Why Aren't Course Management Systems Penetrating Faster?

Course-management systems such as Blackboard and WebCT promise to enhance the on-line experience of students in face-to-face and distance education alike. Yet many course Web sites are put together without them—even those of technologically savvy “early adopters.” Often instructors continue to manage their Web sites with rudimentary tools. Is this because the systems are not user friendly, because they promote policies (such as access restrictions) the instructors are not comfortable with, or because the learning curve is too steep? Or is it because they are not promoted effectively by the schools that adopt them? This paper reports on a survey of 160 educators regarding their use or non-use of these systems, and their satisfaction with them. It looks for differences in the way they use the Web, compared to instructors who “roll their own” Web sites, and assesses how difficult it would be to take an existing course site and place it within a course-management system.