University blackboard - Essay Example

Blackboard Blackboard If we consider the traditional definition of blackboard, it says, "A blackboard is a rectangular shaped, smooth, surface hard, dark-colored panel for writing on with white colored chalk". Such type of boards are still used in classrooms the world-over. White board has replaced the blackboard, with the writing material now multicolored sketch pens instead of chalks. But now we are living in the IT era. Blackboard is now known as something of a community portal. In the university environment students use it to interact with each other or with the tutor. In the formative years of IT era this concept was brought up initially within a LAN environment and this type of sharing was known as Bulletin Board arrangement. Now the term 'blackboard' encompasses many more dimensions including the worldwide web. Now it can be defined as a web-based software system which is used to for face to face teaching/ learning or distance education programmes and supports flexible teaching and learning. The blackboard also provides tools and facilities for managing the courses online, for managing and sharing the contents, for some online collaboration and communication with peer academicians and of course the assessment management. In a nutshell Blackboard can be defined as a system that facilitates and manages electronic communication and access to materials or information. Tutors use a blackboard for supporting our learning. 2. Importance to Students Students are the saplings of a healthy society. They are to be groomed with an eye on future and in such a manner that they could become an active participant in carrying the society in the direction of progress and prosperity. IT is fast affecting all areas of life, education and research is no exception. Students of the day therefore make use of the latest tools of learning. An electronic blackboard is one such tool. The following points suitably underline the importance of University blackboard: i. Today the society is fast becoming an e-society, the governments are becoming e-governments etc. similarly e-learning has become important. Blackboards make it easier for the student community to approach the teacher. ii. Students become familiar with the terms like 'collaborative computing' which goes a long way in undertaking collaborative efforts for further studies and research. iii. Students don't miss out on the days' lectures even if they could not attend the days' lecture. They can access the lecture-bank later. iv. Students can write back their doubts and messages for professors and fellow students. v. The student community can share valuable learning resources like module outlines, lecture notes, assignment briefs etc. vi. Blackboard can very well become a broadcast media for all students in communicating general announcements, emails etc. vii. The student community can make good use of the chat rooms. viii. Students can undertake online 'private group work, create e-portfolios and take short-answer tests and surveys. 3. Blackboard and the Staff Role of support staff in this teaching learning process is very crucial. For example if we take out the paramedical staff from hospital services, the hospital is no longer able to work, though doctor is considered to be the man responsible for curing the patient. Similarly the support staff provides the backbone to the teaching-learning processes. i. The IT staff has be very prompt in its reflexes for the network to work properly ii. In fact in blackboard learning experiences the roles and responsibilities of other support staff becomes secondary. iii. Making extensive use of University blackboard will make it convenient for the university staff to handle the students. iv. There will be least face to face interactions with students. At times students become very demanding, creating unpleasant scene for the staff. v. Management task becomes comparatively hassle-free. vi. Role of the course coordinator becomes very important as he is responsible for planning and coordinating the delivery of the Course and for ensuring its appropriate assessment. vii. The course coordinator is also responsible for arranging of physical facilities or resources and for gathering inputs from other staff 4. Analysis of Blackboard PEST Analysis PEST analysis stands for "Political, Economic, Social, and Technological analysis". PEST analysis basically looks at the external environment and is used as an appropriate strategic tool for understanding the 'bigger picture' of the environment in which the university has to work. For the use of university blackboard these factors can be; Political: The legal and regulatory aspects also form a part of political factors. Use and/or misuse of university blackboard may invite the implementation of cyber law. For example student community may pass on some derogatory/ obscene remarks or messages on the blackboard. All these factors need to be taken consideration before implementing the blackboard plan. The student community happens to be a consumer in this arrangement. Therefore consumer protection act comes into force as well. Whether other universities in UK are having the facility and /or is it mandatory by the law of the land are also the political factors for consideration. Economic: University's budget for e-learning, its impact on the existing staff and faculty, kind of fees to be charged from students for usage of blackboard etc. are some of the economic factors to be considered before implementing the blackboard environment. Economic conditions are also influenced by political and government policy. Taxation, on the infrastructure required for setting up LAN/WAN etc., government's attitude towards such facility, exchange rates, tariffs, inflation, consumer confidence index, etc. are all such factors. Social: This includes demographics composition of students and faculty (like age, gender, race, social background, family size, etc.). Changes in the lifestyle, educational needs of the masses, cultural diversity, health and living standards, attitudes towards work, planned leisure activities and earning capacity are some of the social factors which go into determining the planning and successful implementation of any initiative in the university. What the society in general thinks about the blackboard type of interaction is very important factor to be considered. Weather some studies have been carried out in the past to ascertain the usability of blackboard culture, what had been its findings, whether any adverse reports and whether university is taking adequate precautions before staring up the blackboard learning are the factors which determine success or failure of such an implementation. Technological: Setting up of university blackboard obviously involves the technical aspect. Newer inventions in this field, researches going on, how much energy will this set up consume, will there be a back up communications channel, and the authentication methods and codes for logging on are some of the technical aspects for setting up a blackboard. SWOT Analysis SWOT analysis is a handy tool for auditing an organization or an initiative. Using SWOT factors we can relate the new initiative with its environment. It is the first stage of planning and helps in focusing on key issues. SWOT stands for Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats. Strength: Strength of university blackboard are; Collection of knowledge sources: i.e. blackboard has many brains logged onto the network simultaneously interacting with each other and sharing the knowledge/ data base. The New generation growing up with computer games and mobile phones finds an opportunity for taking this hobby much further. Provides online communication to a large number of students simultaneously, while a classroom can accommodate only a limited number of students. More and more homes are having net access. Weaknesses: Such an initiative has couple of weak points as well. The personal touch is missing in blackboard arrangements A breakdown in the network will affect all the students. Everything comes in black and white. Unlike classroom environment, online community remains largely unsatisfied as the classroom type of interaction is not present. Opportunities: Using university blackboard also provides plenty of scope as well; Blackboard can act as a joint venture between the online community, which in the long run may result in such online collaboration in carrying out researches and studies with other peer groups from within the country or from other countries. It can also make way for a collaborative effort between authors, writers etc. Regular IT usage may inculcate the urge in the students for looking ahead in future. We are living in the IT era and preparing students for this IT era will help them make responsible citizens. Threats: Threats emanating out of the excessive use of blackboard are; Private chat rooms/groups often become private rooms for love birds, relegating the 'studies' to the backseat. It gives rise to a tendency in students to miss out classes, to undermine the importance of teachers. Quite often teachers are taken for granted. The learning process becomes very vulnerable as anybody can hack and bring down the entire network and thence the entire learning process. 5. Advantages and Disadvantages Advantages: Blackboard modules are available indefinitely for use by the students/ module instructor(s). Generally this tenure is till the end of the session. Existing modules can be recycled/ resued to produce newer modules, without much effort, which can then be loaded on the blackboard. Any number of students can be taught the lessons, without having to worry about the classroom space. Disadvantages: Learning pricess becomes hostage to the speed of server. If the server is working properly, all is well, but the moment server slows down (could be any reason like more users logging on to the site, hackers mischief, etc.) everybody is dissatisfied. Any body can take my identity on the net and start working in his own way. No face to face interaction is there to avoid such scenes. Quite often language and grammar learning suffers on account of overuse of computers as we start using the slang too much and language learning takes a backseat as computer keeps correcting many mistakes on its own. 6. Recommendations: IT is a very user friendly, meaningful and helpful technology for the mankind, but at times it creates havoc; like the bombardment of viruses the world-over on the internet on more than one occasion. Therefore its use has to be very judicious and within limits. Read More