It is the start of a new year, which means new professors, new class locations and new friends. A lot has changed since even just two years ago. Construction has become a huge part of EMU since the beginning construction of the newest dorm and now the new addition to the VACA department and Common Grounds. Along with all of these new changes, EMU has decided to switch from the easy to use Blackboard to a new program, Moodle.

The biggest problem with this transition is that not every professor has made the switch. Some are still using Blackboard, which becomes an issue when we are frantically looking up which assignment is due in a matter of minutes. This means we will not have the entire ten minutes to write the two-page paper we need for our next class because we have to keep switching programs trying to find the syllabus.

I get it, Moodle is cheap and Blackboard was taking a lot of money, but if you are going to use this new foreign program then everyone needs to be on board with it.

Another issue I have is that Moodle is set up completely differently than Blackboard so we have to get accustomed to a new program on our own time and try to figure how to post. Blackboard is straightforward, you go to your class, you hit post to board, it posts, problem solved. Now I have to go find a forum just to figure out how to post a paper on there, which I still have not figured out how to do.

I am a senior this year and getting to know a new program just to check my grades and post papers is ridiculous. Blackboard had become a friend to me; I knew everything about it and how to get to where I needed to be. Moodle is a stranger, one that I care not to know. You may say I am one of those people who does not like change, which is wrong: I love change, just not when it deals with my school work.

There is even a Facebook page called “Moodle Sucks.” If there are enough people to make a Facebook group dedicated to the hatred of Moodle, then something is obviously wrong. If you go to Google and type in “why Moodle sucks,” there will be an endless number of pages to scroll through and hear everyone’s opinion on the matter.

I say bring Blackboard back, we are paying over 30 thousand dollars a year to go to a private college, where is all of that money going? You would think they had a couple extra nickels and dimes to spare in order to keep Blackboard up and running.