It also gives departments and faculty an opportunity to do their own planning as they consider how they want to employ the product to best advantage. What began as collaboration between students and faculty at Cornell University is now a common practice on more than 1,000 college campuses. It saves time. Individual products as stand-alones are no doubt superior. But when brought together with setting up meetings and an address book - in other words, when I look at multiple tasks, Notes saves me more time overall.
Blackboard is similar.
There are about a dozen features with most of the better course management products. None of the tools individually is superior. Together, they offer convenience, time savings, and a more student-centered approach to learning. Another important feature is that because the product is Web-based, instructors can more easily work from home. One of the real advantages of working with the Blackboard product is that we have colleagues all across the country who have already been working with it for several years.