As you are probably aware, the University is considering switching from Blackboard to Moodle for its online course delivery system. From what I can tell, the major consideration seems to be the cost of Blackboard.
Although I have heard some good things about Moodle from students who have used it elsewhere, most faculty members on our campus seem to want to keep Blackboard for a variety of reasons. Two of the most compelling that I have heard are (a) the modules that various publishers have produced work with Blackboard but do not work with Moodle and (b) the KCTCS system uses the new version of Blackboard, so if we're serious about getting more transfer students, we should perhaps use what KCTCS is using. My friends in CIS also tell me that the new version of Blackboard has all kinds of useful new features.
One of my concerns here--and this concern I apparently share with a number of faculty--is that the choice of our online delivery system is an academic decision that should be made by Academic Affairs (as opposed to IT). And I would hope that the faculty would have a significant voice in this process. Faculty Senate members, are you listening?
Let me know what you think. And let your faculty senators know what you're thinking as well.
Ron
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I heard the day after convocation (from a very reliable source) that it was a "done deal", that the money had already been allocated / dispersed / spent, and there was no further discussion....then the email from Academic Affairs / Provost arrives.....
seems to be too many stories on too many fronts, regarding MANY, MANY issues....what's next...health insurance cuts? Another VP???.......what's the truth???????
I don't get the sense that this is a "done deal." If there is not sufficient faculty buy-in, switching to Moodle will be an absolute disaster--and I think the President and Provost are well aware of this fact. I went to the informational meeting on Moodle this morning (Wednesday, 1 September). There was a healthy turnout of faculty and some excellent questions. Clearly, saving some money and being able to integrate Datatel and Moodle are attractive to the administration. But they're asking for faculty opinion and we need to give it loud and clear. I am hopeful that there will be some informational sessions of Blackboard 9.1 so that we can truly compare its features to Moodle's offerings.
Ron
I personally would be in favor of Moodle for two reasons. First, BlackBoard is out of control with everything it is purchasing and can't handle what it has. Two, Moodle is opensource and we could easily add any additional modules we wanted to add to it.
Regardless of whether BlackBoard or Moodle being the best system is really not the issue here. I had already heard from multiple sources during the Spring semester that IT had already purchased the Moodle hosting. This is becoming one of the biggest problems here at MSU. Academics are supposed to be the heart of what happens at MSU, but the academic side of the institution is the last group to even be consulted or informed. And people keep questioning why morale is so bad at MSU. ummm Hello. Let's get a clue here.
MSU has become a community of mid-level administrators stumbling over one another (has anyone taken made a definitive assessment as to how many have been added since July 1 2007?). We are no longer a community of scholars. Faculty Senate has been told too often that it is simply an advisory body. I''m surprised we still have one.
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