Course management systems : innovation versus managerialism

This paper examines the introduction of Blackboard as the designated course management system at Central Queensland University, Australia. The authors use the results of a focus group with a course team using Blackboard as the basis for a set of propositions about, and criteria for assessing the effectiveness of, course management systems. The authors draw on Bourdieu’s (1977, 1990, 1993) notions of autonomous and heteronomous forces and the habitus to frame their argument about the most likely means of navigating between the blue skies of innovation and the pragmatism of managerialism in relation to learning technologies in contemporary Australian universities.