you’re on the supporting end it’s different. I guess they all kinda suck from that point-of-view, don’t they? 😛
(Btw, my sister just moved to Davenport from here (Utah). If you happen to be all the way over there and see her say hey. It might happen…or not…)