Barriers to Using Learning Management System - Research Paper Example

4.5.1 Demographic Information Table #: Interviewee demographic information Code Interviewee 1 (I-1) Interviewee 2 (I-2) Interviewee 3 (I-3) Interviewee 4 (I-4) Interviewee 5 (I-5) Interviewee 6 (I-6) Age 26-30 26-30 31-35 46-50 31-35 31-35 Department College of Science Deanships and Institutes Deanships and Institutes College of Science College of Science Deanships and Institutes Length of teaching experiences 2 years 4 years 5 years 17 years 5 years One year Degree Master Bachelor Master PhD Master Master Faculty position Lecturer Teaching assistant Lecturer Assistant Professor Lecturer Lecturer Nationality Saudi Saudi Saudi Non-Saudi Saudi Saudi System Experience 2 years (always) No No 2 years (always) One year (always) No The first few questions of the interview focused on the demographic data as this may influence the update of LMS.Table # provides an outline of the participants’ demographic information and the results from this data is discussed in more detail. 4.5.1.1 Participant’s ages: Table #: Interviewee's ages Age Range Number Percentage Had Blackboard experience Never had Blackboard experience 26-30 2 (I-1) (I-2) 33.3% 1 (I-1) 1 (I-2) 31-35 3 (I-3) (I-5) (I-6) 50% 1 (I-5) 2 (I-3) (I-6) 46-50 1 (I-4) 16.6% 1 (I-4) 0 Three interviewees (50%) were in their mid thirties. Two of the interviewees (I-3) and (I-6)had Blackboard experiences. There were two of six participants in group of age 26-30(I-1) had Blackboard experience and (I-2) did not have any experiences in using Blackboard. The findings from both the survey (see Table 13) and the interview on the ages of the participants were similar. In the survey, the results implied that the older participants preferred the use of the Blackboard system when compared to the younger aged participants, for example, in Table 14 in the survey, 33.3 % of the participant aged above 55 years used the blackboard system in most of their subjects. The younger participants however used them in very few of the subjects. This differed from the interview results, however, it is only one participant. 4.5.1.2 Participant’s colleges: Table #: Participant's colleges Colleges Number Percentage No use of blackboard in courses Use of blackboard in courses College of Science 3 (I-1) (I-4) (I-5) 50% 0 3 (I-1) (I-4) (I-5) Deanships and Institutes 3 (I-2) (I-3) (I-6) 50% 3 (I-2) (I-3) (I-6) 0 Interviewees were equally based in both the College of Science and the Deanships and Institutes at 50% each relating to three participants each in the two departments. All the interviewees (I-1, I-4and I-5)who used Blackboard worked in College of Science. In the survey the majority of survey participants were from the humanities field and this differed from those of the interview were they were from two fields. Given that the interviewees were only from two colleges, the researcher got limited information on the use of Blackboard across a variety of disciplines in the university sector in KSA. 4.5.1.3 Participants teaching experiences The question on the length of teaching experience had varied answers and they are explained as follows. Table #: Length of teaching experiences Years of experiences Number Percentage Had Blackboard experience No had Blackboard experience Less than 2 years 1 (I-6) 16.7% 0 1 (I-6) 2-5 years 4 (I-1) (I-2) (I-3) (I-5) 66.7% 2 (I-1) (I-5) 2 (I-2) (I-3) More than 5 years 1 (I-4) 16.7% 1 (I-4) 0 The interview findings showed that 66.7% of the respondents had 2 to 5 years teaching experience (four out of the six interviewees).This range of teaching experience also had the highest number of those with blackboard experience. When compared to the survey (Table 8), the majority of the respondents had teaching experience of 1-5 years, which aligns with this finding. The survey further compared teaching experience in relation to the different levels of the learning management systems use (see Table 9). The results show that those with a substantial experience of the Blackboard had teaching experience of between 11 to 15 years. In contrast with the interview most of those with Blackboard experience had 2 to 5 years of teaching experience. 4.5.1.4 Education Level (Participants’ highest academic degree) The greater number of interviewees had acquired a Master’s education at 66.7%, followed by one participant (I-2) who had bachelor’s degree and one with a PhD degree (I-4). There appears to be a slight trend with the higher the level of education level the more likely the interviewee has had experience in using Blackboard. Table #: Participants' highest academic degree Educational Level Number Percentage Had Blackboard experience Never had Blackboard experience Bachelor 1 (I-2) 16.7% 0 1 (I-2) Master 4 (I-1) (I-3) (I-5) (I-6) 66.7% 2 (I-1) (I-5) 2 (I-3) (I-6) Doctorate (PhD) 1 (I-4) 16.7% 1 (I-4) 0 4.5.1.5 Participants Nationality The nationality of the interviewees was mostly of Saudi origin with one participant being non-Saudi. This result was similar to that of the survey where 91.6% of the respondents were also of Saudi origin.(I-2), (I-3) and (I-6) who were Saudi never had Blackboard experience while the other two Saudi (I-1)and (I-5) had Blackboard experience. The non-Saudi interviewee (I-1)had a Blackboard experiences. 4.5.2 Actual System Use The interview sought out to investigate the knowledge and use of the learning management system. Based on the responses from the participants, most of them were positively aware of the system. There was one interviewee who worked for the deanship and institutes and had only one year of teaching experiences (I-6) who did not have any knowledge of the system commented: “During that time we didn’t use that in the faculty. Maybe the computer faculty had that”. Another interviewee (I-2) also reveals that Blackboard is new for the higher education, as noted: No, we didn’t have any blackboards because our faculty was not their priority. The Learning management system has started to appear this year in our faculty. One of the interviewees spoke about the ways in which they used Blackboard features. For instance, one interviewee 1 (I-1)one of the younger participants (aged 26-30) who worked in College of Science discussed using Blackboard in her previous work. I had a short experience in the technical and vocational training corporation and it helped me because they used the blackboard system. I didn’t use it to much in higher education only for correcting, I used it in the technical and vocational training corporation (I-1). As seen from the statement, the respondent insisted that the previous experience had helped in the understanding of the system use but only discussed basic teacher centered activities (correcting assessment). Interviewee 5 (I-5) who worked in college of science however, had experience in Google-based LMS as well as Blackboard and compared the functions of both systems. Interviewee 5 commented; I only use it (Blackboard) for the content and to download the slides. Earlier, I used to make online quizzes or so, I just download the lectures and post notifications, download homework, but I didn’t use it for anything else. I remember there was a feature that allows discussion between the students but I didn’t use it. We have reached a point where we don’t need the blog; we only use the blackboard. I use the content only, and I learn on the forums, I also know how to let the students discuss together and do the homework (I-5). This statement reveals that the interviewee certainly used the blackboard and that accessibility was easier for the students and that there was an avenue for collaboration. In the open-ended survey results, the Blackboard features discussed by the participants included; electronic exams, sending emails, use of groups and blogs, assessments, quizzes and grading systems (see Section #.#). Many of these functions were used by Interviewee 4: I know it, and I use the blackboard. You download the lectures on the blackboard and you make quizzes, small tests with question on the blackboard to be available online in a certain time you tell them about and you ask them to be ready and sitting in front of their computers, then you send them the questions, and they answer, so you teach everything online and they answer while you are sitting at your home, everyone is there in the same time, they take the lecturers online, tutorials and everything else. (1-4) The above statement implies that the interviewee favoured the blackboard system due to the convenience that it created. The system can be said to be centred on the learner as the interaction provided in the use of the system allows them more activities within the system as compared to traditional learning methods. Most of the participants in the interview were not aware of other systems apart from the participant who mentioned using the google blog. She is (I-5) who worked in college of science, has a master degree and her age is between 31 and 35 and she has 5 years teaching experiences. She noted that; “It’s either blackboard or the usual blog. There are some subjects that need time to be linked to the classes before it can be shown on blackboard, so I use the blog before connecting the sections. I download slides to put the homework until the connection is done then I can leave the blog and use blackboard.”(I-5) This statements suggests that participants were mainly aware of Blackboard system as a learning management system while others did not have an idea at all of the system. The survey, Table 18 showed technologies that the participants might have been trained in and they included discussion forums, Listservs, chat rooms, teleconferencing, videoconferencing and web-based lectures which are a blackboard collaborate. Based on the findings of the survey, most participants had knowledge of the Blackboard features at 23.4% as compared to discussion forums,12%, web-based lectures 12.4% , and chat rooms at 4.3%. Read More