Complaints from both students and professors about vanishing grades and failed downloads along with complete system crashes; have prompted the university to look into a new course management system to replace

Blackboard Academic Suite, the current course management system used by the university.  

Western’s computer science department is in the process of testing a new e-learning software this summer quarter that could potentially replace Blackboard sometime next year.  Blackboards potential replacement is a software called Moodle.

“I think students tend to find [Blackboard] more frustrating especially when it goes down and they have something due for a class and cannot access it,” said David Bover, chair of the computer science department.

After investigating multiple alternative e-learning software and course management systems, the department settled on testing a program called Moodle.

Moodle will have all the same basic features expected from an e-learning platform.  Professors will still be able to post grades, upload documents and assignments and communicate with students through e-mail.  This is good for professors like Takele Seda of the physics and astronomy department, who use Blackboard for these very reasons but had problems with its functionality.  

Seda said he likes Blackboard because he can put all his information for his students on it, but he has had problems with downloading certain files.

The major difference between Moodle and Blackboard is that Moodle is an open source, modular-based system.  

When software is open source, it means that anybody can view and write the code that makes up the program and create plug-ins that allow customization and increased functionality.  Plug-ins can quickly be created or taken freely from the Internet that allow different features to be added such as graphical themes, content filters, resources, activities and other specific functions.  This allows for rapid development of features and the quick fixing of bugs but will place extra administrative load on the computer science department, who will have to maintain Moodle, Bover said.

Open source also means Moodle is  free software, a benefit to the university, which currently pays to use Blackboard.

An open source program might also be appealing to professors who create their own course Web sites.  With Moodle, professors will be able to install plugins or create their own to fit specific needs for their course.

“I have the Web site construction skills to create my own online course syllabi and other online course support materials, so I’ve never bothered using Blackboard,” said Michael Karlberg, professor from the communications department.

Moodle is being tested in two computer science classes this quarter.   The test will cover overall efficiency, stability, ease of use and whether students and professors prefer Moodle over Blackboard.  

Summer quarter is low impact so it is a good time to do a trial run before making any final decisions, Bover said.

“The students seem to be quite enthusiastic about it,” Bover said.

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