Uptake and Usage of Virtual Learning Environments: Findings

from a longitudinal multi institutional student usage survey

Robert Cosgrave, Eamon Costello, Tom Farrelly, Nuala Harding, Theresa Logan-Phelan, Claire McAvinia, Fiona O'Riordan, Damien Raftery, Angelica Risquez

EdTech 2012, May 31st-June 1st, NUI Maynooth

Virtual Learning Environments are now core infrastructure in most tertiary

institutions.

But we don't know as much as we should about how they are used, and

for what...

It all started in Cork

Project Structure

Project BudgetProject Lead Team Structure

€0.00NoneNone

Ground Rules

Higher Education TimesUniversity of Leitrim

has best VLE!President Gloats!

Researchers sacked!

No use of findings for PRAll published results to be anonymous by Institution.

Institutions letter coded A,B,C…

Three myths of the VLE:

"The choice of VLE will influence how I teach"

"Using a VLE will reduce attendance"

"If everything happens online, the face to face teaching will be redundant."

Meet the Data

• 15,385 Individual Student Responses

• 12 Institutions

• 22 Survey Instances

• Data collection since 2008

• 78 questions (including subquestions)

How to slice it?

• Blackboard vs. Moodle

• Demographics

• Disability

• Time

What do you use the VLE for?

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

80%

90%

100%

Keep track ofclass times

Get copies oflecture notes

Get othercoursematerial

Onlinediscussions

about thecourse

Online quizzes Submitassignments

%

2008/09 2011/12

If you do not use [VLE], why not?

0%

5%

10%

15%

20%

25%

30%

My Lecturers don’tuse it

The information onit isn’t useful

I can’t access it I find it difficult touse

I don’t haveaccess to the web

%

2008/09 2011/12

I am comfortable with using computers

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

80%

90%

16-23 24-35 36-50 50+ 16-23 24-35 36-50 50+

2009/09 2011/12

Strongly agree Agree Neutral Disagree Strongly disagree

Lecturer use is a big issueWhat is the most important thing you would

like to see improved

Easier to Use

More Reliable

More use of Audio/Multimedia/

Podcasts

Better Usage by Lecturers

When asked what prevents them getting most of their VLE...

"Answer is simple...The system as usual is perfect. What is holding us back is the lecturers...I feel each lecturer should be trained more"

"I think that if lecturers don't use Moodle effectively (uploading class notes, including research resources, case studies, discussions, etc.), Moodle wouldn't be a useful or helpful resource for students'"

"All lecturers appear to have a different method of using [VLE] and this should be standard"

Digital Literacy, Usability, Support

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

80%

90%

100%

I amcomfortablewith usingcomputers

I haveadequateaccess (iecomputers,

bandwidth) tothe web

outside college

I think systemslike the VLEare helpful

The VLE iseasy to use

The VLE isreliable

I can getadequate helpand support to

use the VLE

%

2008/09 2011/12

"I like the freedom of having access to info day or night."

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

07:00 to 09:00 09:00 to 12:00 12:00 to 14:00 14:00 to 18:00 18:00 to 22:00 22:00 to 07:00

%

2008/09 2011/12

From where do you access the VLE

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

80%

90%

100%

Home

Wor

kplace

Open A

cces

s La

bs

Depar

tmen

tal L

abs

Lapt

ops o

n Cam

pus

Inte

rnet

Caf

és o

utsid

e ca

mpu

s

Mob

ile D

evice

%

2008/09 2011/12

Things are getting betterMy lecturers make good use of the VLE

0%

20%

40%

60%

80%

100%

2008/09 2011/12

Disagree/Strongly Disagree Agree/Strongly Agree

Students overwhelmingly like VLE'sSystems like VLE's are helpful

0%

20%

40%

60%

80%

100%

2008/09 2011/12

Disagree/Strongly Disagree Agree/Strongly Agree

"I find it makes note-taking less hard and means I can concentrate more in the lecture…"

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

80%

90%

It mainly repeatswhat is covered in

class

It adds to what iscovered in class

It helps to clarifywhat has been

covered in class

Using the VLEmakes it easier for

me to learn

Using the VLEhelps me

understand howwell I am doing

%

2008/09 2011/12

They help students communicate

Getting notes on [VLE] makes me less likely to go to lectures

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

Strongly Agree Agree Neutral Disagree Strongly Disagree

"I believe extra notes online aid the learning of students and not deter them [students] from coming to class"

"Sometimes lecturers don't use it to its full potential…some are reluctant to put lecture notes up in the flawed attempt to make people come to class but if people don't want to be there they just won't come either way"

Three myths of the VLE?

"The choice of VLE will influence how I teach"

"Using a VLE will reduce attendance“

"If everything happens online, the face to face teaching will be redundant."

So, how are we doing?

Our VLE's are doing OK!

They solve basic problems well

They are becoming more widely used

We need to help lecturers get off the bottom rung where they need to

Next Steps

• Keep running the student survey

• Complement with a staff survey

• Consider system derived metrics and

learning analytics type data

• Integrate with National Strategy regarding

student engagement

Longitudinal Studies never end...

New institutions welcome.

Contact any of the authors to get involved.Get involved anytime.

Plenty of work to go around!

Dissemination

Cosgrave, Robert ; McAvinia, Claire ;Risquez, Angelica ;Logan-Phelan, Theresa (2008): Uptake and usage of virtual learning environments: findings from a multi institutional student usage survey. Second Annual Conference of the National Academy for Integration of Research, Teaching and Learning. WIT, 14-15th November

Cosgrave, Robert ; McAvinia, Claire ;Risquez, Angelica ;Logan-Phelan, Theresa; Farelly, Tom; Harding, Nuala; Cooper, Rosemary; Vaughan, Noreen; Palmer, Marion (2009): Usage and uptake of virtual learning environments and technology assisted learning tools: Findings from a multi-institutional, multi year comparative study. EdTech 2009, May NCI

Cosgrave et al, (2011) Usage and uptake of Virtual Learning Environments and Technology Assisted Learning Tools: Findings from a multi-institutional, multi-year, comparative study , The All Ireland Journal of Teaching and Learning in Higher Education (AISHEJ) http://journals.sfu.ca/aishe/index.php/aishe-j/index

  Publication pending

EDIN publication (June 2013)Emerging Issues III – From Capacity Building to Sustainability