Blackboard Inc. is poised to acquire a long-time rival company, but Penn officials say that the deal should not affect students' use of the Blackboard Web site.
The merger between Blackboard, which provides online support for many Penn courses, and WebCT, which offers a competing software, is planned to be completed until later this spring.
The Blackboard system offers online tools that students can use to view course syllabi, access materials and collaborate with classmates online.
The U.S. Department of Justice recently cleared the deal between WebCT and Blackboard after determining that no antitrust violations would result.
Eduventures Inc., a market research company in the education field, estimates that Blackboard currently holds 45 to 50 percent of the college course software market and WebCT holds 35 to 40 percent.
But these figures -- which seem to indicate that a merger would create a monopoly -- can be misleading, said Richard Katz, vice president of the non-profit, education-technology association Educause.
Katz said there is still room for other software companies to become strong competitors.
"Higher education is still quite an open market in this area," said Katz. "The roots of course-management systems in higher education are still very shallow."
He added that probably less than 20 to 25 percent of faculty nationwide deliver their classes using course management software.
At Penn, much less than 50 percent of courses have a Blackboard component, Penn Courseware Manager John Kiser said.
Katz said he believes that the merger will stimulate competition and innovation in the market.
"The merger creates ripe conditions for a third-party to look around this market place," Katz said, adding that "the large-scale manufacturers such as Microsoft, Sun Microsystems and Oracle may come on too."
One open-source project -- one that can be accessed and customized by anyone for free -- has already entered the scene, and Penn is interested in what it has to offer.
The most prominent open-source systems are Sakai -- which has attracted Penn's interest -- and Moodle, Katz said.
The University is looking to possibly adopt features from Sakai and is planning a test-run for the project this summer.
Last fall, Yale switched to the Sakai platform, joining the University of Michigan and Indiana University, among others.
Moodle, created at Curtin University in Australia, is popular throughout that country but also has installations at American schools.
Both services are free to use.
By contrast, Blackboard cannot be as extensively customized by individual schools and costs Penn about $500,000 per year, Kiser said.
Kiser said this amount includes licensing, customizations, hardware, storage and staffing.
Sealing the deal - Merger of Blackboard Inc. and WebCT planned for later this spring - Currently, Blackboard holds 45 to 50 percent of the college course software market - WebCT holds 35 to 40 percent of the market
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