accessing blackboard

Here's the latest update from eCampus on how students will access the Blackboard class website:

"Students will be enrolled approximately two days before the term begins. We will be sending out an email via advanced messaging in MySJSU on how to log in to the course and get started. We'll also have CE6 tutorials available on our site for them to review and explore the new interface."

It's not really an email that goes out on the university messaging system. Students can't reply--they can only receive messages. Students may opt for notifications to be sent to their regular email address, although the message simply says, "check mySJSU for a message." This one-way communication system is so symbolic of SJSU's bureaucratic organizational model. Still, I'll find out when eCampus is contacting students.

I am concerned about tech support in the days before the term starts--SJSU is closed December 24-January 1. In the move to Blackboard, coordination has to happen among the staff for CMS (the CSU uses PeopleSoft, which is incredibly complex, non-intuitive, and cumbersome), Blackboard CE6, and eCampus. So far, that coordination appears minimal. For example, eCampus had no knowledge of many of CE6's new features, such as not allowing multiple windows in the same browser.

According to eCampus, winter session is the "pilot test" for this new system, which of course doesn't inspire me with great confidence. Only reinforces my decision to move most of my class out of Blackboard and onto the open internet. Access issues should be minimal and they're ones I'll be able to solve (said with great assurance!).

Typically, several students add during open enrollment the first couple days of class. With WebCT, I could simply add them to the class website. I'm not allowed to do that with Blackboard. Instead (from eCampus):

"To add students, you go ahead and give them an add code and they can register via MySJSU. The students will be uploaded several times a day, each day, depending on when they register. If you need students to get started right away, we are working out a process to have guest accounts available that you can add into your course. They can use the account until they are fully registered. Once your student has registered and are added to your course, you can direct the student to login as themselves and you can deny access for the guest account."

The guest reg process adds way to much complexity to the process. And if a student takes an exam under that account, the exam and the score go away.

What if I want to allow someone access to the site to check out the class? There's no way for me to add them to the site. I have to go through eCampus. It's all about control. The longer I teach online, the less control I'm allowed over my classes--if I use the university's learning management system. Hence, I've blasted off to use my own server and Google. Teaching my class using Google is another issue. Eisenberg et al. (2007) argue in Chapter 1 that "turbulence is the order of the day" (p. 18). Blackboard functions on a classical teaching model. Google allows me to respond to the environmental turbulence in which SJSU is embedded.

--Prof. Cyborg