Learning Management Systems Five-‐Year Evaluation Academic Technology Council May 2, 2010 Background In 1999, Choate Rosemary Hall implemented Blackboard, its first learning management system (LMS). It was a stand-‐alone platform to deliver both course content and information over the web. In 2005, Choate completed its initial evaluation of Blackboard with an ad hoc task force, and concluded that the school would be best served by continuing to use Blackboard. In addition, the school decided to expand its use of Blackboard to include the Community and Content systems, creating the school's internal portal called Chip. Five years later, the Academic Technology Council (ATC) embarked on the second evaluation of Blackboard. There were several considerations that made the timing of this study particularly appropriate. 1. Blackboard had recently released their next generation learning management platform (Version 9). The new interface for teachers would necessitate retraining. If retraining were required, then the switch to a new platform would be no more complex than learning the new Blackboard interface. 2. The Blackboard system configuration is complex, making the installation of upgrades and new releases time consuming. It has become another enterprise application, and the ATC wondered if there were alternative solutions that were easier to maintain. 3. The Communications and ITS Departments were contemplating a new internal portal that would replace the Blackboard Community and Content systems. Recommendation After evaluating ten potential alternatives, the ATC recommends that the school use Blackboard Learn as our learning management platform with the understanding that it will be integrated with any internal portal ultimately developed by the school. The primary considerations supporting this recommendation were as follows: 1. Blackboard controls more than 80% of the learning management system market since its acquisition of WebCT. The combined resources of the higher education and K-‐12 markets make the future of Blackboard bright and stable.
2. Many of the other mature learning management solutions were similar in structure and functionality to Blackboard, making a shift in vendors questionable. 3. The newer, more innovative systems have few customers and are not as well capitalized, making a long-‐term partnership with Choate risky. 4. Blackboard continues to add business partners that provide value-‐added modules to enhance the capabilities of the basic Blackboard system. In addition, Blackboard continues to add relationships with book publishers, creating course cartridges, including test materials, which may be loaded into a Blackboard course. 5. Blackboard has partnered with companies that will deliver all course materials to mobile devices such as iPhone and Blackberry. The ATC believes that these mobile devices will become ubiquitous in our student body over the next several years, and thus, Bb will permit us to adapt to the proliferation of these devices should we choose to do so.
Analysis The following alternative learning management solutions were examined, and a brief evaluation of each is provided. • Moodle – Arguably the most widely used learning management system in education (statistics are difficult to obtain because Moodle is Open Source software, and thus not purchased from a vendor). Schools and colleges that are on very limited budgets often install Moodle, and then purchase a support contract from a third party company. Moodle is a "conversation-‐ oriented" platform with communication between students the central feature, driving the importance of course content. The ATC felt Moodle's design was not consistent with our approach to teaching and learning. There is a conversion utility to move course materials from Blackboard to Moodle. • Desire2Learn – One of the few commercial direct competitors to Blackboard. Functionality and user interface are similar enough that a change of systems would not be justified. Desire2Learn does not have a Community Portal. • Pearson Learning Studio (formerly eCollege) – Another commercial product that Choate looked at ten years ago. This platform is a hosted solution only (cannot be installed locally), and is changing, with additional working capital provided by Pearson Publishing. There is a very tight interface between the Learning Studio and Pearson textbooks, but Blackboard provides course cartridges from a wider range of publishers.
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Sakai – Perhaps the solution with the most promise, Sakai is an open source joint development effort between MIT, Stanford, and University of Michigan. Other universities have adopted the product because it provides many hooks to third party applications, and interfaces to major college administrative systems. There are several third party companies that support the product, but much of the innovation in the product is related to ePortfolios, online student assessment, and higher education course registration, functionality that would not be as valuable to secondary schools. Again, the course management interface is very similar to Blackboard. Hot Chalk – Another hosted solution tailored to public schools with a community of teachers providing lesson plans that meet national curriculum standards, a rudimentary course management site, and a grades module designed to provide parents with access to student grades and the appropriate teacher. While the concept of the system is not a good fit for Choate, some of the curricular lessons might be appropriate. Blackboard is now providing a building block that allows integration of HotChalk lessons into Blackboard Learn. When our system is upgraded to Learn, we will be able to utilize this capability. Wikispaces or Google Sites – The underlying assumption in using a teacher web site was to save money and dispense with the large number of Blackboard features that are not widely used by our faculty. These types of sites are very easy to populate with course content, but lack the additional tools for assessment, grade books, time sensitive content, etc. that are integrated with Blackboard. Consequently, additional tools would have to be incorporated to result in an equivalent Blackboard experience. Furthermore, the ATC tested the conversion of content from Blackboard to Wikispaces with unsatisfactory results. There was an extensive amount of cleanup required. Epsilen – An early, but good example of the future of personal learning environments (PLE – defined as the tools, communities, and services that constitute the individual educational platforms learners use to direct their own learning). While there were some wonderful tools, the system was not as visually attractive as many others (designed for adults). Because there were so many features available, the ATC felt it was both overkill with respect to our needs and unusually complex to navigate. There was no ability to convert Blackboard materials to Epsilen. Haiku – A new and fresh approach to delivering course content, Haiku takes advantage of the latest advances in web technologies. Teachers are provided with multiple design options (unlike Blackboard), and design templates that bring materials to life. The interface is much easier and intuitive to navigate 3
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than Blackboard (without any training), and adding content is a "drag and drop" process. Unfortunately, Haiku is a relatively new, hosted product delivered by a small Canadian-‐based company. They have a limited customer base and are funded by private capital. There was a good deal of concern about the sustainability of the company, particularly as other developers of learning management solutions take advantage of new web technologies. The ATC agreed that we should keep our eye on this solution, but it was premature to risk a conversion at this time. Udutu – A sophisticated, but easy-‐to-‐use course content creation system that is best suited for more complex presentations such as simulations and interactive materials. Udutu is designed for those who lack the technical expertise to program in Flash (similar to Mathematica, but more broadly-‐ based) or Java. Udutu is not a comprehensive learning management platform, so it lacks many of the tools provided by Blackboard (although these tools could likely be developed in Udutu with sufficient expertise). More importantly, Udutu content can be exported to Blackboard using the industry-‐standard SCORM format, so those teachers who might wish to develop more sophisticated content can utilize the free version of Udutu as a supporting tool for Blackboard. Google Wave – While it is still a beta product, lacking a great deal of documentation, Wave appears to be Google's contribution to social networking, advanced threaded discussion, and delivery of dynamic content as a form of communication between teacher and students. It has promise in the sense that it's design is consistent with the collaborative models that have been proposed for the future of teaching and learning. The conclusion of the ATC was that Choate was not quite ready to enter that next generation educational paradigm yet, and that Wave was not ready for prime time.
Summary and Conclusion This report provides a specific recommendation that the school continue to follow the Blackboard Learn upgrade path for the next three to five years, while watching web-‐based developments that might impact the ease with which teachers could create online courses and course materials. There are several developments in the area of interactive learning and simulation on the horizon that could potentially have a profound positive impact on the needs of our faculty. In the interim, the ATC feels it would be most prudent to stay the course with the incumbent Blackboard system, upgrading to Learn during the 2010-‐2011 academic year. There is minimal risk associated with this strategy since Blackboard's financial strength is formidable, and the next generation product will meet the bulk of our current and short-‐term future needs.
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