Dear Blackboard,
One of the most basic technology tools of all time is “select all”. Email clients, database programs and every program or 
web site with which users manipulate data in lists gives a user the opportunity to select every item on the list at once. I know many of the people reading this public letter (even if I can count their total on one hand) are used to seeing a tall tree of checkboxes with a helpful little “select all” button at the bottom. “Select All” has been around as long as I can remember.
“Select all” saves time by obviating the need to click fifty or sixty times down the list. Even if a user does not ultimately want to have all of the boxes checked, the user could “select all” and then uncheck the few boxes that shouldn’t be checked.
Although I try to teach with your product, I spend most of my time struggling around it; twisting and clicking through menus, roadblocks and unconscionable inefficiencies just to do my job. One of these unconscionable inefficiencies is the lack of the “select all” option. Of course it would be unconscionable to the developers of any other product, but not to Blackboard.
Could you explain why Blackboard does not have “select all”?
While you are it, can you tell me why I can remove posts from discussion boards with IE, but not Firefox? Just as you buck the trend of every other program on the market by omitting the simple “select all” button, you prove your independence from the crowd by ignoring cross-platform functionality.
I’m just a user just trying to do his job, nothing special, just teach and manage grades.
What’s that you say? Users?
Oh, those are the people who use your product. Just like the Easter Bunny in Santa Claus, you have to believe that we exist.