ITS Response to the Blackboard Staff and Student Survey 2009

 

Students found the following were the best things about Blackboard:

• Access to materials
• Availability (24 hours a day)
• Interaction with students
• Greater discussion between students and lecturers on topics covered
• Electronic assignment submissions
• Very easy to use

The following is a list of actions that we are planning to undertake, which will help to address some of the comments received in the surveys:

The Student Survey

Perception from students that they were not aware of many of the resources and support materials available:

• Offer more workshops for students on using Blackboard

• Publicise the support tab/wiki for students: http://wiki.bbk.ac.uk/bb/Welcome_to_Blackboard_Support

• Offer training for staff on the use of the various tools within Blackboard

Comments that the Blackboard interface is out-dated and clumsy:

• We will soon be testing the latest version of Blackboard (version 9 also called NG) for implementation in the future

Comments that lecturers use Blackboard in different ways, using different layouts which make navigation and finding material difficult:

• Offer more training and guidance to staff on best practice for layout and use of Blackboard, including highlighting the student feedback from this survey

• Work with Schools to encourage use of a standard template for modules within a programme where possible

• Additionally we are working with the Library to increase the quantity of electronic material the Library makes accessible through Blackboard.

The Staff Survey

Some staff were not aware of many of the resources and support materials available:

• Offer more workshops and lunchtime introductory sessions for staff on using Blackboard

• Publicise the support tab/wiki for staff: http://wiki.bbk.ac.uk/bb_des/

• Introduce the less popular tools – wikis, blogs and ePortfolios

We are planning workshops and taster sessions for the following Blackboard tools:

• Elluminate: A synchronous conferencing tool that can be used as a standalone or fully integrated feature in a Blackboard course.

• Echo360: A lecture capturing tool where students can revisit past lectures for revision. ITS is planning to purchase a mobile version.

• Turnitin: An integrated tool that facilitates online submission of assignments which are automatically checked against plagiarism along with Grademark: A tool within Turnitin that allows instructors to grade submitted papers online and allows multiple markers to access student assignments online.

• The Blackboard Content Management System: A feature-rich, fully integrated system for storing, sharing, and publishing content. Initially the Library will pilot the use of this but we will offer sessions for all staff.

Mailing List

Currently there are 76 staff signed up to the Blackboard mailing list – we encourage all instructors to join this list: https://pyrus.ccs.bbk.ac.uk/mailman/listinfo/blackboard-instructors.

We will keep instructors informed through the mailing list and also through announcements on the Blackboard home page about technical problems or outages.