I had a wonderful time at the Moodle Moot two weeks ago. Conferences for different LMSs tend to have very similar presentation types (how to migrate, tricks for making the grade book usable, great Web 2.0 tools that integrate with the platform, ways to improve training and help, etc.), but the crowds are different. Moodle […]
edunomics
The Blackboard Acquisition: Two Views
As busy as I have been lately, I have tried to keep up on the various analyses of Blackboard’s acquisition by Providence Equity Partners, Inc. There seem to be two schools of thought. The first school, which seems to be getting the most play, is moderately negative for higher education. The second school, which I’ve […]
Investment Bankers and Blackboard’s Future, Part One: If …
This is a guest post by Jim Farmer, Chairman of Sigma Group Inc. On Friday July 1,st after this was written, Blackboard Inc. was acquired by “affiliates of Providence Equity Partners” for $1.64 billion. They will also assume approximately $130 million in net debt. Providence will pay $45 per share; it closed Thursday at $43.38. […]
Desire2Learn Product Updates
I had a chance to speak to some folks about their latest product release (9.2) a couple of weeks back and am only now finding time to blog about it. First, there’s what they’re doing with the LMS itself. No surprise, one of their areas of focus is on user experience improvement, with reducing the […]
The Blackboard/Moodle FOIA Requests
Vicki Tambellini is reporting that a number of colleges who moved from Blackboard to Moodle are getting hit with Freedom of Information Act requests: Last week a number of institutions received FOIA requests from a law firm in Columbia, South Carolina. The firm requests everything related to individual LMS procurements from the RFP process through […]
The Changing Dynamics of the Educational Technology Markets
Phil Hill has two good blog posts up in response to Blackboard’s announcement that it has received at least two “unsolicited non-binding proposals” for the company to be acquired. In his first post, Phil argues that, whatever the outcome of the bidding, Blackboard’s brand value will be hurt: In one dramatic shift, Blackboard has gone […]
Moodlerooms and the Cambridge Global Grid for Learning
I know it’s been a little quiet here on e-Literate since I started gearing up for my (awesome) new job. Posts are likely to be sporadic for a while longer yet. But fear not, Dear Reader, for I have not forgotten you. I do have a backlog of posts that I intend to get to […]