Some Thoughts on Different Platforms
In today’s post, I’m exploring some of the teaching platforms I have used, their pros and cons, as a preface to a future post wherein I will be exploring BlackBoard 9 in real-time.
When I first began teaching online in the summer of 2004, it was on the platform First Class (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FirstClass). I was a little scared of this huge new assignment, and uncertain of translating my classroom persona into an online experience, so it came as something of a relief to discover that FirstClass was similar to navigating one’s desktop and files. It was, like many things in life, a good news/bad news sort of situation. On the bright side, not only was the interface easy for me to use in organizing a class, but students found it simple to understand as well. The bad news? Was everything else. It had such an outdated user interface that you really couldn’t do much more with it than deliver text-based lectures and manage old-school BBS-style forums.
Like many things in the academic world, my switch to another platform was not my choice. Either there had been some sort of coup among online faculty at the college I taught at, or IT had been outsourced, but whichever it was, the upshot was that they no longer were supporting FirstClass (or were doing so only begrudgingly and under duress) and so I was thrown upon Blackboard (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackboard_Learning_System) right before the start of the semester. After initially freaking out, whining, and generally behaving like a baby about the whole thing, I settled down to explore. It turned out I liked what I saw, there was a lot more functionality, and yet it was not conceptually more difficult to set up a class than was FirstClass. I moved on with my life and became accustomed to BB (I think it was 6 and then 7).
But then, dum-dum-dum, School Numero Dos contracted me for a class, and they were using WebCT (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Webct). In order to use it, I had to take an unpaid course over at the Faculty Development Center. Gah, there went four hours on a Friday! So I slip into the classroom and settle in with a baker’s dozen faculty members, prepared to be freaked out at how difficult it was going to be (the phrase “steep learning curve” had been thrown around). Within an hour and a half I was whizzing through course set up, and pretty much had the skeleton of my upcoming class completed. Was it hard? It was definitely more complex, however, you could do so much more! You could change colors, and banners, and there was clip art, and on and on and on. As a result, WebCT rapidly climbed to the top of the charts in my estimation. Going back to plain old Blackboard felt like putting on orthopedic shoes in contrast. Suddenly, what a drag it was having to click 47 times just to enter a grade (http://parezcoydigo.wordpress.com/2009/08/24/oh-blackboard-wherefore-do-i-hate-thee/) or waking up in a cold sweat the SECOND day of class because I just realized I forgot to make it accessible to students.
Currently, I am still working simultaneously in both systems, and have come to see them as having their own little secrets, shortcuts, and flaws:
For instance, it is a nice feature in BlackBoard that I can pre-program assignments and forums to remain hidden until needed, come online, and then close at a prescribed time. The same process in WebCT has been glitchy for me, and resulted in more trouble than it is worth.
The student tracking feature in WebCT, however, is way easier to access, run and interpret than anything similar in BB. I know that I can turn on tracking of individual items in BB, but if there is a function that collects all of that information into one stop shopping it remains elusive for me.
Announcements in WebCT are a one-click process, whereas in BB I have to go into the Control Panel every time.
BB seems easier to “decorate” with pictures and the like. Setting up lectures into “modules” as I like to do appears to be more difficult in WebCT.
Overall, I would probably give the gold to WebCT. I find the most important aspects, like grading, and uploading new material, to be the easiest in that environment.
