Using Learning Management Systems - Research Paper Example

3.6.2 Interview The interview involved asking the research participants a number of questions based on the following five broad areas: 1. The participants’ experience in teaching at the university level and at their current university 2. The participants experiences in regard to using learning management systems 3. What the participants think about the use of LMS in higher education 4. Factors that help the participants to use LMS, and 5. Factors that limit the participants’ use of LMS The full interview schedule is provided in the appendix. Each of the five question areas is described below. By asking the question regarding the participants’ experience in teaching at the university level and at their current university, the researcher sought to get data on two things. First is the how long the participants in the research had been teaching at the university level. This question as stated as “How long have you been teaching at the university level?” Secondly, the researcher sought to know how long the each participant had been teaching at their current university. This question was stated as “How long have been teasing in this institution?” The aim of asking the two questions was to determine the participants’ experience as members of faculty at various universities that they had taught at before and at the current university in particular. The responses given would also be compared with responses to question 4 of the questionnaire survey used in the same study. This question sought to collect data about the participants’ teaching experience in terms of number of years. As noted in the literature review section, it was noted that women in Saudi Arabia are pursuing higher education so as to take up professional careers, teaching at the university included (Ministry of Higher Education, 2010). Responses to the aforementioned questions would therefore help the researcher to determine the duration that the participants had been teaching in higher education institutions given that they are all female. The second question that touched on the participants’ experiences in regard to using learning management systems sought to gather information on usage of learning management systems in general and Blackboard in particular. Notably, the review of literature found that elearning is still in its infancy stage in Saudi Arabia and that elearning is used to support the traditional classroom method of delivering instructions (Al Alhareth, 2013).Therefore, the interview responses to this question would give an account of the extent to which LMS is being used in universities in Saudi Arabia, the LMS technologies being used, the challenges members of faculty face, and how the universities help their members of faculty to use these technologies. The questions were framed as follows: What systems are you familiar with? What do you use them for? Do you use Blackboard? If so why? How? (Can you provide me with an example?) What challenges do you face using a learning management system? How does the university help you? The third question was used because the researcher sought to know what the participants think about the use of LMS in higher education. In the literature review, it was noted that lecturers play a pivotal role in the use of technology in teaching since it is them (member of faculty) who use the technology to interact with students (Copeland, 2001). As well, internal factors such as people’s beliefs and attitudes towards a technology affect how the people interact with that technology (Asiri et al., 2012). This means that in the context of the current research, what the participants think about the use of LMS would affect their attitude towards Blackboard or any other elearning technology that they are familiar with. The question in the interview schedule was thus stated as “What do you think about using a LMS in higher education?”. The answers given to this question would be compared with question 16 in section 4 of the questionnaire survey in which participants were asked to respond to statements about their attitudes and opinions regarding Blackboard. Through the fourth question, the researcher sought to determine factors that help the participants to use LMS. In the literature review, some of the factors that were found to be promoting the use of LMS include distance learning, the fact that LMS empowers students to pursue their own enquiries, and the point that LMS broadens the scope of resources that students and lecturers can use (Culp et al., 2003). Other reasons are the flexibility associated with using LMS compared to the traditional classroom way of teaching and the notion that LMS use increases student engagement and achievement (Bernard et al., 2009). Therefore, by including the question about factors that help participants to use LMS, the researcher sought to understand the various factors involved including personal factors, accessibility of technology, student attitudes, gender issues, incentives provided by universities, staff support, cultural factors and training. The findings relating to this interview question would be compared with responses to the questionnaire survey question (section 3, question 15) that sought to find out the factors that encourage participation in using Blackboard. The fifth interview question was aimed at determining factors that limit the participants’ use of LMS. The barriers to LMS use as identified in the literature review can be grouped into four broad groups: institutional issues, technology issues, academic-related issues and student-related issues. These factors can also be classified as instructors' characteristics, organizational (institutional) factors and the technology itself (Al-Busaidi & Al-Shihi, 2010). As well, there could be other factors that are not captured in these groups. Therefore, there researcher sought to understand the factors that limited the use of LMS by asking the interviews what they thought about issues such as personal factors, technology access issues, student attitudes, gender-related issues, cultural factors (given that some universities are for female students only), staff-related issues, training, and university incentives. The interviewees’ responses to these questions would be compared with the responses given to a related question in the questionnaire survey (section 2, question 14). In particular, this question sought to find out the barriers or factors that inhibit the use of Blackboard by the participants in the research. ______________________________ 3.7.2 Interview Data Analysis of the interview data was done by reading and re-reading the results (responses) and establishing themes linked to the TAM themes. This was done by closely following the processes suggested by Corbin and Strauss (2008) and Creswell (2009). This included organising the data for analysis through transcription from audio to written, which was then translated from Arabic to English. Through this process, the researcher familiarized himself with the materials and then coded the data in accordance with the TAM model. The data coding process involved sorting the data into categories based on the themes that emerged from the data. The codes were then categorised into a table and interpretation of the overall meaning of the data was done. Every attempt was made to be faithful to the participants’ true voices during the interpretation of the data, for example, by identifying and using quotations directly. The coding was done as follows: Question 1: Data for each participant’s teaching experience was recorded in terms of how they had been teaching at the university level and at their current university. As noted by Venkatesh et al. (2003), one’s experience in doing a given task determines their intention and usage behaviour toward a technology. This question will examine if this finding is similar in this study and findings would also be compared with responses to question 4 of the questionnaire survey used in the same study, which asked the participants to state their teaching experience in terms of number of years that they have been teaching. Question 2: Data was tabulated based on the following themes: The kinds of LMS that the participants are familiar with The different uses of the LMS Whether the participants use Blackboard, and if yes, how they use the LMS (e.g. giving assignments, giving notes, assessment, supervising group discussions, etc) Challenges faced by the participants in their use of LMS (e.g. limited access, slow response, network failure etc). The kind of assistance offered by the university to use LMS. Question 3: The researcher identified the following themes in regard to what the participants think about using LMS in higher education: LMS use is useful, easy to use and effective LMS is useful but not easy to use LMS is easy to use but is not useful for my course LMS is neither useful nor easy to use and therefore not effective Neutral (no positive or negative thought or views in regard to the use of a learning management system) Question 4: Enablers to the use of LMS The data pertaining to this question will be tabulated in as follows Academic issues that encourage the use of LMS Institutional factors Student-related issues Cultural issues Gender-related issues Other issues The tabulated responses will be compared with the responses to a related question in the web-based survey q (section 3, question 15) that sought to find out the factors that promote faculty members’ participation in using Blackboard to teach. Question 5: Barriers to the use of LMS The data pertaining to this question will be tabulated in as follows Academic issues that encourage the use of LMS Institutional factors Student-related issues Cultural issues Gender-related issues Other issues The various responses in this section would be compared with the responses given to a related question in the questionnaire survey (section 2, question 14), which sought to find out the barriers or factors that hinder the use of Blackboard by the participants in the research. The interview data was then merged with the survey based questions to enable a “side-by-side comparison” (Creswell & Plano-Clark, 2011, p. 223) of the two data sets (qualitative data and quantitative data). Direct quotations from interviewees (as well as the open-ended questions) were added to the statistical results from the questionnaire as a means of comparing and contrasting in the findings (Chapter Four). Read More