Sixth Reflection, Blended e-Learning

My learning experience about synchronous tools for e-learning delivery consisted of reading the required reading article, reviewing the required reading website, and the link concerning the comparison of Blackboard and Moogle, and reflecting on my personal experience with Blackboard. The only CMS I have experience with is Blackboard 6.0, so this was the one I chose to discuss. At first glance, I thought this would be an easy assignment, (thankfully, since it is the last!), however I had to put quite a bit of thought into the characteristics of the software and the advantages/disadvantages because having had now two courses using it, it has become second nature for me. I noticed that I take it for granted. I grumble about it sometimes, but it has become part of my routine for the online classes I have taken.
I had to recall my initial impression of the system from last spring's ID course and the things I was impressed by. I hadn’t taken any college class at all in 25+ years, much less an online class, and as I have said before, I was intimidated to say the least. Recalling my confidence with my computer skills when I began the MSIT program, I was a bit overconfident with my ability to use the software, but once I had a few pointers and had my questions answered, I felt much relief, and my confidence increased. I realized that this tool was amazing.
Learning that there was another CMS (actually, it seems, dozens), Moogle, which was compared with Blackboard in one of the reading for the assignment was interesting. I had heard folks complain a little about Blackboard, but had never experienced anything else and had nothing to compare it to, but the surveys done by the researchers of the article clearly showed a slight preference for the freeware, Moogle. I found that interesting. I would like to give Moogle a try after reading those survey results.
I also learned from reading my group-mates’ responses that there are many features which Blackboard offers that I was unfamiliar with – the Whiteboard capability, the details on the assessment capabilities, and while I noticed a difference in the appearance between the course materials for this class vs. Instructional Design, the ability to revise the appearance of the tool itself. I do know that on the Navigation bar of Blackboard, there are tools which we have not used for either class, and I noted in one of the articles that many instructors use Blackboard as a PART of their instruction, while for our online classes (at least the asynchronous part) it comprises the entirety of our asynchronous part, whereas Centra is only really used for the weekly class meeting of 3 or so hours.
Learning some of the potential of Blackboard and the realization that there are many other CMS tools available had piqued my curiosity. I hope to have the opportunity experience other systems as my progress in the MSIT program continues.