Here is an anecdote (it happened to me today) outlining just one of the many things that is wrong with closed class websites and LMS in general:
I am currently working at a software company as an intern, writing a program. Now of course, as anybody who has taken Software Engineering knows (don’t worry readers who are not in Computer Science, I promise I will not lose you), when you make software you have to provide different types of documentation about it. Things like, why you made it, how it works, how to use it, who is going to use it… all these things and many more have to be written down formally and saved somewhere in order for your software to live a long and happy life.
Now, Software engineering (CPSC 310) is a class that in part teaches you how to write all of this essential documentation. I took this course with Meghan Allen, one of my favorite professors simply for the fact that she teaches like a human being and not an automaton. This is post is no reflection on her, just on the system that she is pushed into using by those above her . Anyway, in the course she would explain why this documentation was needed and how to do it. She would then provide us with careful examples of what it should look like. We were asked to use her examples as reference when creating our own documentation for our class project.
So far so good, pretty normal learning experience. But, we skip ahead to right now. My little program that I am writing for this big software company needs documentation. I remember why, but am very fuzzy on how. What to do? Of course, I can just go back to the example from class an… but wait. The examples were posted in Blackboard. I can’t see them anymore. They were a great resource… utterly useless as I have no way of applying it to a real life situation.
Ok, Well, not utterly useless. I still have the assignment that I handed in (thanks Google Docs for keeping it safe for me). I could still google the type of documentation and find other examples online, which works, although it takes time (less time of course than writing this post). The thing is, I know that the document is a fantastic resource, why should I have to go and search for others? Shouldn’t the university-provided example be better than most things I can find online anyway? Isn’t that the point of somone spending time writing it up in the first place? Money was used to create that example (mine and the government’s) so why should it be a one-time deal used only to help me complete an assignment? Can anybody come up with a sane reason why it should not be available to me always? I feel ripped off, because I had a resource and it was snatched away from me. If it had been given to me in good old-fashioned paper handouts, I would still have it.
This is just one example amongst a sea of them that I am sure most students experience often. I guess most don’t even realize that they are getting a raw deal for the time effort and money they put into the classroom. In three years of university I have taken well over 10 courses with Blackboard components. What do I have to show for it? See for yourself. Below is my list of blackboard courses. Makes you feel all warm and fuzzy inside doesn’t it?
My blackboard welcome screen
Related articles on other sites:
- The LMS is So Web 1.5 (ezrasf.com)
- Shall we call it Blackangel? Or Angelboard? (castingoutnines.wordpress.com)
As a student, I agree with your frustrations with Blackboard. There has been countless of courses that I have tried to access after I have taken it, only to find that Blackboard has removed the course hours after my final exam.
As for the reasons you are looking for, I believe can be found in the economics of onwership and its correlating perceptions that occurs in the generation gap.
On one hand, you have the students who believe that resources posted online are contributory in the overall cost of the course and hence, the information should belong to those who ‘pay’ for it alongside with the textbook for the course.
On the other, you have profs who (and this is a wide generalization) use blackboard for the convinience of posting information (or maybe required by the university) and assignments. This perception takes into account that the profs believe that information posted on Blackboard is still, technically ‘theirs’ and hence hold the right to retract the information.
The economics behinds ownership then asks: is online property as valuable as physical property? Of course, but it requires a re-definition of ownership.
ie. read news on Kindle retracting e-book http://www.topnews.in/orwell-s-books-erased-amazon-s-kindle-buyers-enraged-2190414
I also think that these occurances are also a result of the perception that students, who have grown up in the digital age, expect online information to always be there and to build on pre-existing knowledge vs. some profs, who would expect students to print out the handout provided, having less expectancies of the online world as students.
I have come to the stage where I print out everything that is provided on Blackboard to avoid frustrations like these after my entire online distance-ed music course disappeared overnight.
Until changes are made, the bottom line for me is: if you can’t beat em, join em.
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In this particular case, the fault is not in Bb Vista/CE, but in IT policy or practice which disables access to courses after a certain date. I’m not one to normally defend Bb, but the fact is one can access courses after the semester has terminated if the server admin hasn’t in some way restricted that.
Having said that, it’s common for server admins to restrict access to past semesters for (1) political reasons (as you’ve suggested), or (2) hardware/storage reasons.
Having worked with LMSs for a number of years, I can tell you that reason #2 is actually more a problem of process than of necessity; that is, LMS storage space is often overconsumed by faculty who store multiple copies of files, including course backups, within their courses–and duplicate them each semester. Also, the LMSs rarely allow for any sort of resource sharing, so if I have a great MP4 that’s 55mb, and I use it in my ENGL 1010 course, I might have a copy of that stored on the server for each semester I’ve taught that course. And if other instructors teach different sections and want to use that MP4? Well, silly Bb wants them to store their own copy. (I know some of you Bb experts want to say the word “Template” right now, but don’t even try it.)
Now there are other issues with Bb that are less easily dealt with re. openness, and those constitute much of the core of my complaints about the system.
Jared, I agree with you that this issue is really more about the system and the LMS. I think that Brian Lamb’s reaction to this post brings out the true essence of what bugged me and that was that Schools are providing less value than they should.
Your comment does still point to the fact that in part, it is still Blackboard’s fault. When you develop software you always have to keep in mind what it leads your users to do. The affordances that Blackboard provides are wrong, it encourages instructors to waste space. Doing things like allowing content reuse would have made instructors and system admin more likely to keep the courses around. This failure should have been avoided not because of them worrying about openness, but rather they should have known that space would be limited (space is always limited). Minimizing space usage should have been a large priority.
The true irony is that it was my search for a “System Requirements Specification” document (the very document that would have led to space saving being prioritized) that made me write this post in the first place!
I work for a major University that runs Bb and hosts it for other Universities too. I think you’re whining about nothing. Once the class is over, you should not expect access to its resources nor should you expect their resources to still be on the server. Large institutions always have space issue and can’t keep courses online that aren’t active. Instead, download the resources and save them locally for you to have your entire life. Or, discuss this with your schools Bb Admin. Just please, stop complaining and do something within your power to make your situation better.
@Bb Admin when I wrote this post it was out of anger and frustration, not whining. I do actually save as many resources as I can locally, however, over several courses that becomes very difficult and you are bound to miss some important ones. Also, that would still not provide me with the valuable exchanges that happened on the discussion boards (I’m assuming as a Sys Admin that you have been saved hundreds of hours of work due to answers on discussion boards).
As for your statement “Once the class is over, you should not expect access to its resources”… you did not explain why I should not expect access (the post and comments above detail why I think I should).
Finally, as for doing something about it, believe me, I will. However, it was necessary to first write this post as it has given me the chance to clarify my thinking and to gain the insights from others that I will need in order to be successful.
I think if your institution can’t handle storing assignments etc, you have bigger issues. Video lectures are a bigger deal, but the average assignment or written document is only going to be a few kilobytes. If your class has 15 assignments that are say 20kB and your university has 2000 classes that all have the same number of assignments at the same storage rate (and let’s be honest, that’s a gross overestimate), that’s 600MB a semester. At Purdue, each student gets 500MB of space for his/her stay, and we have 40,000 students. I fail to see how this would be an issue. You can double, quadruple, etc the assignment size, but it’s still trivial compared to the amount of space needed to accommodate students.
On the other hand, you could probably ask your instructor for the documents (though my personal suggestion is to just download it all yourself, as that’s what I do). Blackboard is still terrible software though. I’ve experienced both the student and the instructor side of it and I think the instructor’s view is *worse* than the student’s.
On the brighter side, Blackboard’s patents got invalidated recently (probably pending [another] appeal): https://community.desire2learn.com/d2l/lms/blog/view_userentry.d2l?ou=1796&ownerId=6961&entryId=303/
Hopefully something much, much better will supplant them (something that doesn’t load Java, for example)
The screenshot looks like the version of Blackboard software I run. Assuming it is, continual access to classes you take as a student is possible and is by default. The administrators of the software have purposely gone to the trouble of restricting your access.
I like your comparing this to a textbook or handout. The administrators are thinking of this as the online equivalent of a classroom. So you should only have access during the term.
There are two big reasons courses are made unavailable after the semester is over. Also, I’d like to note that either the instructor or the system administrator can make the course unavailable to a student, so your instructor may have been the one to restrict your access.
1. Server space. Even at a small institution, the space fills up quickly. If your servers are hosted with Blackboard, they start you with 20G of space… my very small 2 year college is using 60G as of now. Every bit of space is more money, so older courses are going to be archived and taken off the server.
2. Functionality. I have complaints from both students and instructors if they see last semester’s classes. It crowds their course menu (particularly for instructors who may be teaching 5 courses a semester… a few semesters and they are wading through English 101s trying to find this semester’s course).
Bottom line… if you see something you want to keep as reference material, download and save it.
Have you ever thought about emailing your professor and asking her for her examples again? I’m sure she would be thrilled to know that you paid attention and found her materials valuable.
@Blackboard Administrator I agree with you, it is not the fault of the administrators or the professors, the fault lies in the software and how bad design forces admins to delete old courses.
As for emailing my professor that is a good idea, but not a scalable solution for me considering my number of courses and for her, considering the number of students she has.
The solution is simple, email your schools bb admin and ask them to get the document for you, explain your situation etc. I know I being the BB Admin at my school would go through the trouble of getting you, your document as customers come first, and IT is still a customer service job. So just contact IT.