Try it first ... | EDUCAUSE

Created by David Penrose (San Juan College) on June 21, 2005

With the ongoing competition between commercial CMS (course management systems) and OpenSource CMS, I am suprised that Blackboard and WebCT do not host "try-it-out" shell accounts for faculty. Why? Faculty who can, at their leisure, build sample courses will likely use their influence to encourage their institution to adopt that particular platform.

One problem that I have observed with the commercial packages is that administrators have typically been more restrictive in allowing faculty to have a non-productive course shell. While the latest versions of the popular systems may have tried to make accomodations, the bottom line is that faculty need a place to "experiment" with the features.

Evidence of this being true? Consider the growing popularity of CMS's like Moodle, WordCircle, Claroline, ATutor, and Segue.

David

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		Try it first ... Created by David Penrose (San Juan College) on June 21, 2005 With the ongoing competition between commercial CMS (course management systems) and OpenSource CMS, I am suprised that Blackboard and WebCT do not host "try-it-out" shell accounts for faculty. Why? Faculty who can, at their leisure, build sample courses will likely use their influence to encourage their institution to adopt that particular platform. One problem that I have observed with the commercial packages is that administrators have typically been more restrictive in allowing faculty to have a non-productive course shell. While the latest versions of the popular systems may have tried to make accomodations, the bottom line is that faculty need a place to "experiment" with the features. Evidence of this being true? Consider the growing popularity of CMS's like Moodle, WordCircle, Claroline, ATutor, and Segue. David E-Learning \| Open Source \| Rants David's blog Login or register to post comments 3325 reads
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