This is a guest post by Jim Farmer Two years ago while speaking at the Desire2Learn Users Conference, CEO John Baker learned that Blackboard Inc. accused Desire2Learn of infringing a Blackboard patent. Following a jury’s decision and failed attempts to reach a settlement, the dispute is now headed for appeal at the U.S. Court of […]
Distributed Learning is Here: Ask Any College Student
This is a guest post by Jim Farmer for a special issue on distributed learning environments for On the Horizon. Jim is Coordinator, Scholarly Systems Group at Georgetown University and editor at the eReSS project, University of Hull. This fall more than 17 million students will be using publisher-provided online services. More than 5 million […]
The Cost of Instruction: A Different Conversation?
This is a guest post by Jim Farmer. Vance Fried may change the conversation about the costs of higher education. Critics of higher education have repeatedly pointed out the costs of higher education—often referring to tuition and fees—have increased faster than the Consumer Price Index (CPI). Higher education has claimed education is “labor intensive” and […]
Blackboard v. Desire2Learn: The First Final Judgment
This is a guest post by Jim Farmer. Delayed several days by a database failure at the District Court for the Eastern District of Texas Friday, May 2nd, the Final Judgment and associated orders for Blackboard v. Desire2Learn are now publicly available. This text is based upon publicly available records. Because much of the record […]
Real-time College and University Transcripts Coming
This is a guest post by Jim Farmer. “Today the four firms providing electronic transcript services [to U.S. colleges and universities and school districts] have agreed to form a network so transcripts will be delivered to any user of their service regardless of where the transcript originated.” Speaking from hastily-written text, Larry Furth, Executive Director […]
Blackboard Inc. v. Desire2Learn Inc.: “Grey” Monday March 10, 2008
Yesterday, Desire2Learn submitted its response to Blackboard’s request for injunction (which was apparently submitted under seal) and accompanying letters from various school and university officials arguing that preventing D2L from selling their product in the United States would be against the public interest. Barry Dahl has done a terrific job of summing up the case […]
Blackboard Inc. v. Desire2Learn Inc.: Lunch with Fred Hofstetter
In another post in his series of eye-witness accounts of the trial, Jim Farmer provides us with an interview of a fact witness who also happens to be one of the early pioneers in online learning. – Michael Fred Hofstetter was a fact witness in the recent Blackboard Inc. v. Desire2Learn trial. In a break, […]