e-Literate

Present is Prologue

Tag: eCollege

  • State of the Higher Education LMS Market: A Graphical View

    The transformation of the higher education LMS market continues, and I expect more changes over the next 2 – 3 years. However, it seems time to capture the state of the market based on changes over the past year or two.

    I shared the most recent graphic summarizing the market in mid 2011. As with all previous versions, the 2005 – 2009 data points are based on the Campus Computing Project, and therefore is based on US adoption from non-profit institutions. This set of longitudinal data provides an anchor for the summary.

    The most significant changes over the past two years include the following.

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  • Pearson Announces Support for IMS Learning Information Services

    Pearson just announced that they will be supporting the IMS LIS standard (and with Oracle’s SAIP implementation of it) across a number of their products. First, they’ll support it in MyLabs, which are subject-focused learning environments (e.g., MyChemLab, MyMathLab, etc.)—sort of a fusion between an online textbook and a lightweight LMS. This kind of provisioning cuts out the middle man of the full LMS. (Up until now, the course roster information would typically be provisioned to the LMS, and the LMS would then provision it to MyLabs.)

    Pearson will also be supporting LIS integration for their newly announced LearningStudio product, which is a fusion of their eCollege and Fronter acquisitions. I haven’t seen LearningStudio yet, but I have seen Fronter, and I was seriously impressed. It may just be the most powerful and flexible LMS on the market today. It has been focused on the K12 (European) market up until now, but I saw nothing that would prevent it from working well in higher education as well.

  • IMS Report on Learning Technology Satisfaction and Trends

    The IMS has issued a new report with the somewhat imposing title, “IMS GLC Learning Technology Satisfaction and Trends, North American Higher Education, 05 February 2007 Update.” You can get it here, but first you’ll have to register with the site (if you haven’t done so already). It’s important to read Section 2 of the report (and particularly the “Survey Approach and Disclaimers” subhead) carefully; it is very difficult to get definitive data for this kind of research, and the authors of the report were very careful to spell out the limitations of their methods.

    Nevertheless, there’s lots of interesting stuff here. Here are some of my own observations, in no particular order:
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  • eCollege Has Patented the Gradebook

    That’s right. In 2004, eCollege was granted a patent that, as far as I can tell, is for

    • A gradebook
    • An online syllabus
    • A private student journal

    Now, before you panic, ask yourself why eCollege has not sued anyone in the two years since they acquired the patent. The truth is that there are all kinds of reasons to file for a patent that you may never intend to litigate. In fact, one reason that many technology companies today are almost required to file for patents whenever they can is to build a defense against exactly the kind of action that Blackboard is taking against Desire2Learn. (more…)

  • The Blackboard Patent Crisis at Two and a Half Weeks

    While marveling the events of the last several weeks, Jim Farmer suggested that it might be worthwhile to pause and reflect back on the sequence of events. I thought that was a good idea, so here it is. I don’t claim that it is any sense a definitive history. To the contrary, it’s just my personal experience of the situation. But it taught me something, so I thought it might be worth sharing. (more…)

  • An Open Letter to the CEO of eCollege

    Dear Mr. Thorne:

    I commend you on your words in your recent press release regarding the Blackboard patent:

    The fact that one company has been granted a patent for such a broad application and now is engaging in litigation with another eLearning provider is unfortunate for a market that traditionally has been fueled by innovation and choice. It also is unfortunate that Blackboard chose not to issue a press release when the patent was awarded this past January, at a time when the Department of Justice was investigating the antitrust ramifications of Blackboard’s merger with its competitor, WebCT.

    Many in the eLearning community agree wholeheartedly with your sentiment. An environment of patent litigation absolutely will damage both innovation and customer choice in the eLearning marketplace. Given this vital issue of mutual interest, I hope you will understand when I express concern regarding eCollege’s own U.S.-issued patent numbers 6470171, 6965752, and 6871043 as well as pending U.S. patent application numbers 10062214, 10061794, 10766612, 10905862, 10906025, 10906033, 10906025, 11160487, 10870099, 11161151. (more…)