For about the price of buying every student a gallon of gas, Ball State University is providing campus with the services of Blackboard for another year.
Jr. King, interim associate vice president for information technology, said Ball State paid about $101,000 or roughly $5 per student to use Blackboard from October 2008 to September 2009.
Philip Repp, interim vice president for information technology, said University Computing Services paid for the service out of its operating budget. Students aren't charged for the service, he said.
King said the cost for the service rose six to 10 percent annually, which is common among the majority of software maintenance for the university. He said Blackboard charges schools based on their enrollment.
Repp said it's common for software licensing fees for universities to be determined by enrollment.
He said between 60 and 68 percent of the faculty uses Blackboard according to a faculty survey done a year ago. Surveys are done every two or three years. Usage rates have been consistent in the last few years. The 60 to 68 percent usage rate reflects the number of people who use it for anything, whether it be for posting a class syllabus or using the service to its full capacity, he said.
Ball State uses Blackboard because of its "robust capabilities," he said. It is constantly updating and adding more utilities and features the faculty seem to enjoy.
He said he hadn't heard of any dissatisfaction or desire to change systems from any faculty members. Information Technology is always looking for better systems and technology but hasn't found anything good enough to consider replacing Blackboard, he said.
King said when weighed against the usage statistics and the cost of developing a new system, Blackboard was worth the cost.
"If students are satisfied and faculty are satisfied with it then, yeah, I think it's worth it," he said.
However, students have conflicting opinions of Blackboard.
Freshman accounting major Peter Reber said he liked it because it organized his classes and responsibilities. The only thing about Blackboard he didn't like is not all of his classes use it, he said.
Freshman art and telecommunications major Camilla Oldenkamp and sophomore telecommunications major Lemmy Saylor said they didn't like Blackboard because it was out of the way.
Oldenkamp said she thought it was nice that the program was there but it was ultimately pointless.
Saylor said he didn't like that the site was so clustered and preferred being given instruction in class.
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