Blackboard System Appraisal - Case Study Example

BlackBoard A System Appraisal By: For: Service Background The of Westminster in the United Kingdom takes pride in its tradition of providing quality education to those who are seeking professional and academic success. Due to its tradition of excellence, it has registered more than 23,000 students in one academic year. More than 4,000 of this student population are comprised of international students from 160 overseas nations (www.wmin.ac.uk, "about" page). To ensure that the students can maximize their learning experience and to facilitate the exchange of information from such a diverse population, the university has established a virtual learning environment called the "Blackboard". The blackboard enables student to effectively manage their studies by providing access to course modules and valuable tutorials. It also allows students to exchange information with their lecturer, classmates and tutors. As of every other service, there is a need to evaluate the effectiveness of the Blackboard in helping the students to achieve excellence in their field of study and also its market appeal. To do this, the SWOT - Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats- strategic tool learned in the Business and Management Systems lecture will be used in evaluating the level of service the Blackboard can offer. STRENGTHS The primary strength of the service is the inclusion of the feature Personal Tutorial (PT) and Personal Development Planning (PDP). The feature enables students to communicate with their tutor and clarify matters on a certain topic. It also permits Contents of Course Modules to be uploaded in their 'native format'(meaning the format of the course content can be uploaded as it is whether it is a Word document, Excel Spreadsheet or even a movie file). This feature enables students to fully appreciate the lectures that they were given. The idea is that the student can remember the discussion on a certain topic when the format used in their lecture is used for their private study. This feature is also quite powerful in terms of appeal to users because the student can now seek help, advice and notes from well-versed tutors anytime they want whether they are at home or in their native countries - this may arise due to some unforeseen events necessitating the need to travel. It must also be remembered that learning gaps is surely to occur due to communication problems between the lecturer and international students who are not yet adept in using the English language. With the use of the PT and PDP, the students can clarify some points, in which communication problem occurred, with the tutor and other students. The Blackboard is also remarkable due to its Content Collection because it enables students to see announcements made involving their subjects. All announcements for all Blackboard sites the student belongs to are aggregately posted. This eliminates the need to browse through all the subjects to check for announcements. Other virtual learning environments do not provide this feature. Besides the announcement feature, the Content Collection section enables past exam papers and grades to be viewed for review in the future. These facilities are definitely plus factors in terms of attractiveness of the service because it enables the student to have an easily accessible future reference source. Another noteworthy feature is the Assignment facility which enables students to pass assignments in electronic data form. This enables the students to pass assignments even if they are in faraway places. Another plus of the service is that the username and password format are very easy to remember (username format uses the student registration's number preceded with a W and the last number deleted, password format uses the student's registered birth date as a default password). The provision for storage of accomplished works by the Portfolio feature also adds to the market appeal of the service. This added feature, non-existent in virtual learning environment of other universities, makes the student prefer the Blackboard rather than asking the school to adapt the virtual service of other universities. The provision for alternative opening of files is also noteworthy. Files which cannot be directly opened can be saved in the computer of the user and be opened there. Although there is still a possibility that the files will not still open in the computer of the user, the service at least provides an alternative way. Service-oriented products are generally preferred when it has alternative provisions for problematic situations. Weaknesses The service's weakness lies in its security feature. As mentioned earlier, the username and default password are very easy to remember but they are also very easy to acquire by other individuals. A person may access another person's file by just acquiring the person's registration number and birth date - information which are very easy to acquire. Tampering of settings, viewing of grades, erasing of portfolio files and other mischievous acts can be easily undertaken by other individuals. Services, to be more appealing, must provide not only remarkable features but must also have a high degree of security. The user must also be given the choice whether they want to have passwords for accessing record of grades, previous exams and portfolio files must be installed. These files are generally confidential. The user may therefore be given an extra sense of security from blackmail resulting from access of other individuals. Opportunities Due to advances in data storage technology, the service can be upgraded such that it can handle and store even larger amounts of data thereby empowering the students to store and download files that are quite large. Being online in nature, the service has the opportunity to be more appealing to users due to the development of Wi-Fi (Wireless Fidelity) technology. Wi-Fi technology allows a person with a Wi-Fi enabled computer to connect to the Internet when within an access point. This technology eliminates the need to have a wired connection to the internet. The region covered by the access points is called a hotspot. The range of hotspots can vary from a single room to a larger area in terms of square miles (wifi.org, "how and why of wi-fi" page). This technology can enable the student to update themselves even if they are doing fieldwork for their studies. They can even access lecture notes while in class or review outdoors because they no longer need to have a wired connection to the internet. With the availability of WiFi technology, the service will be more appealing since it allows the students unrestricted update for their course. Another source of development which can make it more appealing and effective is the development of security features such as color identification password in which one is to choose his "color password" besides entering username and birth date password. Threats It is quite unfortunate that computer viruses intrusion to a computer system is proliferate nowadays. The service being online in nature can be affected by this. The user may be dissuaded from using the system because of his fear that the files may be corrupted. Also, the ease to which a person's site can be accessed leads to high security concerns. It is hard to persuade the customer to use the service because the person knows that other individuals can easily access his site and can therefore easily tamper with his files. Compounding the problem is the increasing ingenuity of individuals in hacking computer systems and services. Due to the lax security the service provides, it is very prone to intrusion. The concern here is that the files that the student stores in his portfolio can be acquired by others while past exam and grades records can be seen and may serve as a blackmail or cash-generating tool by unscrupulous individuals. These concerns must be addressed or else the student may not opt to use the service. Conclusion The service has many remarkable features that make it very appealing to users. With the PT, PDP and Content Collection features, the service answers the need of students for fast access to files, unlimited communication with peers and tutors and viewing of schedule of activities and important updates. These features makes it attractive to students. The main concern that needs to be addressed is its security feature. The use of a more complicated access format must be properly looked into. To what degree can we trade ease of remembering passwords to increased security features must also be taken into consideration. The fast-paced development of new technologies, such as Wi-Fi and security solutions can also provides opportunities for the system to be more effective and ultimately more appealing to the students. However, to what degree can these technologies can be incorporated to the Blackboard must also be looked into. That is, there is a need to assess the technological flexibility of the Blackboard With all the features the service contains and all the concerns addressed, the Blackboard can be quite a marketable virtual learning environment service. References: 1. Business Systems Management and Evaluation Power Point lectures 2. University of Westminster. (2006). About University of Westminster. Retrieved October 21, 2006 from http://www.wmin.ac.uk/page-43 3. Wi-fi.org. (2006). The How and Why of WiFi. Retrieved October 21, 2006 from http://www.wi-fi.org/OpenSection/why_Wi-Fi.aspTID=2 Read More