Twittering about D2L and Blackboard

I usually keep an eye on a Twitter search looking for posts that have something to do with D2L. The beginning of the semester is always interesting, especially as students are posting their unfiltered thoughts about school, online courses, professors, D2L, and lots of other things. Here are some examples. I'll leave out their Twitter names since I don't know these people.
  • Dear D2L though my college, please fix yourself so I can take quizzes on Firefox. THANK YOU! Love, Cissa
  • trust me, everything you click on d2l... and the time u spend on each "page" they cn see....
  • 71 unread discussions on D2L? CRAP! I was only gone for one weekend!
  • In class with a professor that doesn't know how to work the internets and d2l. Maybe he should use the googles.
  • ocu's desire2learn has to be the shi**iest web page ever. period. well, aside from the other ocu web pages.
  • Online classes start today. Not liking their new D2L system.
  • Go to a "Laptop Campus"...should ALL of my classes have D2L sites? Whatever.
  • just LOL'ed when he looked at D2L at the same class he just took last semester. god taking the same class over is priceless. LOL hate it.
  • D2L is SUCH a pain in the tuckus.... Maybe online classes were a bad idea
  • just realized that something she thought she posted to D2L last week didn't actually get posted and of course she didn't save it... :-(
  • there has to be an easier way to keep track of due dates in d2l.. seriously!
  • Well this stinks. I've got an assignment due tomorrow and D2L is down :( fml
  • Really wish that more than 2 of my 5 classes were up on d2l... Come on profs, classes start monday! Get on that sh**!
  • really hopes this isn't a semester that none of my professors put their stuff on d2l...its friday...classes start monday...lets get movin!
  • I'm sorry but I have no "Desire2Learn" .. why must I be forced to go on that site.
  • D2L is making me angry.
Yep, that's mostly negative stuff. I didn't skip the positive posts from students because there basically weren't any (there were some from educators, along with lots of neutral ones). I'm posting this just because I find it interesting what students are willing to post online about this type of thing - and I wonder what their frame of reference is.

To be fair and balanced, I also check from time to time to see what people are saying about Blackboard. Not surprisingly, it's easy to find lots of comments there that fall in the negative category as well. I think the number of swear words per Blackboard post is higher than posts about D2L - which might be a good topic for a research paper.
  • Well that was quick, logged onto Blackboard and the only thing my class contains is a link to a real website for the class that works.
  • But I enjoy starting every semester with the Blackboard is completely unusable, so just send me your assignments via email instead. (Prof, I believe)
  • Great, my school upgraded to a new bug infested version of Blackboard. At some point I'd love it if they'd just move open source and fix it. (Prof again)
  • i love how i'd rather be on fbook or twitter than #BLACKBOARD. :)
  • Few things in life can anger me as much and as quickly as WebCT/Blackboard and their Java Applet CMS crap. And we pay millions for it. ugh
  • Blackboard is my frenemy.
  • i'm bout to get real ill. F**K is wrong with blackboard?
  • I hate Blackboard! Too many folders, no overview :-((
  • Effin hate the blackboard! Wtf. Pls load.
  • FUHHHH just noticed that the assignment i submitted online through the new Blackboard 9 for my online class on Fri didn't attach right! :(
  • i hate blackboard! ugh!
  • Trying to finish my online homework, but stupid blackboard/open campus isn't working so I can't finish it and it's due tonight, grrrr.....
  • Why doesn't Blackboard support Firefox versions above 2.X? This is ridiculous.
  • I've never hated something as much as I hate the new BLACKBOARD. Seriously!!!!!!!
  • I fu**ing hate #blackboard
  • hey, blackboard. wanna stop being retarded?
I'm wondering how much any of this chatter affects the general view of either Bb or D2L. Probably not much, but maybe it's growing in importance as a source of information about them. And finally, for the record, this post sums up my thoughts about these two "rivals" (partners?) -

Comments

Jared Stein said…
I like "hey, blackboard. wanna stop being retarded?"
January 26, 2010 10:41 AM
Matt said…
Could this post be subtitled "Twittering about my online instructors"? Some of these tweets definitely point to things that the LMS vendor could control and continue to make easier and more fault tolerant for users, but aren't an equal number of them pointing to the ineffective or diverse use of the LMS by the faculty (and probably lots more tweets that don't mention an LMS vendor by name)? Are they pointing to a misalignment around what a student expects from an online/hybrid instructor vs. the focus/effort/resources each individual instructor devotes to the online class? Just wondering what we can do to really quantify what frustrates (or better yet, engages and inspires) students so that everyone can be made aware and then figure out how to best avoid (accomplish). I imagine some of those items would be LMS-specific, and some would be instructor specific, pointing to the fact that no one party controls the whole end to end experience. It's up to the LMS to provide the solid platform, but the responsibility of the faculty to use it effectively.
January 27, 2010 7:56 AM
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