Why the Participants Use Blackboard in Their Teaching - Essay Example

Reasons why the participants use Blackboard in their teaching In an open-ended survey question, the participants were asked to indicate some of the reasons why they use Blackboard in their teaching activities. The question was framed as “What are some of the reasons you use Blackboard in your teaching?”. A total of 81 participants responded to this question. Twenty-five of them indicated that they did not know how to use Blackboard. The remaining 56 participants gave different reasons why they use Blackboard. For ease of analysis, the reasons given for using Blackboard were summarised into four broad areas. These are improving teaching, improving student learning, improving academic members’ working conditions, and other related reasons. In terms of reasons related to improving teaching, the participants cited issues such as being able to display video content to students, attracting the attention of the students, being able to monitor students’ performance, and being able to increase their output. Others indicated that Blackboard enabled them to use different learning materials more interactively with their students and to clarify various details where required, to administer quizzes, to view lesson materials, to use additional educational materials such as YouTube and PowerPoint, to post homework for students, and to use standardised exercises. Most participants cited the ability to interact with students, monitor them and administer assessments as one area through which Blackboard helps improve teaching, and hence the reason why they use the learning management system. In regard to improving student learning, the reasons cited by the survey participants for using Blackboard include: the LMS allows students the opportunity to verify the information they learn at any time convenient to them and to exchange information among themselves; it enhances self-learning; it enables better delivery of learning materials to students, and any place and any time; facilitates group discussions; students are motivated by the organisation of learning materials through the system; students can access materials even if they miss the physical classroom; and the use of Blackboard facilitates and enhances learning among students. From this account, it can be seen that most of the participants identified convenience to students, better delivery of learning materials, and student participation in Blackboard through aspects such as group discussion as the main reasons why they use the LMS. With respect to improving academic staff members’ working conditions, the reasons identified by the participants include improved speed of delivering instruction; ease of use; better time management and accuracy of the system with regard to monitoring student performance; better communication with students; better student participation which improves teaching; making it easier to work with and interact with students; enabling flexibility in teaching; ease of sending learning materials to students; ease of making announcements to students; ease of administering quizzes and monitoring them; ability to keep record of learning progress; saving time; and making it easier to plan the teaching lessons. Thus, it can be seen that most of the participants noted that Blackboard makes their work easier in regard to issues such as communicating with students, administering quizzes, monitoring their progress, interacting with them, and making teaching more flexible. Other reasons that the participants gave for using Blackboard include: it is a requirements by their universities; the system is new and effective; the desire to keep up with the pace of modernisation in teaching; and that the system is preferred by most students. Reasons why the survey participants do not use Blackboard in their teaching An open-ended question was also used to collect the participants’ views on why they do not use Blackboard in their teaching activities. The question was stated as “What are some of the reasons you don’t use Blackboard in your teaching?”. The total number of participants who gave their answers to this question was 94. Out of this number, 13 participants indicated that they did not have a specific reason for not using Blackboard. The rest of the participants (81) gave various reasons for not using the LMS. These reasons were categorised into four groups as follows: institutional issues, technology-related issues, academic-related issues and student-related issues. The main institutional factors identified by the participants as the reasons why they do not use Blackboard include: lack of adequate training; lack of incentives; and lack of support and encouragement. Notably, most participants indicated that lack of training was a major concern as they either have not received adequate training or have not been trained at all. As well, a significant number of the participants noted that they had not received adequate support and incentives to use Blackboard. The incentives and support include commitment from the university for its staff to use Blackboard by providing facilities such as computer rooms to prepare students and staff, making it mandatory for academic staff to use Blackboard, and training the members of staff so that they can use Blackboard effectively. The technology-related issues that were identified by the participants include software problems, delayed technical support, difficulties in using the Blackboard system, non-functioning of some features of the LMS, lack of technical support, failure of the system in some instances, and technical problems. Most of the participants in particular identified technical problems (network failure, difficulties in using the system, and failure of some functions of the system or the entire system) and lack of technical support as the reasons why they do not use Blackboard. Turning to academic-related issues, the reasons identified by the participants for not using Blackboard include lack of knowledge about Blackboard and lack experience in using the system; the perception that Blackboard is complicated, burdensome and time-consuming; lack of adequate time to prepare teaching materials; the fact that some lessons require face-to-face interaction between the lecturer and the students; the perception that teaching in class physically is better and more important than using Blackboard; difficulties in using some features of the Blackboard system; and use of other alternative computing platforms. Overall, most participants cited lack of knowledge about Blackboard, difficulties related with using the LMS, the perception that the traditional classroom way of teaching is better, and the nature of some courses which require face-to-face interaction as the reasons why they do not use Blackboard. In regard to student-related issues, most of the participants identified concerns such as complacency among students with regard to the use Blackboard (including non-compliance with academic requirements and cheating), difficulties in using the LMS, lack of family support, lack of training, unwillingness to use Blackboard, lack of student interaction with lecturers, preference for the traditional classroom learning, and lack of adequate facilities and skills among students. What the participants believe would assist them to use Blackboard more in their teaching The participants were asked an open-ended question on what they believed would help them to use Blackboard more in their teaching. The question was put forward as “What do you believe would assist you to use Blackboard more in your teaching?”. Eighty-eight participants gave their responses to this question. Nine of them indicated that they did not know what could help them to use Blackboard more. On the other hand, the remaining 79 participants gave different views in regard to what they think can help them to use Blackboard more in their work. The responses were grouped into four categories for ease of understanding them. The categories are institutional, technology-related, academic and student-related issues. With respect to institutional issues, the factors that the participants identified that could help them use Blackboard more are as follows: educating students about Blackboard; ensuring that each student’s data is linked to Blackboard via the banner system; providing training courses for students; ensuring that there is adequate infrastructure to serve the needs of students with regard to the system; educating students on the importance of Blackboard and how to use it; training members of faculty so that they can serve students well using the system; and allowing students more time to practise using the system. In particular, most participants emphasised the need to train both students and academic members on how to use Blackboard. This is because it is through awareness on the importance of the system and how to use it that both students and staff can use it. This in turn, as noted by most participants, will encourage them to participate in using Blackboard. Concerning technology, most of the participants noted that increasing the number of computer laboratories as well as other necessary technological infrastructure and providing technical support to facilitate the use of Blackboard would make them use the technology more. In particular, many participants identified technical support as an issue that affects several aspects of learning from students to lecturers and to administrative matters. Hence, ensuring that technical support is provided when staff need it would make the use of Blackboard easier and more accepted, which would make more academic staff to use the system even more. Turning to academic-related issues, most of the participants were of the view that they can use Blackboard more if the system enables them to communicate with students at any time; if it allows functionalities such as quizzes and privacy; where distance education courses are involved; where there is full knowledge and familiarity with technology; if the technology facilitates interaction with students; and if the system facilitates improved usability and accessibility. In regard to student-related issues, most of the survey participants noted that having a large number of students with knowledge on how to use Blackboard would encourage them to use the system more. Along the same line, some participants cited student acceptance of Blackboard, ability of students to interact with the system as well as enthusiasm to adopt it as factors that would encourage them (staff) to use Blackboard more. As well, it was noted that family support for students to use Blackboard can make the participants use the system more in their teaching. Read More