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</o:shapelayout></xml><![endif]--></head><body lang=EN-US link=blue vlink=purple><div class=WordSection1><p class=MsoNormal>Sure, Shira. Let me see how my schedule falls next week. I’d like to hear back from Aaron first. I have not receive the information on pricing that he said he would send.<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>I was impressed with the Blackboard suite. I was impressed years ago with WebCT CE and Blackboard. The decision we made to use Desire2Learn was never about features, quality and desirability of the learning platform. The decision was based upon price, mistrust of Blackboard as a company (through first-hand experience), and desire for standardization and cooperation among Oklahoma colleges. <o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>To draw an imperfect analogy, I don't drive a Mercedes Benz because I don't like them, I don't drive one because a cheaper brand does what I need at a much better value. Another analogy. For years, I have been a PC guy. Mainly, it is because Rose uses and supports the Windows platform. I had an old Apple 2e and IIGS before I came to Rose. (Yes, I’m THAT old.) I had thought about getting a Mac a few years ago, but the price, at almost double what a PC costs, steered me away. I finally decided to try a Mac mini a couple years ago. I wanted to experience and give the Mac platform a real chance by using it day in and day out. There are a lot of things to like about it. But, there are a lot of things you can do in fewer steps and more easily on a PC. While the Mac might suit some users, I don’t think it is as good a value as a properly maintained PC. Nice? Yes, and beautiful. The Mac as compared to most PC’s is almost a work of art. But, functionally much better than a PC? I’m not so sure.<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>Back to Blackboard and D2L. Blackboard will need to show it is a better value than D2L, win my assurance it has changed as a company, and win over 4-year institutions in the state of Oklahoma. The last factor is important but not mandatory yet. The State of Oklahoma may have something to say about this last point as taxpayers demand more emphatically that government cut waste from state appropriations.<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>Generally, our consortium decided to slow down its upgrades to give users and administrators time to adjust to the new UI and work out bugs in the platform. Given the radically different academic calendars of OCU, SWOSU, and Rose, we’ve pretty much come to agreement that the first week in January is the best time to upgrade if we are going to upgrade. We can revisit that timeframe again to see if that is still the best option. I think we have come to consensus that we should apply service packs as they come out because there is little to no downtime and because they often correct bugs that we have experienced. It would be nice to have our TEST site and PROD sites on the same version of the LE, but it could work to our advantage to have the current version on TEST so that we know when the time is right in the development of the platform to upgrade PROD.<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>Chris<br><br><span style='color:#1F497D'><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><div><div style='border:none;border-top:solid #B5C4DF 1.0pt;padding:3.0pt 0in 0in 0in'><p class=MsoNormal><b><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif"'>From:</span></b><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif"'> Hedgepeth, Shira [mailto:shira.hedgepeth@swosu.edu] <br><b>Sent:</b> Thursday, February 14, 2013 8:20 AM<br><b>To:</b> Meyer, Chris J.<br><b>Subject:</b> Upgrade and thoughts from yesterday<o:p></o:p></span></p></div></div><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>Do you have some time we can talk about your plans for the D2L upgrade and what you thought about yesterday?<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>Shira Hedgepeth, JD, MS<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>Director Distance Education<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>Southwestern Oklahoma State University<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>100 Campus Drive<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>Weatherford, OK 73096<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>580.774.3149<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>580.774.7180- fax<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p></div></body></html>