Blackboard as a LMS

Blackboard is the Learning Management System that Ashford University uses for its online courses. This week my class assignment wanted me to compare Blackboard to other online tools and have me evaluate them to see if they could replace Blackboard. After looking at the other applications NING, PBWORKS, and FACEBOOK I have concluded that they are not up to the quality or focused on learning as Blackboard is at this point. I do think they could be used in education but not as a stand alone interface. The programs were designed for social networking and I feel that they are correctly designed for that purpose.