We Collaborate!
Users of Blackboard Collaborate
Licensing options
Hi all,
I've sent a question to Blackboard regarding the cost of licensing options but still waiting to hear back
so in the meantime just in case someone here knows..
Isn't there an option to have Collaborate incorporated into your own website, ie. an API?
Is this mega bucks?
Replies to This Discussion
-
Permalink Reply by Tammy Moore on -
As far as I know, there is the vClass level that is about $2000/yr. This would be your department level or small organization level offering. It is one room that is shared by the people on the organization. It is multi-moderator so that everyone can log in with their own customizable log in. You don't get access to the server backside. I don't think there are any significant APIs for this one. Even the Moodle API is designed for server-side access that is only available at the next level up.
Server side access level is about $15,000/yr level. This is aimed at larger organizations and the people in the organization get their own assigned rooms instead of needing to share one room. The APIs that I am aware of are at this level.
They used to have a vOffice level, but that was discontinued. I am under the impression that people who were already using the vOffice level before it was discontinued are being given the opportunity to renew for another year so they have time to adjust to the level being discontinued.
-
Permalink Reply by Tammy Moore on
-
We are at the small organization level. Many, many entrepreneur instructors have come to me over the years and I have given free training to them to help them get started using Elluminate. The vOffice ran about $500 dollars a year which was a perfect level to get a new business run by a single-proprietor off the ground. I am completely baffled at Blackboard's decision to discontinue that level. It was a perfect rung on the ladder for these single-proprietor start ups.
But then, I have been baffled over and over again by the decisions being made since Blackboard bought Elluminate. The closing of LearnCentral was supposed to have been because a poll showed that customers felt BB should focus on their LMS offering. The thing is LearnCentral Elluminate/Blackboard users were not invited to that poll. We got word after the decision was a done-deal. I think the impression that it gives to the loyal fan-base coming in from Elluminate is that what matters to BB are their LMS customers. This sort of thing happens though. When one corporation buys out another, the purchase was to make the parent company stronger. Sometimes the bumps along the way is that the bought company's fan-base is ignored compared to feeling very important like they did before the buy-out. I have seen it at Adobe too. If you are in the market for an LMS it can be a great combination within the single company (Blackboard Learn or CourseSItes plus Blackboard Collaborate). You can feel right at home being assimilated. ;0)
Anyone reading this thread that is in the market for an LMS, take a look at the Collaborate/CourseSites combination. You can get a free 30-seater (maybe that was 20-seater) Collaborate online classroom and up to three course's for free. The two are integrated tightly, you cannot get in to Collaborate without going through the CourseSite's course page. For an instructor wanting to use this with students though, it is a great opportunity. It isn't as good a fit if you are not using it as a teacher or if you already have an established website or LMS other than a Blackboard offering.
-
Permalink Reply by Will on -
I have done extensive testing and Blackboard Collaborate IS the best system out there for what I need. However the fees are crazy and I cannot justify the cost. Coursesites is a possible solution but again it's not desirable to have to go through a third party system to get to your courses and again takes away from creating a professional identity.
I'm stumped!
-
Permalink Reply by Tammy Moore on
-
Just out of curiosity, if the $500 level vOffice were still availble would that have made it a no-brainer, "jump in with two feet, 'let's go' solution?
The reason I am asking is that I really feel that dropping the vOffice level was a bad business move on Blackboard's part. I am thinking that perhaps an appeal from enough people that would make a purchase if it were available could revive it and bring it back in some form. All the other options out there have a rung on the ladder at that level for their services. With Blackboard Collaborate not having that level anymore the impression is that the product is too 'big-organization' for the 'little guy'. I am afraid that the negative feelings from 'little guys' that will grow to be bigger players some day is that they will have grown up with the competition and have strong negative feeling about Blackboard to boot.
I feel a strong sense of loyalty from the Elluminate days, and so my heart breaks when I see the loyal Elluminate fans dissed and the little guys locked out. I want to get the attention of Blackboard way up there in the clouds and get them to see they are shooting themselves in the foot in some of these decisions.
OK, OK, I am off my soapbox. I love,love, love Elluminate/Collaborate and the team that does the development. I too believe it is the best tool out there. I have been a regular participant in webinars using competitor's webinar software. I attend the weekly eLearning suite seminars. Adobe Connects audio issues are shameful when the audience size isn't even very large. Often the audio drop outs get so bad that you cannot get enough of the audio stream to piece together what the presenter is saying. People are constantly typing in to the chat box about the fact their audio is so bad. I just don't want the success of Collaborate's design and the Blackboard LMS myopia make them loose touch with the non-Blackboard-LMS users out here and the little guys that are just starting out that will be big-guys in their niche some day and could then pay the bigger subscription rates. :0)
-
Permalink Reply by Will on
-
I would not pay $500 for vOffice or vClass as it is too restrictive.
I have been quoted €2000 for the basic vClass option and this would still mean not having my own Logo or brand color and every time a student would leave a session would be directed back to a Blackboard promotional page.
I put a lot of work into my business and I don't think that I should pay €2000 be a billboard for
Blackboard everytime a student logs in or out of a session.
I have been quoted about €12,500 for the level which would allow customization.
Compare this to Electa Live which offers website integration for $39.90/month. and is not too far
behind Collaborate.
What a pity!
-
Permalink Reply by Tammy Moore on
-
eLectra Live has some interesting licensing models. It gives more rungs in the ladder between price levels. We were/are maxing out our one room at the vClass level late last summer. I was actually mid-process ordering a vOffice room to handle our small overflow (I would use the vOffice for my own classes freeing up some space in our vClass level room) when I found out the vOffice was being discontinued. We just barely need the next level up, so a $2000/yr to a 15,000/yr (maybe 12,500, but we were quoted !5,000) jump is too much of a nose bleed for us.
-
Permalink Reply by Steve Hargadon on -
It's been very interesting for me to watch the transitions that have taken place as Blackboard purchased Elluminate. And I know that it is natural to watch the changes take place and assume the worst, not realizing the complexities of decision-making in bigger organizations or the variety of factors that affect them. I personally think that the closure of LearnCentral was the right decision, and am hopeful that we can replicate many of the benefits here at WeCollaborate.
You've continued to be a great contributor to all things Elluminate/Collaborate, Tammy, and I know you are appreciated. I think you're GREAT!
-
Permalink Reply by Steve Hargadon on
-
Hi, Will. You ask good questions!
Collaborate and (previously) Elluminate, from my history with the companies (I was employed full time with Elluminate, and now am part-time with Collaborate), were really built for large-scale implementations rather than individual use. I'm sure that had a significant impact on many aspects of how the both the program and the sales strategies were developed, since the needs around delivering guaranteed huge numbers of minutes to large-scale institutions who are using the product all day, every day, with students ends up being the most important priorities.
Unfortunately, that means that the business models of selling to individual customers that some other services employ isn't really Collaborate's niche, and isn't our expertise or priority. And I'm sure that's frustrating to someone who really likes the capabilities that have been developed in the program!
I'm asking some other folks at Collaborate to look at this thread, so that there is an internal understanding of your frustration, and also in case there are responses to it that I'm not aware of. I do appreciate your contributions here on the network to understand and use Collaborate.
-
Permalink Reply by Tammy Moore on
-
I am thinking that the bigger organization focus fits in with understanding the closure of LC. The large organizations usually get their upper level training staff trained by Collaborate trainers and then they take care of support and training in-house from there. Learn-Central attracted some of the instructors in the large organizations, but mostly the smaller ones were active there. If their focus is the larger organizations and those were asked about the benefit of LC, it would make sense that the larger ones wouldn't find LC useful with their own in-house support being seen as providing that for their own people.
I think LC gave the impression that Elluminate was big on the little guys too because there were so many of us little to medium-sized fish active there. All that activity seemed to show that the largest part of the customer-base were users down near the bottom of the food chain even though it was apparent there were larger fish in the water too. I think understanding this now and it gives some perspective.
Some day we will be up there with the big fish because I know what we are doing has a bright and big future. Though, I don't intend to ever have an in-house support attitude. I love to share with the entire community and love mixing with all the fish in the sea. I think the community is a very important part of what makes Elluminate/Collaborate special. It benefits all of us whether we are small or large in the grand scheme of it all. :0)
-
Permalink Reply by Steve Hargadon on
-
So, I think your description is accurate, and it also probably would help to understand what LearnCentral was and how it started. LearnCentral was more than a user community, it was actually an ambitious project created to bring together social networking and synchronous meetings in a way that would be new to both. As such, it required considerable programming and staff resources, and was a customize and hosted platform that was not inexpensive to maintain. As much as I would like to tell you that we were successful in accomplishing that vision, we weren't, and maintaining LearnCentral for what it had essentially become--a user community--would have been to (candidly) use a wrong and very expensive tool for a job it wasn't doing very well. I am SO appreciative of all the work that was done on LearnCentral, but we all experienced the consistent slowness of the network, the problems getting to a linked page if you weren't already logged in, etc.
It's also important to note that three years is a long time in Internet/Web time, and during that time it has been interesting to see how Ning continued--even without substantial upgrades--to maintain and grow its role as a discussion platform, and to have become the most familiar networking tool for education. So when we asked ourselves how we could best help Collaborate users to talk to each other, to provide help and resources for the product, and to really make a difference for users long-term, it seemed smart to tap my expertise with Ning and refocus there (I did work for Ning for 18 months as their education consultant, and Classroom 2.0 is probably the most recognizable social network for educators).
I hope that helps to give some context. I completely understand the frustration of a platform change, along with what appear to have been shifts in the sales focus. I took the job with Elluminate originally because I had used the platform and was a huge fan, and the truth is that I still am. I'm hoping we can continue to work together in fun and productive ways, really making a difference for students and educators!
-
Permalink Reply by Will on
-
This is so frustrating! THERE IS NO OTHER SYSTEM that gives me as close to what I need as Collaborate. vClass offers a room with a capacity for 50 students...I don't need more than 5 -10 but I would gladly pay €2000 if I could customise the identity and not have that link back to Collaborate at the end of a session. It's just SO unprofessional! It gives the student such a cheap impression of the system...and it's not cheap!
Surely that's not much to ask that for €2000 you could at least have your own Logo and a link back to your school website?
Incidentally does this link still kick in on the more expensive licensing options?
© 2012 Created by Steve Hargadon.
