Carroll's website style with the crazy purple header causes problems on the website that they tell instructors to use to post information for students and handle grading. This is the default look of a course's blackboard page if the instructor chooses not to add any embellishments to make it more interesting for the students. The default look is usually a sign that an instructor rarely uses blackboard to actively work with students. Now the layout of Blackboard is nice, there is a header navigation area for the overall site controls and a sidebar navigation that I don't actually hate. The sidebar navigation provides functions and links for the course itself. The site works pretty well minus some issues where links don't look like links when they're in the header, and other minor hindrances, but...
...when an instructor tries to personalize their blackboard page to be more unique to the course that they are teacher some issues arise. Here you can see the blackboard page for my web design class. My instructor has chosen a green background with the light grey and white on top for the side bar and content area. This works pretty well on it's own, and if it weren't for a grotesque purple header at the very top this would look fine on its own.
There is another issue where instructors get a bit too crazy with their choices for background and navigation button background and can turn great potential into a nightmare of random colors that look like Willy Wonka's nightmares. I think there needs to be a bit more neutrality with the colors for the overall website leaving a bit more freedom to the instructors that choose to take advantage of it.
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