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Blackboard Student Survey Executive Summary

Background

The Center for Teaching & Learning’s Courseware Faculty Advisory Board (CFAB) was interested in obtaining feedback from students about how Blackboard is being used to support learning at the University of Denver. With support from the Office of Institutional Research & Assessment, a Blackboard Student Survey was designed.

Methodology

The survey was distributed in January 2006 via an email announcement which included a link to the online survey. The email was sent to 7,947 DU students who had at least one instructor using Blackboard in courses during Fall 2005 or Winter 2006 terms. Students were offered an opportunity to enter their name in a drawing for a $100 gift certificate from the DU Bookstore as an incentive for completing the survey.

Note: Travis Hendricks was the winner of the $100 gift certificate from the DU Bookstore.

Results

Over 1800 students completed the online survey. The executive summary provides a brief summary of the findings. Refer to the end of the summary for links to the quantitative findings, the final survey report and other related files.

Satisfaction with Blackboard

Overall, students at DU reported satisfaction with Blackboard. The vast majority of students (98%) found Blackboard very easy or easy to use. Less then 3% of the students reported that Blackboard was difficult or very difficult to use. Approximately 90% of students rated their overall experience with Blackboard as excellent or good. Less then 2% of students who responded to the survey rated their experience with Blackboard as poor.

The top two reasons students reported that they like Blackboard because it provides 24/7access to course materials and improved communication with instructors.

A small percentage of students, (3.5%), reported that they do not like Blackboard.
Below are some of the reasons students don’t like Blackboard:

Can’t find things in Blackboard
It is always down
It is very rarely kept up-to-date
Waste of time
I don’t like to spend time online
It is unorganized and confusing

Approximately 51% of students who completed the survey reported that 75% or more of their courses use Blackboard each term. Forty-six percent reported that 50% or less of their courses use Blackboard each term. Most students (82%) reported that they prefer courses that use Blackboard or other web-based tools to courses that do not provide online components. Approximately 10% of students do not prefer courses that used Blackboard or other web-based tools. Responses were divided equally in response to the question about whether they would be concerned if DU switched to another course management system.

What are some benefits of courses that use Blackboard?

Many of the themes gleaned from the responses to the benefits of Blackboard were similar to the reasons students said they like Blackboard. Students reported that the number one benefit is that Blackboard provides easy access to course materials. This was also the number one response to why students said they liked Blackboard. The major benefits were:

24/7 and ease of access to course materials
Better communication
Access to grades
Improves class discussions
Clarify and view assignments

What are the some drawbacks of courses that use Blackboard?

We wanted to learn what some of the faults and limitations of Blackboard are from the student perspective. Many of the drawbacks identified by the students were related to how instructors use Blackboard. Several students suggested that Blackboard should be mandated and that all instructors should be required to use Blackboard. The major drawbacks are listed below:

Professors don’t know how to use it or use it ineffectively or professor lack of knowledge
Not all professors use it
Inconsistent use of Blackboard by instructors
Not used to its potential
Instructors rely on it too much
Students must continually check Bb/easy to miss things
Problems with Technology/Access Issues
Requires Internet Access
Have to print everything yourself/Prefer hard copies

Nominated Blackboard Instructors

Students nominated 266 unique instructors whose use of Blackboard enhanced their learning. Many instructors received multiple nominations. Forty-four instructors were nominated by at least 5 students and 26 of those instructors were nominated by 10 or more students. Below are selected quotes from students about specific ways instructors they nominated use Blackboard to improve learning.

“She had class notes posted with missing information so that when she lectured you weren't scrambling to write everything down, but only fill in the details.”

“…Most grades that we receive are listed on Blackboard, it's helpful because you know where you stand in the class and what your grade will look like.”

“We engaged in constant online discussion and quizzes were given online. The discussions in particular were effective.”

Conclusions

The majority of students who responded to the survey were positive about the Blackboard course management system. Students provided excellent feedback about how Blackboard is used at DU and provided thoughtful suggestions about ways it may be improved. The survey results will assist us in the development of strategies for improving faculty and student use of Blackboard. The Faculty Courseware Advisory Board is sharing the findings of the survey with instructors, students, administrators, and technical staff at DU. The board will continue to leverage the survey results to improve the overall functionality of Blackboard and to promote best practices for using Blackboard to enhance student learning.