i rarely stumble across a decently designed college web site. why is that?

also, why do so many colleges use such a poorly (and i mean poorly) designed backend known as WebCT? my college (bhcc.edu) uses WebCT and it’s the most atrocious interface for learning. you almost need a course just to learn how to navigate around the portal.

the fault lies purely on the college’s shoulders.

the login they give students to login to their online web course in WebCT looks like username: jm23rrg45erg password: jmrg5t345hee. secure? yes. easy to remember? no. changeable? nope.

the login url? http://www.bhcc.mass.edu/mycourselogin easy to find? no.

once you login, you then have to press a link that says essentially, “yes, I want to login to my web course.” duh! didn’t I just login? why the extra link?

oh, and once you’re actually logged into webct, you’re bombarded with a barrage of pop-ups and pop-up warnings. that’s right, webct requires you to turn off any pop-blockers in order to work. *sigh.

why not hire a bunch of students to develop the backend? i know there are several students out there who would love to rebuild a new system from the ground up…it’s a great resume builder. in exchange, throw some free tuition or ramen at them or something.

better yet, have a group of students open source a new online course management portal. this way you could open the whole development and ui process to developers across the great u.s. of a.

p.s. i was going to register webctsucks.com but someone beat me to it.