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Interview
Gartner: E-learning Market Pushing Toward Open Source
6/4/2008
We've yet to really know how much cheaper these open source apps are. We haven't been doing this long enough to really know the total price tag on migration, for one thing, and then the ongoing total cost of ownership.CT: How long until Gartner can evaluate that sort of cost?
Harris: We need to see more migrations. For instance, if an institution doesn't have [an e-learning platform yet] or they're running a homegrown system and they move to open source, that's one thing. But what we really need to measure is those institutions that are running something commercial, then migrate over to open source. Then we can get a comparison of costs--running a commercial app versus running open source.
CT: What about the ongoing Blackboard patent issue? What are Gartner higher ed customers telling you about how that's affecting their decisions on e-learning systems?
Harris: Interestingly enough--and this is not news to you or to anybody else in higher ed--but strictly from a perception point of view, Blackboard is seen as the bully in this situation. It's seen as [having] a certain arrogance to think that they developed something [themselves], when so many academics feel they've contributed to it all along. I can't speak to the legal issues at hand, but that's the perception, and it's global. I hear that wherever I go.
So has the suit had an impact on our clients? One thing I hear from clients is that it's irritating to think that their license fees are going to support a big legal battle. They feel as if they're paying for that.
[In terms of impact,] I see more institutions in a pilot with other applications, be it Moodle, Desire2Learn, or Angel Learning. Whenever something like this shakes [things up], institutions start wondering: What would be our options if we needed to make a move?
[Also,] the lawsuit has given much more visibility to Desire2Learn. We've seen an increase in inquiries about Desire2Learn as an e-learning provider.
CT: Given the lawsuit, what is Gartner's advice when a client asks, "What should we be doing right now?"
Harris: What you need to do, on a case-by-case basis, is review your contracts. If there are any contracts that you have a question about--"Is it time to rethink our course management system?"--then you'll want to sign your shortest renewal and start gathering data [on other systems].
That's the advice--go with the shorter-term renewals if you think you're going to need to make a change. Then pilot, and get faculty and students involved in really finding what's the best choice considering all the options. That includes commercial and open source, as well as --I don't really want to call them homegrown--but other types of collaboration and content management systems.
CT: Speaking of homegrown or in-house systems, one thing that I found interesting in your survey is the number of schools that plan to roll out homegrown e-learning systems--10 percent of the schools you surveyed. That seems high.
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