The following sites may be of assistance to anyone who has experienced
problems at Capella University. For those who require the use of assistive
technology, please note that the links on this page will open new windows.
After reading the information on the sites provided here, we suspect that
most visitors will begin to wonder about the professional competence of those
at Capella who were involved in implementing WebCT as the sole means for students
to access their courses.
WebCT Studies, Use Cases, Student Surveys
Funny, but other universities don't report that WebCT is "universally
praised"
for being "exceptionally user-friendly and intuitive." Unlike Capella
University, these institutions are also not afraid to post their findings.
Of course, that takes a lot of integrity and academic competence! It should
be pointed out; however, that accessibility is not a topic that is frequently
covered in most surveys.
East Georgia College - WebCT-Vista
Professional Opinion Survey (this link will open a Microsoft
Word .doc file) - Wow! Take a look at the responses from Faculty regarding
WebCT Vista! For example, in answer to the prompt (see table 14),
"I believe that most of my students like Vista," 46.2% of faculty
responding either disagreed or strongly disagreed with this statement!
Ramapo
College of New Jersey (This link will open a Power Point Presentation
- be sure to examine the complete slide show)
University of Kent - Considering
the Alternative (to WebCT) - this site
is not a survey or study, per se, rather an argument for the use of alternatives
to WebCT.
University
of Lethbridge (Alberta, Canada) Curriculum Re-Development Centre - click
on "global results" to view findings.
University of North Texas - Links to two pages are listed here:
WebCT and Accessibility (Rather, Lack of Accessibility)
The problems with WebCT's failure to meet accessibility standards spans many
years. The following sites provide just a sampling of the information that
is readily available on the topic. Capella's decision to use WebCT, without
regard for the needs of their students with disabilities, flies in the face
of even the most basic requirements for testing software applications.
American
Library Association (Adobe .pdf) - An excellent presentation on the
need for accessibility in Distance Education
Conformance
of WebCT v3.6 to W3C's Authoring Tool Accessibility
Guidelines 1.0 - This study is posted on the World Wide Web Consortium's
(W3C) Web Accessibility Initiative's (WAI) site - arguably the most important
site regarding accessibility of software applications on the Internet! While
this study was conducted on an older version of WebCT than the one used by
Capella University - many of the same problems exist today!
Georgia
State University Disability Services (Adobe .pdf) - The summary
section of this fine paper says it all - " We have attempted to discuss
the issue of accessibility to WebCT courses. Again, we applaud WebCT’s commitment
to future accessibility. However, for students who need more immediate access
to full course participation, more immediate solutions are needed. While
we have discussed many barriers to accessibility there are two important ones
we have not yet touched upon. These are ignorance and apathy. Many course designers
don’t design for access either because they have never thought about it or
they don’t care. As shown by example above, educators can work around
many of the current barriers to accessibility if they are willing to use a
little imagination and take a little more time in the design phase of their
courses. It
is our sincere hope that this paper can help eliminate the barrier of ignorance.
However, the barrier of apathy is outside the scope of this or any other paper,
it is a matter of personal choice" (emphasis added). It is the
opinion of CapellaUniversitySucks.us that ignorance and apathy is responsible
for Capella's failure to ensure that WebCT is fully accessible to students
with disabilities.
Illinois Center for Instructional Technology Accessibility - Evaluation
of WebCT Vista Version for Accessibility - it appears as if a WebCT
representative made a statement that WebCT " conformed to W3C specifications" but "didn't
know which ones!" CapellaUniversitySucks.us contends that WebCT Vista
still does not conform to the W3C specifications.
La Troupe University (Australia): WebCT
Conformance Report - this site
contains a reprint of the W3C study that demonstrates that WebCT was not
in compliance with accessibility standards.
Manchester
Metropolitan University - Pay particular attention to Figure Three
in this document that notes the fact that there was considerable concern
regarding WebCT and the lack of accessibility to students. In fact, every
school (except for Education, not surprisingly) voiced a concern about
accessibility!
Southern Cross University - Accessibility
Issues for WebCT - The WebCT Accessibility Audit cited on this site
provides an excellent overview as to why WebCT is not accessible.
University
of Illinois - "Even if your course content is fully accessible,
you will not be able to make courses on WebCT accessible if you plan to use
all of its features."
University of
Minnesota - Right in Capella University's own back yard -
is Capella clueless or what?!
University
of Washington - National Center on Accessible Information Technology
in Education states that "courseware packages [including WebCT] have historically
presented access challenges to people with disabilities."
Virginia Community College
System - Notes from a meeting held on May 26,
2004. Note the comment that, "WebCT sent Carole faculty usage data.
They also asked if we had any other questions. One comment from the colleges
was that WebCT is not as intuitive as Blackboard, Desire2Learn, and Angel
and that it would probably take twice as long to train faculty on it as opposed
to the other CMS." Hey Capella, why is a junior college able to notice the
problems with WebCT and you can't?
From the "official" WebCT web site - it should be noted that
WebCT seems to have suddenly started removing pages (or moving them to other
locations, since the complaints against Capella University were made (the
first complaint was filed on April 9, 2004). As a result, some of these links
are either dead now or may soon be in the very near future. Enjoy them, while
you can!
Bringing
Your WebCT Course Into ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act) Compliance (this
link will, hopefully, take you to a PowerPoint Presentation")
The last page of this slide show states, "The biggest barriers to
ADA compliance: Ignorance (and) apathy" - We agree! So Capella and
WebCT, when are you going to actually DO something about "ignorance
and apathy?"
Colorado
State University's web site notes a link (which is also found
elsewhere) to a 40-minute video on WebCT's site entitled, "Bringing
your WebCT Course into ADA Compliance." CapellaUniversitySucks.us
suspects that this "movie" has recently been removed because
we believe there is simply no way to make WebCT fully compliant with
the ADA without significant redesign.
This site has been specifically designed for full accessibility to all visitors.
As a result, Capella University Sucks is proud to display the following logo
on each page that meets standards for accessibility:
This
page qualifies for the Bobby AAA Approved status for accessibility.
This
page qualifies for the Bobby AAA Approved status for accessibility.