I’ve spent the evening reading the blogosphere’s response to the Blackboard and WebCT merger announced today. The general sentiment is (to put it politely) less than favorable. But my reaction to the the announcement seems to be different than most…

A Slashdot posting on the announcement contains some 150+ posts, with the following being typical:

“…the merging of two terrible web based systems for an even worse web based one.”

“I have some insight on this topic as a university professor. I’ve used both systems, and I was on the Academic Technology Committee when it was advising the CTO and CIO on purchasing decisions for such systems. We wound up paying for both. As you say, they both suck, and I’m sure whatever unholy combination is produced will suck even worse.”

“This is getting ridiculous. I used both Blackboard and WebCT as an Astronomy Masters student a couple of years ago. Both were awful and I never did understand why anyone paid money for these solutions when this is one area where open source can easily provide the basic functionality…”

But the best comment I’ve seen yet was “Wait – they were seperate companies in the first place?”

I’ve long said that these companies (along with the majority of others in this space) share the same “files and folders” view of online learning — that is, an online “class” is a construct where instructors route content to students to consume and students route assignments to instructors to grade. Sure, you can bolt on to the interface a discussion board and “live classroom” application, but at the end of the day, it’s all about mediating the movement of content back and forth over the net. (Nor is this driving technological focus happenstance. It follows from a decidedly instructivist based view of learning: the “sage on the stage” industrial model of education that has become the bane most (dare I say all?) modern learning theorists.)

So if you agree that Bb and WebCT are merely the same system dressed up in different clothes, you can see why I view their merger as a non-event. I certainly wish the best for the employees at both companies (PMSS, or “post-merger stress syndrome,” can exact quite a toll on a company’s workforce). And while I don’t share the blogosphere’s view that the combined product will be any worse than what existed prior (few think the merger will produce something better), I do wander, along with Jay Cross, whether this particular horizontal merger passes DOJ muster. After all, does anyone besides me think a merged Bb-WebCT might “create or enhance market power or to facilitate its exercise?” But I suppose if Oracle and PeopleSoft can get married (shotgun wedding that it was!), then BlackBoard and WebCT should have no problems at all. Today’s announcement is therefore business as usual.

At least in this case of online learning’s new math, one plus one really does equal one.

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