Issues in Adopting the Use of Blackboards in Saudi Arabia - Assignment Example

This is reinforced by the quantitative statements where 24 participants (29.6%) identified they use LMS as it improves their teaching practices. At the same time Blackboard was perceive to enable better student participation, which improves teaching. As noted by one of the participants, Blackboard enables “The active participation of students to enrich lectures with resources and articles at any time not only during the class”. --- helps in organizing the various aspects of the course by allowing me to post instructions on the conduction of the activities, and allowing online submission of requirements and establishing deadlines. Makes conducting of quizzes and exams easier, faster, and more organized. Helps in providing new and easy application evaluation strategies. The student and the teacher becomes aware of the level of progress or academic failure and therefore follow-up and propose solutions. Helps in conduction of standardized exercises. Allows item analysis of MCQ questions, enabling me to easily and quickly identify students who require extra training in certain topics. To start with it was noted that the use of Blackboard leads to an improved speed of delivering instruction. Some of the responses were that Blackboard facilitates “speed” (meaning that Blackboard enables faster delivery of teaching instruction). As shown in the following responses: Blackboard facilitates “Rapid and official communication with students…”. Participants also pointed out ease of use. Responses pertaining to ease of use of Blackboard included: “Ease of use to save time and effort and the accuracy of the collection of student work and achievement”, "Easy to work and interact with students”, and “Ease of sending e-mails, download some threads lectures instead of hard copies and circulated among students”. Another point relates to better use of academics time. One participant noted that Blackboard enables “Ease of use to save time and effort and the accuracy of the collection of student work and achievement”. The LMS Blackboard facilitates “Saving time and effort”, and it is “Fast and easy and available for students”. The participants also identified better communication with students. It was noted by one participant in the research that Blackboard enables “Easy communication with the students”, “Saves a lot of time – allows the student contact at any time”, “emails automatically [to students] allows them to communicate easily". Ability to make announcements to students was also highlighted, as a participant in the research noted that Blackboard “facilitate communication with the students”. One participant also suggested that Blackboard “Support(s) interaction between the students and the professor”. The participants also indicated the usefulness of Blackboard in relation to their teaching activities. To begin with, the ability to keep records of learning progress was also noted as one of the reasons why the participants use Blackboard. For instance, it was noted that Blackboard “..keeps record of all teaching activities, texts, announcements, and updates. It helps keep everyone accountable, students and instructors alike”. Another participant noted that LMS “helps in organizing the various aspects of the course (by allowing me to post instructions on the conduction of the activities, and allowing online submission of requirements and establishing deadlines)”. Ease of collating learning materials for students was also highlighted. A participant in the research suggested that one of the benefits of Blackboard is “The ability to download heavy files that I can not lift my site”. Another response was that Blackboard “...keeps record of all teaching activities, texts, announcements, and updates”. The participants also noted that Blackboard is useful because it makes it easier to plan teaching lessons. One of the participants in the research was of the view that Blackboard enables “planning from the beginning of the academic year…”. Participants also identified ease of organising class materials, administration and learning. For example, a participant in the research pointed out that Blackboard facilitates “announcement of grades in the future (to prepare online tests and lectures).” As noted by TAM, perceived ease of using LMS can be enhanced by understanding and learning via training. Indeed, this was reinforced by table # ( Blackboard technologies in which the participants have been trained) which showed that participants that had had training were more likely to use LMS (75.1%) than those how hadn’t (24.7%) (see Section 4.2.11) Poor or lack of access to technology to technology was also mentioned as a factor that hinders the use of Blackboard in teaching. For instance, one participant noted that Blackboard is “not activated yet in my department” meaning that her department has yet to be connected to the Blackboard system. Another participant identified “lack of sufficient labs to prepare students” as factor hindering access to the system by students. -- This is corroborated by some of the participants who pointed out lack of knowledge in using some technical aspects of Blackboard as the reason why they do not use the LMS. For instance, one participant noted that “the program is complex and does not constitute any enthusiasm me to work on it”, As well, another participant in the research noted that “academic staff, unfortunately, at the University not be able to use Blackboard for lack of banner which links the names of students and courses with Blackboard”. Concerning difficulties with regard to the use of Blackboard, several issues were highlighted including lack of family support, lack of training, unwillingness to use Blackboard, lack of student interaction with lecturers, preference for the traditional classroom learning, and lack of adequate facilities and skills among students. For instance, one participant noted that “students still find it hard to log in and participate due to technical difficulties”. Lack of student interaction with lecturers as caused by the use Blackboard, and preference for the traditional classroom learning, can be linked to two findings from the previous section. One is that there are situations in which face-to-face interaction is preferred in the course of teaching or learning. Another is that there are situations in which the course that students are undertaking is more suited to the use of the traditional classroom method of teaching. Some of the suggestions are derived below. One area that most of the participants touched on is education and of training members of faculty on how to use Blackboard. Twenty-six out 36 mentioned education or training. Some of the responses included: “provide training courses”, “providing courses on how to use it regularly” and “training and educational design skills that are consistent with the objectives of policy”. What this means is that training or educating faulty members on how to use Blackboard would increase the uptake of the system by faculty members. Another issue is institutional support for academic staff. One participant noted the need to “encourage member faculty to use Blackboard” while another pointed out that “financial incentives” would increase the use of Blackboard. It was also noted that allowing students more time to practise using the system would help increase the use of Blackboard. This is reflected in responses such as “educate the students of the importance of Blackboard and explain it to them. Encourage faculty members to use Blackboard and incentives for those who commit it.” A number of suggestions centred on improving technological infrastructure. This was noted through the participants’ responses such as “quick technical support”. In particular, it was noted that there is need that technical support be provided to participants. The responses are emphasised by the statements that were provided by the participants, such as “develop a system Blackboard in line with the user requirements”, “provide technical support permanently”, “provide technicians in each college to respond to inquiries”, “provide equipped with online labs for students”, and “provide infrastructure, laboratories equipped”. The reasons given by the participants as to why they can use Blackboard more are as follows. First is that the system enables them to communicate and interact with students at any time. In particular one participant noted that she can use Blackboard if enables her to “communicate with students” while another indicate that she can use the systems if it enables her to “communicate with students at any time”. This can be related to the point that was noted in the literature review (section 2.3) that learning systems provide “a communication, interaction, and collaboration tool” (Sangrà et al., 2012, para. 7). Along the same line, another participant noted that she would use Blackboard if the system enables easy “interaction with students”. Some participants also noted that having courses that require the use of distance education is a factor that promotes the use of Blackboard. This is clear from the view that Blackboard would be appropriate “when there is a distance education or training programs or distance courses” as noted by one participant. In deed, in the literature review (section 2.3.4.2), it was noted that the ability to offer distance education s one of the reasons why LMSs are used in education (Culp et al., 2003). Another factor that would promote the use of Blackboard is usefulness of the system. This is in terms of the system being able to improve teaching. For instance, one female academic indicated that she would use Blackboard if the system “facilitates the teaching process”. Yet another participant noted that Blackboard being able to “reduce the teaching load” is a factor that would make her use the system. The two points can be linked to the notion in section (2.3) of the literature review that elearning involves the use of the “Internet to improve the quality of learning by facilitating access to resources and services...” (Idiegbeyan-Ose & Esse, 2014, p. 47). This can be linked to the fact that in the literature review (section 2.3.3.3), it was noted that students play an important in the adoption of elearning systems since they are the major recipients of the instruction that is disseminated through such systems. In the same section, it was noted that students, particularly young students, “find it difficult to engage with the traditional teaching method...” (Yamani, 2014, p. 171). This means that perceiving elearning as a better way of learning compared to the traditional teaching is critical for students’ acceptance of Blackboard. Student acceptance of Blackboard is therefore and important factor that can assist in the use of the system among students and lecturers. The second issue of ability of students to interact with the system. One of the research participants noted that there is need for “sufficient knowledge for students to know how to use it” (Blackboard). As well, another participant indicated that “students having knowledge in using it (Blackboard)". What this implies is that when universities in Saudi Arabia adopt the use of Blackboard, then more students will be motivated to use the system. In turn, more academic staff members will be encouraged to use Blackboard since more students will have embraced the use of the system. Read More