Course Management System

Task Force Report Site

 Oklahoma State University

The Oklahoma State University course management system (CMS) task force, comprised of representatives appointed by the dean of each college, has been charged with selecting a single course management system that meets or exceeds the needs currently being served by Blackboard and WebCT.  The motivations for the move are 1) to respond to student calls for a single system, 2) to provide a tool for faculty wanting a system that will satisfy their instructional needs, and 3) to help the support staff who currently have to "know" two systems very well.

The links appearing on this page provide a picture of the activities and the progress of the task force.

  1. Task Force Members
  2. CMS Features Wanted
  3. The Faculty Online Survey Form
  4. The Student Online Survey Form
  5. The Faculty Categories Report
  6. The Student Categories Report
  7. The Faculty Overall Comments
  8. The Student Overall Comments
  9. A Comparison of the Two Finalists*
  10. Report to Faculty Council
  11. Planned Server Hardware Setup

Five vendors were invited to make presentations to the task force, to faculty, and to students.  The vendors invited were: [Note: Click on the name for a compilation of the task force's notations for that tool.]  1) Blackboard, 2) WebCT, 3) Desire 2 Learn, 4) ANGEL and 5) Educator.  Educator withdrew due to the belief by their representatives that they would not be able to meet our requirements.

Beginning in December and ending in early February, the four remaining companies presented their course tools.**  Two days after the last presentation by ANGEL, the task force determined they wanted D2L (Desire 2 Learn) and ANGEL to return for more in-depth study and presentation.  Accordingly, ANGEL representatives met with interested faculty, IT staff, and members of the task force from 09:00 until 4:30 on 28 February 2006.  On 2 March 2006, D2L demonstrated their software, answered questions, and provided details about course conversions, testing, and training.  Announcements detailing the visits were distributed by the Chief Information Officer, Darlene Hightower.

A meeting of the task force to discuss the two finalists was held 10 March 2006.  A final decision was delayed for two weeks to allow time for appropriate financial considerations to be worked out.  The "winning" software will be available for faculty to learn to use this fall with the changeover expected to begin next Spring 2007.  We will continue to use Blackboard and WebCT until the changeover is completed.

*An older version of Angel was used for this comparison.

**(The exact schedule was: 13 December, Blackboard; 17 January, Desire2Learn;  24 January,  WebCT; 31 January, Educator; 7 February,  Angel.)