In my past several years in higher education, I have noticed one annoying facet of the academic-message board system.
Say it with me: boring design.
I know, I know. These are not the biggest concerns of the page. I appreciate that it allows me to have class conversations outside of class, believe me. I like that I can see how many replies have been posted to my initial thread, or that I can attach documents to a post. But there are definitely a few gripes I have as well.
After using Moodle in undergrad, and Blackboard here at NYU, I think my greatest critique is that the format (some of my tech-knowing friends say "interface," I believe) is not conducive to an academic conversation. It serves no better purpose than a reply all email, in which the body text you potentially respond to is not even present. Additionally, if a website like Blogger can autosave my posts (and autosave my reputation, if you have ever been driven to madness like me over a lost piece of brilliant eloquence) why can't Blackboard? If students are to be compelled to post on a Blackboard-style page, you should appeal to them in your design. Consider facebook, in which millions of people interact every day. Why not have a "news feed" for certain courses? With a little bit more investment of time and money, we could have a serious academic game changer my friends.
Anyone up for writing the code? ;)
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