The Project
 We were assigned a project to research technology
here at Suffolk University
 The question was open ended and we could choose
the subject matter that we studied.
Our Purpose
 To find out how students feel about
Blackboard, blogs, and wikis.
 Investigate how prepared students felt to use
Blackboard, blogs, and wikis.
 Asks students how blackboard, blogs, and
wikis could be improved.
 To find out we polled students with a survey
What is Blackboard?
 Blackboard Inc. is a global leader in enterprise
technology and innovative solutions that improve
the experience of millions of students and learners
around the world every day.
 Blackboard allows corporate, and government
organizations to extend teaching and learning
online
What is a
?
 “The abbreviated version of “weblog”
 The term used to describe web sites that maintain an
ongoing chronicle of information.
 Topics range from;
 Personal to political
 One narrow subject to a whole range of subjects
 Blogs can be used as;
 Personal online diary
 News post
 Commentary
Blogs cont.
 Suffolk University started to promote using blogs
as a pilot 2 years ago
 Website “Blogs @ Suffolk ”
 Backed up by Academic Technology
 Currently about 20-25 courses use blogs
 Information portal
 Optional syllabus
 Course materials
 Posting course related assignments
What is a Wiki?
 A “wiki” is to an open, collaborative community
website.
 Wikis can be used for personal note-taking to
collaborating online, assembling an online
community, and managing a traditional website.
 In the classroom a teacher can post something, and ask
students their thoughts. Each student can elaborate on
the previous student’s post, as well as adding their own
ideas.
Methods
 We handed out 20 surveys for each technology to classmates






in various classes
We collected the surveys distributed and tallied the results
The respondents for each survey were from a different
classes, but we did poll our SCI183 class for both blogs and
blackboard
The WIKI survey was only handed out to one class, MKT210
We put the technologies into comprehensive graphs so we
could compare them
We also posted these graphs on our website which can be
found here:
http://blogs.cas.suffolk.edu/bugjuice/
Which classes do you use blackboard for?
N=20
SCI
ENG
HIST
SOC
MGT
SPAN
CJN
FRESH
GOVT
N=20
N=20
Blogs Survey Results
Level of Education
Senior
25%
Junior
25%
Fresh
man
5%
Sopho
more
45%
N=20
Classes using Blogs
Jazz
GVT120
History
5%
6%
SCI183
89%
Blogs Survey Results
N=20
How prepared did you
feel to use the blogs? Difficulty when using blogs
Unprepar
ed
39%
Prepared
28%
Somewha
t prepared
33%
Easy
12%
Difficult
35%
Average
53%
Blogs Survey Results
N=20
How prepared did you
feel to use the blogs? Difficulty when using blogs
Unprepar
ed
39%
Prepared
28%
Somewha
t prepared
33%
Difficult
35%
Easy
12%
Average
53%
Blogs Survey Results
N=20
Purposes of using blogs Comments
Post
pictures
Review lab 11%
assignment
s
19%
Record
class notes
Read other
3%
students'
blogs
19%
 Discussion
 More interactive use
Homework
48%
 Post with other media
 Movies
 Podcasts
 Links
N=18
WIKIS
N=18
N=18
N=18
N=18
Conclusions-BlackBoard
 Blackboard is mostly used for homework, syllabus, and
grades. The whole communication aspect of
blackboard is not being utilized.
 Most students made the suggestion that it should take
less clicks to get there.
 Many student also commented that even professors
who do not use blackboard should at least be required
to upload the syllabus
 Students also suggested that blackboard should be
integrated into MySuffolk
Conclusion-Blogs
 Students need to learn how to use blogs
 Use options, tools, functions efficiently
Our group’s suggestions
 Blogs @ Suffolk should be integrated into MySuffolk
 Mix with other multimedia
 RSS Feedback
 Microblogging services
Conclusion-Wikis
 We found that most students we polled weren’t sure
whether they would like to use wikis again.
 This lead us to conclude that students are unsure how
useful wikis are to their learning, but that could be due
largely to the fact that the class we polled were using
wikis for the first time.
Amy Campbell is a junior at
Suffolk University and is an
applied legal studies major.
Alicia Palleschi is a junior at
Suffolk University and is
studing sociology and Spanish.
Ian Woods is a senior at Suffolk
University and is a film studies
major.
Mayumi Togawa is an exchange
student from Japan and is
currently a sophomore at
Suffolk University and is
majoring in international
relations.