Bboogle Boondoggle: Why Integrating Blackboard and Google Apps is not Meaningful

Facebook in Higher Education: Blackboard and Google Apps

Update to this post: After getting quite a bit of feedback about the harsh angle I took with this post, it’s time I soften up. I acknowledge that there is value in the administrative integration of google and blackboard logins. This solves a problem for people administrating both systems, and it makes it easier for folks to operate the software they need to operate. This post was an attempt to be somewhat provocative – to get people to think about creating user-centered software, rather than integrated software that, while easier to administrate, is not an elegant user experience. In that aim, from the commenters point of view it seems I missed the mark.

We’ve seen this before. Remember BBSync? The hype? And the reality failed to deliver any meaningful interaction between Blackboard and Facebook.

I just read some hype about Northwestern integrating Blackboard and Google Apps. If you read what they mean by integrating on the Northwestern Course Management Blog, it’s the typical, non-meaningful type: “the ability to make links within CMS sites to content (Docs, Calendar, and Sites) residing on Google and to allow instructors easilyto manage permissions on Google content for an entire class.”

Why?

I often get questions if Schools on Facebook can integrate with this and that, and usually the questions center around links and notifications. Before we set about trying to do an integration, we are always asking ourselves: Why? And what we mean at Inigral is: Why from the users perspective?

(Most people ask for integration because they want to believe in convergence rather than divergence, and they don’t like the idea of the sunk operational costs of maintaining disconnected systems. But divergence is reality and users are used to it, and if you really want sunk costs go ahead and spend your time hooking up disconnected systems (that aren’t built to talk to one another) in unmeaningful ways.)

Making uninteresting information appear in more places is just not a viable product strategy. The key is to enable meaningful interaction that can create new, meaningful information.

When Blackboard announces something cool like that, I’ll believe Blackboard is doing more than just jumping the shark.

Jan 26, 2010

10 Comments »

Tags: blackboard, blackboard integration, Google Apps

http://projects.oscelot.org/gf/project/bboogle/ Jonathan A. Smith

I am the person who got this started at Northwestern, and I disagree with you about our integration being meaningless. We are seeing substantial change in how and how often instructors are using Google Apps in our classes.

The technical bit is this: our software allows instructors to link documents, sites, and calendars to their BB course sites. Once linked, students are added to those documents, sites, and calendars as full collaborators. They can also access those documents, sites, and calendars from Blackboard without logging in to Google. There are several important consequences of this capability:

1. The Blackboard environment tends promote the siloing of content in course sites rather than supporting flexible re-use in different classes and contexts. Most instructors work this way in developing their courses — developing a collection of re-usable teaching and learning content, tools and patterns. By building teaching and learning and scholarly content in Google they can continue to develop those materials over time and link selected portions to any number of courses. conference sites, etc.

2. Google sites and documents provide a nice environment for students to collaborate on projects. This promotes a much more active style of learning — students learn history by doing historical research and creating an online site with their findings rather than just consuming what other people have written.

3. Use of Google opens up the possibility for involving “visiting” experts from outside the institution, or even collaboration between students and instructors at different institutions. In a sense, it makes it more possible to break down some of the barriers between those institutions.

4. As a tool builder, there are great opportunities to build plug-ins that are not locked in to one particular course management system.

You may argue that the real benefit is from Google Apps for Education, rather than our integration. But what we have learned is that making Google Apps much more convenient, providing a central hub (Blackboard) with which to attach collaboration spaces and course learning materials, and eliminating the second log-in, makes these kinds of use of Google Apps much more attractive to instructors.
http://edumorphology.com Michael Staton

Hi Jonathan,

Thanks for your thoughtful response and for bringing in new information that sheds light on your undertaking.

First, congrats on seeing real results. Data speaks for itself.

Some more thoughts:

1) Reducing additional logins always increases conversion. Single sign-ons are worth the headache.

2) Google Docs and Sites can be powerful pedagogical tools. They promote a collaboration unseen in other mediums, and I promote their use. Docs, in particular, produces a sort of normative reflection that forces each individual to understand their unique perspective vs. fundamental information and normative interpretation. Automatically loading the rosters into Docs, Sites, Calendars is great because, again, it just reduces the barriers to participation.

3) You are correct in that instructors seek to “recycle” materials, and if their students are collaboratively producing these materials, that’s powerful. I’d like to hear more about this kind of “crowdsourced” material production. Do you have a blog? please post here….

I’m glad that you’re reducing barriers to using new and powerful forms of technology, and I’m glad you’ve shed some light here.

At Inigral, we have to think about “integrations” all the time, and we put a lot of ideas in the “no” pile, because we can’t do everything. Easy login and complete rosters, though, is something we believe is a foundation. Past that foundation, we seek to create new information and messages that will impact student engagement and belonging, and a bit of learning as well.

Stay in touch. Drop your social media presences and we’ll follow you in the social media ether.

All the Best,

Michael Staton
http://www.pcliferaft.com Rodger Ling

Mr. Staton, when you ask the question why an instructor would want to be able to manage permissions for collaboration easily, you really miss the mark. That’s exactly why this project is exciting to me. I support faculty who want to use Google Docs but I see a big issue in having to set collaboration access on every document when that access is already defined in Blackboard. The could be the single biggest stumbling block to Docs getting off the ground on our campus.

I need to find out more about this project.
http://edumorphology.com Michael Staton

@Rodger, Howdy!

So, the point is to help you with permissions in batch? if you sync BBoard the idea is that entire rosters can have permission without having to set them student by student? That would be handy!!!!

Does that require integration with BBoard or can you get that roster information from somewhere else?

I doubt those kind of permissions really matter to students. They just want to share and have a copy of the classnotes/docs….

Thanks for your feedback.

Cheers,

Michael

http://pulse.yahoo.com/_YVPFITQGY3URKFPLMR47KLSKJA Peter

“”I doubt those kind of permissions really matter to students. They just want to share and have a copy of the classnotes/docs…. “

You’re missing a very large part of the institutional picture here – as with many of Blackboard’s features, the question for evaluating the tool is whether it can meet the needs of an instructor’s pedagogical goals while being as unobtrusive as possible.

While you’re correct that students don’t care about “permissions,” they tend to get very upset when they can’t complete an assignment because the instructor didn’t understand how to set permissions on a specific object.

More broadly, I think you might have misunderstood a more fundamental aspect of the Bboogle project : it isn’t a “product strategy” as much as it is a group of people enhancing one product (Blackboard) by adding more mature features from another group of products (Google apps, calendar & sites) in order to make the latter product more useful for their user community.

And then they gave it away for free to any other communities using Blackboard, which is awfully nice of them.

To be blunt (sorry if this seems a bit harsh) – after reading through your post & the comment chain I’d ask you to consider updating your post, with at least an acknowledgement that you didn’t completely understand the Bboogle project when you wrote this, although I would argue that you should retract the assertions “Integrating Blackboard and Google Apps is not Meaningful” & that the Northwestern project represents “hype” and “unmeaningful” integration. It’s just fair, especially since your page link is one of the top hits on a search for Bboogle.

(I’m not a member of the Bboogle team, but I am evaluating installing the software at another institution)

http://www.edumorphology.com mpstaton

Hi Peter,

Fair enough. This was my first attempt at making a controversial post. It seems to have succeeded at being controversial. I will update the post with the admissions you suggest.

Sorry for the lag. I’ve been neglecting the blog….

Cheers,

Michael

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Interesting post. Also check out the CourseDirectorApp channel on youtube for more Google Apps, LMS integration
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Nice Post………
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Students interact with technology in a variety ways including, but not limited to: … Integrated technology tools: iPod iTouches, content or skill focused Apps …. Digital Nation/online videos and sites, Blackboard, Sony Vegas, and Google Apps … and participate in assessments focused creation of meaningful representations of …
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Students interact with technology in a variety ways including, but not limited to: … Integrated technology tools: iPod iTouches, content or skill focused Apps …. Digital Nation/online videos and sites, Blackboard, Sony Vegas, and Google Apps … and participate in assessments focused creation of meaningful representations of …

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