Course Structures in Blackboard

Blackboard Groningen 2016

Aarhus

• Aarhus University (50.000 students, instructors & staff)

• The second largest town in Denmark

• Danes are the happiest people in the world (or the least unhappiest)

• Come and see us in 2017 - our year as European Capital of Culture

Aarhus University

Faculty of Arts(approx. 14.000 students and 800 instructors)

CUDiM / TDM(Center of Teaching Development and Digital Media)

Karen Louise Møller

Teaching developer

Core projectsImplementation of

BlackboardTeacher training

klmoeller@tdm.au.dk

Birthe Aagesen

Project Lead Artsand teaching developer

Core projectsImplementation of

BlackboardTeacher training

baagesen@tdm.au.dk

Let’s go a bit back

Arts course structureDeveloped autumn 2013 by student and instructors from Faculty of Arts

Tested spring 2014

Presented in our teaching training materials (keycards)

Teacher training material

Blackboard Course Structures

Menu Templates

23 + 9

Why look at the Course Structures in Blackboard?

• Curiosity: What’s in the box of Course Structures and can we use it?

• Strategy for Educational It, Faculty of Arts, Aarhus University– Challenge: Low use of interaction tools in Blackboard (2015)

Educational It Strategy Arts, Aarhus University

The vision for Educational It: Relations between students, teachers and academic content must be supported, so that the best conditions are given for:

• The teachers' planning, implementation and evaluation of teaching

• The students opportunities to work with and learn what is required

• Interaction between students and between students and teachers

What to do? PART ONETAKING A CLOSER LOOK AT THE BLACKBOARD COURSE STRUCTURES(What’s in the box?)

PART TWOTESTING THE COURSE STRUCTURES IN UNIVERSITY TEACHING(Do they provide clarity and structure and do they deliver possibilities for collaboration?)

Clarity and structureResearch shows that clarity and structure is an important element in teaching (Meyer 2008)So…We want the students to experience• Overview• Ability to find materials and information

• That the titles of the menu-items covers what they head to

Socio Cultural Learning

Learning is social and mediated by culturally created tools such as language or other more specific tools (Jones and Dirckinck Holmfeld, 2009)

“Research has shown that student interaction can indeed increase group performance and individual learning outcomes”(Papadopoulus 2013 referencing several researchers, p. 383)

WE WANT THE STUDENTS TO COLLABORATE

Part One

Analysing 23Blackboard Course

Structures

Findings Part One5 of 23 course structures contains blog,discussionboard and wiki

x

Social Learning Web 2.0

Part Two

Course structures inUniversity Teaching

Course structures in University Teaching

Method• Survey (9 questions) • Observation - We counted the number of:–Blog Posts + Comments–Discussion Board posts + Replys–Wiki Posts + Comments–Teacher organized activitivies involving the use of blog, discussion Board or Wiki in the course

Survey Questions focused on the students’ experiences of clarity and structure

Survey Questions focused on the students’ experiences of collaboration opportunities

The scale (Likert)

Findings part two(Clarity and structure)

Survey Response Rate: 44% (59 students)

Course OverviewQuestion 1: To what extend did the course structure provide an overview of the content in the Course?

%

Menu ItemsQuestion 3: To what extend does titles of the menu items cover for the information, materials or features they lead to?

%

Finding information and materials

Question 5: To what extend have you been able to find the information or materials, that you needed in the course?

%

Conclusion Part TwoA majority of the students:• Experienced overview of the course content

• Were able to find materials and information

• Experienced the Menu Titels adequate for the information, materials and features they headed toThe students experienced Clarity and

Structure in the courses with the course structures: ”Web 2.0” and ”Social learning”

Findings part two(Collaboration)

Survey Response Rate: 44% (59 students)

How many posts per. student?

Observation Data

Observation data

How much collaboration?Question 7: To what extend have you had the opportunity to collaborate with others (for example ask questions, answer questions, share, deliver) by the options in the course?

%

Why collaboration in two courses?

No. of posts per student

No. of teacherorganizedCollaborationactivities

Assistant Prof., Teachertraining Course

China Studies

EntrepreneurshipStudent, Teacher training Course

Conclusion

A majority of the students in two of the courses* experienced opportunities to collaborate with others

*: Teacher training course for Assistant professors and China Studies

Collaboration happens in the two courses where theteacher organize activities involving the use of blogs,discussion boards or wikis

Recommendations

Using these two* Course Structures will not automatically result in more collaboration among the students, but they are able to provide clarity and structure

Therefore……provide the teachers with:• Good examples of activities with blogs, discussion

boards and wikis• Teacher training courses with focus on student

collaboration in Blog, Discussion board and Wiki in Blackboard

*: Web 2.0 and Social learning Course Structures

Comments from the students/participants

”The Discussionboards and Wikis has brought many exchanges of good ideas”(Assistant prof., Teacher training Course)

“It has worked fine”(Assistant prof., Teacher training Course)

“It is not possible to create an overview in Blackboard. That's just how it is and you just have to accept it”(Teacher training course for students)

“It seems like there are so many categories and relatively little content to distribute. Most often it becomes a safari hunt to find the right file” (Teacher training course for students)

Our findings and research on CSCL (Computer supported collaborative learning)

“Collaborating students often fail to engagein fruitful interactions when left without instructional support” (Papadopoulus 2013 , p. 383)

But…..

”Scripted collaborative learning has reportedly resulted in improved learning outcomes” (Papadopoulus 2013 referencing several researchers, p. 384)

Script

A script contains information about:Why participate in the activity ?(learning objectives )What activities must take place ?Where and when do they take place?Specific roles for students?

Example of an activityObjectiveTo investigate the usefulness of Discussion Boards in your own classesActivity1. Read the guide “ Discussion forums in university teaching“2. Watch the video " Rasmus B. Møller : Use of Discussion Boards in University Teaching ”3. Describe how to use discussion board in your own teaching in the discussion board "Discussion Boards in education ”. You can find the board under "Discussion board, questions and answers ." ( 200-500 words) (deadline)4. Comment to one of the other participants in the course. Focus on possible improvements. (deadline)

Questions?

Do you have experiences with Blackboard Course Structures?

How do you train teachers in using blackboard interaction tools?

Literature• Jones, C & Dirckinck Holmfeld, L. (2009), Analysing

networked learner practices : An introduction I: Dirckin-Holmfeld, L., Jones, C & Lindström, B (eds). Analysing Networked Practices in Higher Education and Continuing Professional Development. s. 6 - 34. Sense Publishers

• Meyer, H., 2008. Hvad er god undervisning? København: Gyldendal.

• Papadopoulos PM, Demetriadis SN, Weinberger A. 'Make it explicit!': Improving collaboration through increase of script coercion. J Comput Assisted Learn 2013 08;29(4):383-398.