Associated Students

RESOLUTION IN SUPPORT OF HUMBOLDT STATE UNIVERSITY

CONVERTING BLACKBOARD, THE CURRENT ONLINE

LEARNING MANAGEMENT SYSTEM (LMS) TO MOODLE

Adopted March 21, 2005

Whereas,         Online teaching and learning tools are essential in higher education; and,

Whereas,         In the recently adopted Strategic Plan, HSU claims to be committed to developing and supporting information technology to enhance effective

teaching and learning environments that promote academic excellence; and,

Whereas,         The HSU 2004 Master Plan proposed an enrollment ceiling of 12,000

full-time equivalent students and must plan to accommodate future students;

and,

Whereas,         Blackboard Basic, the current Learning Management Software is licensed to

Humboldt State University for approximately $8,600 annually; and,

Whereas,         Blackboard Basic is licensed to educational institutions with less than 7,000

Students, while Blackboard Enterprise is licensed to educational institutions with more than 7,000 students; and,

Whereas,         A Blackboard Enterprise license would entail one-time costs of about

$150,000 and on-going costs of about $60,000 annually; and,

Whereas,         CSU spends over $1 million each year just on Blackboard licenses; and,

Whereas,         CSU students are encountering a time when the CSU budget is being

reduced and fees for students are rising; and,

Whereas,         Moodle is a free, open-source Learning Management System software

supported by programmers world-wide; and,

Whereas,         Moodle is able to customize its system to meet HSU’s specific needs

in order to better serve HSU students, and courses currently on

Blackboard can be converted to Moodle; and

Whereas,         In a comparison analysis of Moodle and Blackboard by Dr. Kathy D.

Munoz, Professor and Joan Van Duzer, Instructional Technologist in

Spring 2005, 35.7% of the HSU students preferred Moodle over the

21.4% who preferred Blackboard, while 42.9% had no preference;

therefore be it

Resolved,         that the Associated Students of Humboldt State University encourage

faculty to convert the Blackboard Online Learning Management System

to Moodle in their courses; and be it further

Resolved,         that the Associated Students call upon the HSU administration to assume a

                        leadership role in the CSU system by allocating required resources to

implement this conversion and to take the necessary measures to terminate

the contract with Blackboard; and be it further

Resolved,         that the Associated Students of HSU encourage the California State

Student Association (CSSA) and the California Faculty Association (CFA)

to promote the use of Moodle throughout the CSU system and to eventually

stop payment of licensing fees; and be it further

Resolved,         That copies of this resolution be sent, but not limited to, HSU President

Rollin Richmond, Provost Richard Vrem, Vice President of Administrative

Services Carl Coffey, Deans of the Colleges, Graduate Studies, and Library,

the HSU Academic Senate, University Budget Committee, the California

State Student Association, the California Faculty Association, Chancellor

Charles Reed, the CSU Board of Trustees, Dr. Kathy D. Munoz,

Joan Van Duzer, Bill Cannon, The Lumberjack newspaper and

members of the local media.

Authored by:

Michelle Woo, Representative

Arts, Humanities & Social Sciences

Kyle Zeck, Legislative Vice President

Samantha Williams-Gray, President