Course Management Systems

• Blackboard documentation
• CICADA documentation
• Faculty - Create/Renew Blackboard Courses
• Faculty-Activate a CICADA course (Link to help document)
• Faculty-Request Migration of Blackboard content to CICADA (coming soon)

About Clark's Course Management Systems

Course Management Systems (CMS) are software tools that facilitate web-enhanced learning for courses. They are an integrated collection of tools that allow faculty members to create course web sites without knowing any special languages or software packages. They can be used to augment face-to-face classroom activities or deliver an entire course.

The 2008/2009 academic year, will be a transition year for Clark's use of course management system platforms. Historically making use of Blackboard (www.blackboard.com), we are transitioning to CICADA, an implementation of Moodle (www.moodle.org). Blackboard and CICADA will be available until May 31, 2009. As of June 1, 2009 CICADA will be Clark's CMS.

How do I choose which CMS to use?

As noted above for the 2008/2009 academic year, Clark will have two CMSs available, deciding which one to use is a matter of personal preference at this point. With that said we make the following recommendations:

1. If you haven't used either system before (for example you are a new faculty member, or if you haven't used Blackboard since it has been available at Clark), it probably makes most sense to use CICADA.
2. If you have extensive course materials online that you aren't yet ready to think about how to fit into a new piece of software, continuing with Blackboard probably makes sense. Note, that while migration of materials is possible, in many cases rethinking how the materials are "connected" to each other may require some work.

It is important to remember that after May 2009, there will no longer be a choice between Blackboard and CICADA. CICADA will be the only CMS supported by ITS.

Why is Clark switching from Blackboard to CICADA?

For more information about why we are making the change to CICADA (Moodle-based course management system), please see the "Memorandum to Members of the Faculty" from the Information Technology Committee.

How do I get help using a CMS at Clark?

You may always contact your Academic Technologist or the Help Desk. In addition, resources for Blackboard are available on the Blackboard Help page. Resources for CICADA are on the CICADA Help page.