Found this article from my previous work looking around at pricing models of BB and WebCT.
http://chronicle.com/free/2002/03/2002031901u.htm
Blackboard has quite a funny pricing model though, different for each of its offerings
- Learning System Enterprise
- Learning System Enterprise combined with Community Portal System
- Learning System Basic
- Learning System ML!!
Blackboard 5: Learning System Basic Edition has a flat-fee license. I am not sure of the cost of deploying it, but per license is $7500 USD for renewal. The article I read this information on is at
http://e-learning.surf.nl/blackboard/berichten/447?batchnr=74&batchsize=12
For those of you who speak DUTCH, you may find this PDF ( http://e-learning.surf.nl/docs/blackboard/kostencase.pdf ) providing more information about their pricing model.
I was a bit confused about how they calculate their FTE pricing et al. Anyone who can throw some light on this ?
For example their higher education pricing varies per year with something like
2003: $ 7500 + $4/ FTE, 57500 maximum
2004: $ 1000 + $4.5/ FTE, 67500 maximum
2005: $ 12500 + $5/ FTE, 77500 maximum
and so on...!!
This apart they also have discount deals with organisations like the one here:
http://www.nercomp.org/licensing/bb/blackboard.html
Blackboard has an interesting model for setting one course on their site for a small price. They charge $295 to set-up a course Web site and give 25 MB of storage space for course materials alongside.
Hope this helps...and I'l try and gather more information about this and post all I find as well.
