There are alternatives (Score 1)

Excuse the shameless plug, but there are alternatives to Blackboard. My company, HAIKU Learning Systems, Inc. developed haiku LMS, a Web 2.0 style LMS for K12 and higher ed. Many of the posts in this discussion reference Blackboard's poor interface, high costs, frustrating code base, etc. Some of us in the LMS space care about the user experience. We care... primarily because we want learners to learn. THAT, after all, is what LMS technology SHOULD be about.