Some thoughts on changes to the Blackboard Mobile Learn pricing model
2012
I’ve discussed before why I see Blackboard as a necessary evil on my campus. Because I spend a large portion of my work-time helping faculty to use this tool (among others) in their classroom, I think a lot about Blackboard. Maybe too much…
Just weeks ago, Blackboard announced that the free Mobile Learn app for their software would no longer be free. They announced this just weeks before it would go into effect. For those of you not familiar with university budgets….they are established more than a year in advance and a change in pricing for enterprise-level software can have a huge impact on an institution’s budget.
Blackboard…this is just one more reason why you have a bad name among administrators–this “surprise” puts us in the difficult position of scrambling to compensate for an unplanned expense in what is an already-tight period for most academic institutions…
They are offering two pricing models for this change to the Mobile Learn app. One is to have users (i.e. students and faculty) pay for the app themselves. The app will cost users $1.99/yr or $5.99/for a lifetime license (although it is not clear if this lifetime license will transfer to new institutions if they student or faculty-member changes schools–I suspect not). Or the university can choose to buy an annual sitewide license for the Mobile Learn app. The price quoted for our small university for a year of campus Mobile Learn license is more than $20,000 (and of course that’s in addition to the amount that we pay for the regular Blackboard Learn software). That the pricetag of the license in so steep and that the lead-time for making the decision so brief, means that most campuses will not choose the license option but will make their users pay for the Mobile Learn app.
We’re now considering workarounds for the two (undesirable) Mobile Learn app payment options on our campus–perhaps offering a $2 iTunes gift card to those who want the app, or some similar method of reimbursement. Because it doesn’t make sense to put the burden for paying for the app on our affiliates, yet the cost is so high that a site license is hardly warranted for the number of users that we serve.
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Thanks for the link! And for the voice of common sense about the Bloatware That Is Blackboard.
In the months after I wrote the rant you kindly linked to, I took my courses off Blackboard. Eventually it dawned on me that I could create my own CMS in a program as simple as WordPress. Yes. An ordinary blogging platform does all you need to present weekly lesson plans and enhance collaborative learning for face-to-face courses (http [://] pvcccourseseng101 [dot] wordpress [dot] com and pvcccourses [dot]wordpress.com/) and even works for a fully online course (pvceng235 [dot] wordpress.com).
I run multiple sections of three courses through these sites, and so far have not experienced one. single. headache related to any class’s online presence. Instead of requiring days and painful DAYS of dorking around each semester, clearing out one semester’s content and loading the following semester’s material can be done in half a day. If no changes are made in the content, it can be done in under two hours.
At the risk of repeating myself: I hate Blackboard.
Twitter: janaremy
The thing is: I can’t advocate for every faculty member to go off of Bb, as much as I am happy to do so myself (I am a fan of using wordpress for just about everything…including as courseware).
Do you guys collect work or publish grades through WordPress? I can’t think of a way of doing that securely without per-student user accounts, and I don’t want to have to administer every student’s credentials myself. LMSs have the advantage of already having all that infrastructure in place.