Facebook as courseware update

CourseFeed has added a new Facebook app that, in addition to regular Facebook course-app features like discussion walls and notes, allows students to connect to their school’s Blackboard installation. I haven’t been able to fully test out the app because it isn’t compatible with The University of Texas’s Blackboard installation yet. It does seem pretty promising, though.

One of the drawbacks to using Blackboard is that you have to go to a new website, log in, and then navigate the site’s hierarchy, which can be unnecessarily complex. For example, to send an email to my class via Blackboard, I have to log into the system and go through four steps to access the email page. CourseFeed would simplify class communication for users who use Facebook and save them the extra step of having to log into a new system for class information.

In short, for schools that use Blackboard, CourseFeed seems like a decent method for managing the site’s clunky interface.

Related: Using Facebook for course management pt. 1 and pt. 2