![[Signifying Nothing]](/local/memlogo-1.png "Welcome to Signifying Nothing")
I find that it takes about 17 more steps to accomplish anything in WebCT than in Blackboard. Mind you, I’m still not entirely sold on either as a content management system, but at least Blackboard worked without requiring me to do stupid things like “Update student view” on a regular basis. Not to mention that its grading system worked about 70% right, as opposed to WebCT's which manages about 40% on my scale. (I still had to calculate final grades using a spreadsheet formula with Blackboard because of my bizarre insistence on weighing exam grades based on student performance, but at least it could do a quiz average trivially... instead of making me produce a formula for that too, which appears to be WebCT’s approach.)
If it weren’t for the hassle and the FERPA issues, I’d just run Moodle on my Mac mini and be done with it.
![[Permalink]](/images/permalink.png "Permanent link to this entry"){kind=small}
Recent posts
![[The GIMP]](/buttons/gimp.png "The GIMP"){kind=small}
![[Steal These Buttons!]](/buttons/steal.png "Steal These Buttons!"){kind=small}
2 comments:
I’ve found that course management systems from small companies are far less frustrating than Blackboard and WebCT. I teach at a private university in Arkansas. Several colleges in our state formed a consortium to select a course management system. (At the time, my university was very close to signing a contract with Blackboard.) After rigorous investigation into various products (including WebCT, Blackboard, and software from smaller companies), we invited representatives of Blackboard and Ucompass to make presentations.
Ucompass’ Educator absolutely blew Blackboard away. I’ve now used it for three years and love it, although I’d like to have more flexibility with its grading system.
A group of colleges in Wisconsin got fed up with Blackboard’s increasing prices, selected Educator, and imported years of Blackboard data into Educator without a problem. If you ever have a chance to move away from Blackboard/WebCT, don’t hesitate.
I’m now almost to the point where, when people ask me how I like McGill, I say, “I love everything about it, except for the damned course management software [WebCT] and the obligation to use it.” What a mess of a package.