Every time something comes up, this is how I explain it to people: "Why Enterprise Software Sucks" x.com/random_walker/status/118263558960…...

I do teach math. If the exams are given in class, then I don't have any choice but hard copy. Exams are free-response, where showing your work matters, and these are difficult to pigeonhole into any particular format. As for Blackboard, I find it obtuse, slow, and painful to use. Anything you want to do requires multiple clicks, each of which takes a noticeable amount of time. Not that much, but after a lot of clicks my patience quickly runs thin. It is also a very elaborate piece of software, which has a very particular idea of what a course should look like -- and this idea is based on conversations with senior administrators, not with faculty or students. It is after all the former who are making the purchasing decisions. You can read this famous Twitter thread on Blackboard and baby clothes: twitter.com/random_walker/status/118263… I have no desire to adapt my course to anyone else's workflow, let alone to one I find obtuse. That said, I am unusually stubborn in this regard, even by the standards of math departments. For example I still prefer to keep my schedule as a .txt file, rather than using Google Calendar/Outlook/etc., which pretty well marks me as a luddite. Not everyone hates BB.

obligatory reading about enterprise software (apologies for it being a twitter thread) twitter.com/random_walker/status/118263…...

Doctors hate their computers because the software they are forced to use sucks. And it sucks for the same reason that most enterprise software sucks: because the people who budget for it, choose it, and pay for it are not the people who use it. For more on this, see this now-classic Twitter thread by Princeton CS Prof Arvind Narayanan: "Why Enterprise Software Sucks" twitter.com/random_walker/status/118263…

Indeed. This reminds me of the tweets about why enterprise software is like baby clothes: twitter.com/random_walker/status/118263…...

This comic from the twitter thread sums it up pretty well: twitter.com/jaukia/status/1114044716616…...

From this thread: >The point is, some products are sold directly to the end user, and are forced to prioritize usability. Other products are sold to an intermediary whose concerns are typically different from the user's needs. Such products don't HAVE to end up as unusable garbage, but usually do. twitter.com/random_walker/status/118263… It's a classic principal-agent problem. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Principal%E2%80%9…...

>There are two types of baby outfits. The first is targeted at people buying gifts. It's irresistible on the rack. It has no fewer than 18 buttons. At least 3 people are needed to get a screaming baby into it. It's worn once, so you can send a photo to the gifter, then discarded. >Other baby outfits are meant for parents. They’re marked "Easy On, Easy Off" or some such, and they really mean it. Zippers aren't easy enough so they fasten using MAGNETS. A busy parent (i.e. a parent) can change an outfit in 5 seconds, one handed, before rushing to work. >The point is, some products are sold directly to the end user, and are forced to prioritize usability. Other products are sold to an intermediary whose concerns are typically different from the user's needs. Such products don't HAVE to end up as unusable garbage, but usually do. twitter.com/random_walker/status/118263…

twitter.com/random_walker/status/118263…

original source (AFICT): twitter.com/random_walker/status/118263…

Link to the start of the thread: twitter.com/random_walker/status/118263…

Edtech is one of those cases where the product is designed for the decision-makers, not for the people who actually end up using it. twitter.com/random_walker/status/118263…