Colleges and universities have long been proficient contributors to free and open source software projects, dating back to the early days of the Internet, so it should come as no surprise that they create open source software no meet their own operational needs. One of the biggest fields is online courseware–specialized content management systems for teachers and academic departments that facilitates Web-based course content, interaction with students, and grading and reporting. Also known as “course management systems” (CMS) or “learning management systems” (LMS), they are database-intensive, often support thousands of users at a time, and must interface with a wide gamut of third-party and legacy systems for record-keeping and billing, making them ripe for an open development model.
Proprietary Competition
Although many educational institutions use hand-rolled courseware systems, proprietary courseware products are widespread and command high prices. The dominant market leader is Blackboard, which in recent years has bought out several of its competitors: first rival WebCT, and most recently ANGEL Learning, an acquisition reported to have attracted attention from anti-trust investigators.
In 2006, Blackboard was granted a US patent for “technology used for Internet-based education support systems and methods” and sued competitor Desire2Learn, sparking protests from the education community over prior art–including from the Sakai Foundation, which works on open source courseware projects. The Software Freedom Law Center successfully requested a re-examination of the patent, and in April 2009, the US Patent and Trademark Office rejected all 57 claims in the patent, but Blackboard has continued to pursue legal action against Desire2Learn in US and (more recently) Canadian court. Regardless of the progress of that case, Blackboard did pledge in 2007 that it would not sue free and open source projects for infringement of the patent in question or of any other pending patent.
Proponents of open source courseware cite the usual advantages over proprietary systems: lower total cost of ownership, easier and faster customization, and guaranteed bugfixing and feature enhancement ability. More specific advantages unique to CMSes are that open source courseware packages tend to include additional functionality such as blogs, student journals, and wikis, offer more flexibility in the way course modules are edited and arranged, and are simpler to customize using standard Web tools and programming languages.
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