The cost of doing business is going up for colleges and universities, particularly when it comes to course management systems. Proprietary enterprise solutions for course management — BlackBoard, WebCT, eCollege — are beginning to cost the same as other enterprise solutions. Translation — they’re getting very expensive. This rise in cost, along with the traditionally closed architecture of such systems has lead some universities and organizations to develop in-house programs tailored to their specific pedagogical needs and development resources.
http://www.xplana.com/whitepapers/archives/Open_Source_Courseware