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Copyright © 2015 - Curt Hill
Musings on LMS, HCI, Clients and Native
Programs
Curt Hill and Razib IqbalComputer Systems and Software Engineering
Valley City State University{Curt.Hill,Razib.Iqbal}@vcsu.edu
Introduction• This paper started out as an
implied dare• The story• His story: all the same• My story: there is a reason for
using something else• Is there a significant difference?
Copyright © 2015 - Curt Hill
The Study
• Timings on data entry• Start with a set of scores
– Not organized – Usually in a test or on note paper
• Time the following:– Program start to ready to enter– The succession of entered scores
• Do this both for BlackBoard© or Microsoft Excel©
Copyright © 2015 - Curt Hill
Starting
• To start:– Excel 10.9 seconds– BlackBoard 32.4 seconds– N=14
• Excel needs no login• BlackBoard needs other server
responses besides authentication
Copyright © 2015 - Curt Hill
Individual Entries
• A similar story– Excel 4.8 seconds– BlackBoard 7.1 seconds– N = 179
• Both of these include the time to shuffle papers
Copyright © 2015 - Curt Hill
Other Delays• BlackBoard seems to be much
slower in creating a new gradebook column than Excel– About 23 seconds– Since this a one-time thing it does not
seem to be significant
• It also appears that moving off the displayed values does require more than ordinary work– This is reflected in the entering scores
averagesCopyright © 2015 - Curt Hill
Markets
• Market size comparison between these two programs is laughable
• Microsoft has an estimated 750 users worldwide
• BlackBoard LMS has a limited number of candidates
• Thus, what Microsoft has spent on Excel development dwarfs what BlackBoard could spend
Copyright © 2015 - Curt Hill
Clients and Natives
• The smaller market and many other factors has forced BlackBoard into a client server paradigm– This has many other benefits
• The client is any web browser• This greatly impacts the program
– Makes it platform independent– Damages the Human Computer
Interface Copyright © 2015 - Curt Hill
Damage: Speed and Speed Effects
• The client server paradigm inherently has network delays not seen in native programs
• Some of this is aided by scripts in the HTML files– These free the server of some
operations and reduce the networking delays
– They increase the load time of the page
Copyright © 2015 - Curt Hill
Script Issues
• Scripting languages are typically an order of magnitude slower than machine language– Of even pseudo machine language
like Java byte code
• What typically results is a less desirable Human Computer Interface
Copyright © 2015 - Curt Hill
Example: Value Entry
• In Excel a value may be terminated by:– Enter– Tab– Any cursor key
• In BlackBoard only the Enter or Tab works – Enter leaves the cursor at the next
cell below– Tab to the right
Copyright © 2015 - Curt Hill
Bad News Either Way
• BlackBoard could likely handle all of these other options on how to end an entry
• To do so would increase the size of the script and thus the initial load
• It might also slow other processing• Thus, speed directly affects user
interface
Copyright © 2015 - Curt Hill
Why BlackBoard?• I have a lot of respect for
BlackBoard and similar programs– Is there a faster way to do things?
• What bothers me are assertions that this is the only or best way to do things– Best for the institution or best for the
faculty?– Faculty as a whole do not like to be
told what they must do
Copyright © 2015 - Curt Hill
Finally• The Human Computer Interface of
many such programs is a problem– Especially slowness and awkwardness– It appears to be a giant step
backwards
• We generally do not see this in ERPs and the like
• If such a program is seldom used, that is not a serious problem
• Is education again a second class citizen?
Copyright © 2015 - Curt Hill
