another reason why I don't use blackboard

Ordinarily I'd post this on my COMM 144 blog because I started my critique of eCampus and Blackboard there, but since the most-recent eCampus email only went to my COMM 110 account, I'll discuss the issue here.

I received this email from eCampus yesterday afternoon:

Dear Summer 2008 Faculty,

Due to a recent change in how Open University (OU) students register for courses, Open University students in online classes will need to do the following:

1. On the first day of class, students will contact the professor to get access to their online class.
   
   
2. To provide access, the professor will give each OU student a guest account. (Share with them the guest account ID and password)
   
   
3. The OU student will access the course via the guest account until June 9, the first day that OU students can register through MySJSU.
   
   
4. Soon after an OU student has registered in MySJSU, their 9-digit MySJSU ID will be added to the CE6 course. The student can then use that ID to access the course.
   

NOTE: Open University students are allowed to register on a space-available basis. The 1 week window between June 2 and June 9 is to allow matriculated students time to register for classes. OU students attending class during the June 2—9 period does not completely guarantee that they will be able to register on June 9.

Also note: The Open University students don't need any special permission number to register for the course through MySJSU. On June 9, they will be allowed to enroll via MySJSU.

Mark Adams
Instructional Developer/Blackboard Application Administrator
San Jose State University eCampus
One Washington Square
San Jose, CA 95192-0135
408.924.2618
http://online.sjsu.edu
Mark.Adams@sjsu.edu

Here's the problem: There's no way to merge what the student did as a guest with what the student subsequently does as a student formally enrolled in the class. Discussions comments will be posted as "Guest User" with an ID such as "30178guest1" and any exams or quizzes will be recorded in the gradebook under Guest User as well. All papers uploaded, personal webpage developed, chat comments, etc., will be listed under the guest user ID. There's no way to move over any assignments. The instructor will have to transfer the grades by hand.

This policy affects any class that uses blackboard, not just online classes. The email's wording makes it appear that no one is really responsible for this change: "Due to a recent change in how Open University (OU) students register for courses. . . ." But the same folks who are in charge of Open U are also in charge of eCampus: SJSU International and Extended Studies. So I'd think that someone would have said, "Wow, maybe we should consider how this might impact students and faculty using blackboard in their classes." And of course telling faculty late Friday afternoon--the Friday before classes start on Monday--demonstrates the complete lack of thought that went into this decision.

Still, this is a minor issue compared to eCampus's major blunder in going with Blackboard in the first place. Completely ignoring the CSU's Accessible Technology Initiative, eCampus chose a learning management system that's not accessible. This means that eCampus signed a contract without finding out first if the LMS is compatible with screen readers such as JAWS and VoiceOver. Consulting with faculty first might have avoided this issue. But the folks at eCampus made the decision with no input from faculty, students, or the Disability Resource Center staff. Now we're facing a situation where once the blackboard contract is up (2 years) faculty and students will need to learn a new platform--less than three years after making the move from webct to blackboard.

For my Winter 2008 COMM 144 class I decided to go back to the future, coding all my own class pages and hosting them on my server, as I did when I first started teaching online. In 2002 I transferred all my classes to webct at the insistence of eCampus ("it's so great! so many wonderful features!" and "if you don't use it you can't teach online"). Many bugs and problems (such as the 6 weeks at the beginning of one semester in which Mac users never knew if their messages would post to the discussion board or not--sometimes it would take 10-15 tries. eCampus's response was, "Oh well, you'll just have to keep trying."). Many student complaints. Poor tech support. But the quiz feature was handy and students got used to the platform, so I stuck with it. But this latest version of blackboard is so awful, I simply won't impose it on my students (except for quizzes and grades, and if I had a viable option for those, I'd go with it).

My class webpages are completely screen readable. Google seems committed to accessible websites and tools. Blackboard talks about accessibility, but seems short on implementation.

This is a bit off topic, but I do want students to know why (in part) we're using Blogger rather than blackboard and why the class website is on the open internet and not on blackboard.

--Professor Cyborg