Benoit definitely has a task ahead of him. The first factor that he should take into consideration before comparing the two platforms is the time constraint. Let’s say for example that Benoit has between 12-14 weeks until the next semester starts. That gives him roughly 60-70 hours of available time to invest in this project. Benoit’s time is a finite resource that needs to be taken into account throughout this project. While it does seem that there are positives and negatives to both platforms, my initial opinion is that with such a limited amount of time for development he should be leaning towards a platform he is more or less familiar with, which would be Blackboard.
To expand upon this, Benoit should be asking himself about the overall time commitment for development and support throughout the launch of this course. Being that Benoit’s experience with LMS has been limited to using them as an online repository for resources, the learning curve to create and maintain a new online course is going to be substantial for him. It is hard to say which aspect of technical support is going to be more time intensive between the two solutions. Even if IT is slow to respond for Blackboard issues, it might be quicker and/or easier than some of the issues that arise in Moodle with no formal support structure. I suppose it depends on how comfortable Benoit is with working on online systems.
My breakdown of the time allocation needed for Benoit is as follows:
4 hrs – Review of existing course materials to see if anything needs to be updated or removed for the course transitioning to an online delivery platform.
8 hrs – Revision, modification, and addition of course materials to suit the online course model.
4 hrs – Development/modification of the course topics, objectives, and outcomes.
8 hrs – LMS account/course creation and training time to familiarize oneself with a new system.
16-24 hrs – Creating and/or curating multimedia content for the course. This would include videos, images, audio, presentations, etc.
16 hrs – Development and creation of the weekly activities in the LMS.
8 hrs – Development and creation of the LMS assessments if applicable for the course.
4 hrs – Time spent reviewing and testing the modules of the course.
8 hrs – Time spent dealing with technical difficulties.
My total estimates would put the development at around 76 hours or 15 weeks for Benoit’s Business Writing course.