Would this be considered a blackboard system or perhaps a classroom in a bottle instead? To me, it looks like a really great Open Source blackboard option. Check it out for yourself!

.LRN is the world’s most widely adopted enterprise-class open-source software for supporting learning and research. Originally developed at MIT, .LRN today is used by nearly half a million users in more than eighteen countries worldwide. With a powerful underlying development framework that promotes scalable innovation for collaborative education, .LRN is used by higher education institutions, as well as K-12, government, and non-profit organizations. .LRN also provides a total cost of ownership significantly lower than custom or commercial solutions.

The .LRN application suite is backed by a thriving user community and by the .LRN Consortium. Consortium member institutions work together to support each other’s deployments and to accelerate and expand the adoption and development of .LRN. To this end, the Consortium ensures software quality by certifying components as .LRN-compliant, coordinates software development plans, and maintains ties with OpenACS, the open source toolkit which forms the basis for .LRN. [Read the rest]