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David Dawei Wang
16 March 2012
Blackboard System Study
Introduction
How does the Internet fit into today’s classroom? In a modern educational setting,
students are certainly familiar with the power of the Internet to contribute and search for
information; but this ability is largely inhibited in the classroom, for fear of academic dishonesty
and plagiarism. Instead, educational institutions look towards Learning Management Systems
(LMS) to use the Internet as a medium of communications between instructors and students. A
recent survey shows that 91% of organizations utilize LMSs (Ellis). These systems allow
instructors to distribute learning materials to students through the Internet, saving both time as
well as resources. Common features include the ability for instructors to post announcements,
messages, documents, assignments, as well as allowing for collaboration between students in a
discussion board environment. These conveniences, along with an ever growing rate of
technology adoption, clearly demonstrate that LMSs are a crucial part of any academic
institution’s technology portfolio.
Problem Description
The Learning Management System used within Northwood High School (NHS) and the
Irvine Unified School District (IUSD) as a whole is Blackboard Version 7. While this system is
widely adopted, it has not been updated since its introduction in 2006. As a result of its age,
many new features as well as web technologies are not included in this dated version. The IUSD
is currently looking for its long anticipated upgrade or replacement. Part of the reason for its
delay is the high costs of LMS systems, further complicated by the state of California’s budget
crisis. Because of this, cost will be weighed heavily when selecting a new system. I was
introduced to this problem by Mr. Simsovic, the Media Coordinator of Northwood High School.
A joint decision was made to study the current system to help determine what features are
crucial to include in the new system. Along with the need to determine the requirements of the
replacement system, we have also identified a low adoption rate of the assessment and
collaboration areas of the system. (Simsovic 1) It will be interesting to determine why the
adoption rate is so low for these features, especially considering the fact that Assessment and
testing was considered the most valuable feature in a survey (Ellis).
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Research Setting
Northwood High School is a comprehensive four-year public high school located in
Irvine, California and founded in 1999. The school is a part of the Irvine Unified School District,
consisting of 22 elementary schools, five middle schools, and four high schools. Northwood
High School has a population of 1957 students, 75 teachers, and 26 classified staff members.
The school has an API of 908 and is a nationally-recognized Blue Ribbon School. The school
contains roughly 100 classrooms and mixed-use rooms including a multimedia library. The
Principal of the school is Leslie Roach.
At Northwood, technology plays an important role in the overall curriculum. As such,
each classroom has at least one computer, with an overall estimated student to computer ratio
of 4:1. The students also have access to rental laptops in the library, and the campus has WIFI
deployed throughout most of the classroom buildings. Computers on campus are mostly Dell
branded, except for a few Apple computer labs used for specific purposes. Most computers on
campus run Windows 7 and are served by Windows servers running Novell ZENworks systems
management. All computers have access to the Internet, through a district-wide content filter.
Despite the robust network, outside computers are not allowed because of security concerns.
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Northwood High School houses many rooms designed with computing in mind.
Classroom buildings at Northwood are generally arranged in five-classroom clusters with four
classrooms surrounding a shared “pod” space. (See Map Above) “Pods” are computer lab-like
rooms with enough computers for an entire classroom of students. Students utilize the “pods”
on campus mostly during class in order to conduct research and write papers. Besides the
“pod” areas, Northwood High School houses three multimedia computer labs utilized for
courses such as computer graphics, and yearbook as well as one general purpose computer lab
utilized for computer science and word processing courses. Finally, the library with its laptops
serves as a general computing area open for students during breaks, before and after school,
and during lunch time.
Northwood High School is ahead of most schools in terms of technology adoption. The
student body and staff incorporate information technology use into their schoolwork and
curriculum every day. Because of this, I believe Northwood is an ideal site to study information
systems within IUSD. The target information system is Blackboard, a Learning Management
System used by teachers to disseminate and receive information to and from the students.
Focus will be placed on the teacher’s experiences and opinions towards the system, as the
student body’s experience is difficult to gauge within the study’s short timeframe, and can be
inferred from teacher interviews. Observations will be conducted of the teacher’s utilizing the
Blackboard system during their preparation periods; however, the majority of insight is
expected to be collected through interviews, as Blackboard system use is irregular and
generally brief.
The target information system is the Blackboard Learning System – Basic Edition version
7.3.159.29. The system is hosted centrally within an Irvine Unified School District server and is
universally distributed to every school within the district, and is also accessible outside of the
district through the World Wide Web. Functionality within the system is divided into three
sections, “Content Areas”, “Course Tools”, and “Assessment”. The “Content Areas” allow
teachers to post documents, assignments, and external links related to the course. The “Course
Tools” offers functionality such as announcements, e-mail lists, course calendar, discussion
board, dropbox, and other collaboration tools. The “Assessment” section includes the ability to
create tests, surveys, as well as manage a gradebook.
Research Methods
The primary method of research was completed through interviews of teachers within
NHS. 13 teachers were selected across all of the primary academic departments, including
Math, Science, English, History, and World Languages. A mix of informers with high, regular,
and no usage of the system were selected based on data collected from the system. All of this
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was done to insure every user group was included in the study. During the interview, questions
were guided by prepared questions on a PC tablet, and sound was recorded with the built-in
microphone all utilizing Microsoft OneNote. Informers were insured of their anonymity, and
that no identifiable information will be presented. Along with the teachers, Mr. Alan Simsovic,
the Media Coordinator was interviewed twice for general information about the setting of the
field site. His identity will be the only one revealed within this report. Interviews generally
lasted between 20 and 30 minutes. A planned goal of 15 teacher informants was not reached
due to scheduling conflicts, but a representative data set was successfully collected regardless
of the missing two participants.
Beyond interviews, two sessions of observation which lasted in total of less than 3 hours
were conducted. The observations were conducted during the teacher’s preparation periods,
an open period used for course preparation. Due to a lack of interesting information about the
system as observed during these sessions, and the nature of the system itself, observation was
abandoned after these two sessions. In its place, an administrator-level user account was
presented to the researcher to perform a data collection of usage, as well as a heuristic
walkthrough of the system. This allowed the researcher to identify usability issues first hand, as
well as provide a context to the issues that the teachers described during the interviews.
Results
Based on data collected from interviews and observation, the Blackboard Academic
Suite is widely used across Northwood High School and is ubiquitously known by the students.
All of the teachers interviewed who used the system described it as a helpful tool to improve
their teaching. It provides a digital bridge between the classroom and home, allowing students
to access resources posted by the teachers from their home. The core features most used by
teachers at NHS include the “Announcements” and “Content Area” functions of the system.
Teachers use the former as a communication tool to notify students of upcoming class activity
such as assignments or assessments. The ladder tool is largely used by teachers to upload
digital versions of documents including: worksheets, readings, assignments, review sheets, and
other similar files. It can also be used to post hyperlinks to external websites. Teachers who use
these core tools have described them as satisfactory, with minor complaints about the “Course
Documents” section’s handling of multimedia files and general file and folder management. The
usage of these features and others will be analyzed in detail below, followed by an in depth
review of the interface, and lastly, a description of perceived system problems as well as
requested features.
Since Blackboard has been introduced to the school eight to nine years ago, it is clear
that the teachers at Northwood are comfortable with its usage. (Simsovic 1) Teachers described
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the learning period of the system to be between a period of one hour and one week, many
mentioned that the learning process was “intuitive”. (Informant 7) Although most teachers
interviewed use the system, two of the thirteen did not use the system at all. One teacher who
did not use the system described the system as an extra unneeded step, and was very
concerned about the possibility of cheating. (Informant 1) Another teacher was just very
uncomfortable with technology use, and did not see the benefits of Blackboard. (Informant 10)
Interestingly, both of these teachers stated that they might use the system if their concerns
were addressed. In short, Blackboard use is nearly ubiquitous at Northwood High, but a few
teachers have specific reasons as to why they chose not to use the system.
Besides the core functionalities described above, Blackboard offers additional
functionality such as: calendar, discussion board, live collaboration, digital dropbox, digital
assessments, and gradebooks. However, the adoption rates of these tools are limited. Out of
the thirteen teachers interviewed, only four of them used the extra functionality to any
meaningful degree. Even in these cases, an individual teacher would only use one and in very
rare cases two of these additional features. One teacher mentioned experimenting with the
discussion board feature before, but stopped using it because of the amount of time it took to
moderate. (Informant 5) Another teacher experimented with the digital dropbox before, but
found the interface to be clunky and hard to work with. (Informant 3) A critical problem pointed
out by a teacher who used the digital dropbox on a regular basis is its inability to batch export
uploaded student files, forcing the download of each file individually. (Informant 8) It is evident
that the user experience presented by these features is suboptimal.
Mentioned above, user interface and interaction problems within the Blackboard
system are a clear problem for some teachers. One teacher described the system “clunky to
work with overall”, stating that it was not as easy to use as other websites which perform
similar tasks. (Informant 3) Another described it as having “redundant prompts”. (Informant 12)
After some simple observation, it is clear that the version of Blackboard used by NHS does not
utilize modern web technologies and can be difficult to work with. For example, the simple act
of uploading a file can take four steps. A teacher also pointed out that after uploading a file; it
shows up at the end of the file list, when displaying newly uploaded files at the top would make
logical sense. (Informant 5) Teachers also described the file management to be difficult,
requiring jumping around hoops to move files and folders around. After some investigation, it is
determined that Blackboard uses a Java browser plugin to handle the upload of files, without
any use of modern web technologies such as AJAX. Despite these user experience setbacks,
most teachers report their daily usage times to be around five minutes after some initial setup
to update the Announcements and Content Area sections. However, teachers described usage
times of an hour or more per day when additional tasks were used in association with
additional features; such as, moderation of the discussion boards. It is clear then, that despite
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the inconvenience caused by bad interface elements; the core functionality is not largely
affected. However, it can be hypothesized that the issues described are hurdles to the
successful adoption of the additional features, and thus obstructing the full potential of the
system.
Besides interface problems, the system is plagued by a past history of downtime. Most
teachers mentioned that around three years ago, the system used to be down at random
intervals for up to a whole week at a time when asked about unexpected or unwanted features
of the system. In fact, a teacher who did not use the system mentioned the downtime as one of
the reasons as to why he/she did not use the system. (Informant 1) Another teacher identified
this problem, and mentioned that because of the past history of downtime, teachers at
Northwood are still reluctant in the system’s use and are less dependent on it as a result.
(Informant 13) Since three years ago however, IUSD has upgraded the Blackboard server and
the reliability of the system has greatly increased as a result. Although not clear as to the exact
lasting effects that it has caused, it is evident that the past history of downtime remains in most
teachers’ minds as an issue with the system.
All of the teachers interviewed described a positive response from their students to
Blackboard. One teacher explained that this was because the IUSD incorporates Blackboard use
starting from middle school, and that by the time the students arrive at Northwood, they are
already familiar with the system. (Informant 5) In many sessions, teachers described that having
the documents and announcements for class available is very helpful to students who might
lose a handout or miss a class. One teacher pointed out an interesting dimension of student
use, where he/she sees the system as a way to place accountability on the students. Since
documents and announcements are posted on Blackboard, a student cannot make the excuse
that they did not know about a particular assignment or topic. Related to the topic of
accountability, the same teacher described a phenomenon he/she called “helicopter parents”,
whom are parents who visit Blackboard in order to stay on top of their children. (Informant 12)
It is clear that Blackboard presents a great value to students as well as their parents in many
different ways.
When asked about extending Blackboard, teachers described some desire for the ability
to support multimedia, as well as a need for better integration of other systems. Eight of the
thirteen teachers mentioned that the integration of audio and video on Blackboard would be
useful. Currently, some teachers use a link to YouTube or other similar site as a workaround,
but thought that better integration would be helpful; (Informant 2) although concern about
copyright issues with multimedia is an important concern for other teachers. (Informant 11)
Two of the teachers expressed interest in uploading recordings of their lectures if that was an
option. Besides multimedia, teachers also wanted to integrate Blackboard with internal IUSD
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systems such as the ABI gradebook, as well as outside systems such as turnitin.com and social
media. One teacher imagined that it might be useful if a student can receive a notification on
Facebook based on a teacher’s announcement. (Informant 3) It can be seen that the current
dated version of Blackboard is lacking in a few features that can expand a teacher’s use of the
system.
Discussion
It is clear from the results, that Blackboard is an extremely important information
system at NHS. It is used primarily as a way for teachers to communicate to students in an
asynchronous manner, and is a helpful tool for students to keep on top of their classes at any
time. Overall speaking, Blackboard is a ubiquitous tool used and expected by the students. With
such high adoption rates eight to nine years into the deployment of a software system, it is easy
to see the success of this information system and its integration into the Northwood High
ecosystem.
As a result of its ubiquitous use, Blackboard is a critical system that must remain stable
and accessible at all times. With these constraints in mind, it is difficult to recommend changes
to the system while accounting for the direct and indirect effects those changes may have on
NHS and even IUSD as a whole. However, based on insight from the interviews conducted,
interest in seeing new features and an updated product exists with varying levels across the
organization. Clearly, any proposed changes to the system must be thoroughly investigated and
implemented along with staff input.
Based on the experiences collected from the interviews, there is an interesting history
of how teachers began to use Blackboard. Although on the surface teachers reported learning
periods between a few hours to a few weeks in getting to know the system, the evolution of
that use is interesting. There is a sense of community at NHS, and teachers rely on each other
for inspiration as well as direction for implementing new technologies in their classrooms. As a
result, it would be beneficial for teachers with a higher tendency to experiment with features to
be identified and spearheaded to share their experiences and conduct training with the other
teachers. This exists to some degree at Northwood, but a more formal structure for the sharing
of ideas would help increase the adoption of features beyond the core feature set.
Speaking of additional features, based on the evidence presented, it is clear that flaws
with the user experience of such features exist within the version of Blackboard deployed at
NHS. Interviews collected from teachers whom have used these features in the past but
abandoned them provided insightful recounts as to why these features go unused. The main
problems identified are the badly designed interface of these features, as well as the overall
“clunky” feel of them compared to modern web-based applications. Many teachers described
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that they felt that they saw tangible value in these features, but do not use them because of
their implementation. These features should be viewed as opportunities for teachers at
Northwood, as they have the possibility of improving the satisfaction of the LMS as well as the
possibility of introducing new methods of teaching.
Although the researcher believes that the study was sufficient to understand overall
Blackboard use at Northwood, certain limitations present might have prevented the ability to
uncover edge cases and other interesting insight. Due to the time limitations, students were not
included in the study. One teacher even directly suggested that it might be interesting to study
students and their feelings towards Blackboard. (Informer 4) This was somewhat mitigated by
asking teachers of their perception of student response, but a more direct survey would have
been helpful. Besides collecting student responses, the primary researcher was sick with the flu
for a period of one week during the interview period. This led to scheduling conflicts and the
planned sample size of 15 teachers was reduced to 2. However, as mentioned earlier, teacher
samples from all major academic departments were included and the researcher believes that
an overall picture of Blackboard use at NHS was successfully constructed.
Recommendations
Based on the results of the data, the researcher believes that any changes in the LMS system
used in the Irvine Unified School District should be carefully considered, with sufficient input from the
teachers. The researcher has identified two possible routes that the district can take for the LMS system
in the future. The first is to remain using the current Blackboard system and to upgrade to the latest
version of Blackboard when sufficient funding is achieved in the budget. Second, the district can switch
to an open source LMS such as Moodle or Canvas, which will reduce costs and offer newer features at
the cost of introducing a new learning period and possible unknown maintenance costs.
Overall speaking, the current version of the Blackboard system, although dated, is mostly
sufficient for use at Northwood; this, compounded with the fact that most staff members and students
are so familiar to using Blackboard, are arguments for the continuation of the use of Blackboard at
Northwood and the IUSD. Switching to a foreign system means that teachers will most likely have to
learn the new system, as well as migrate all of their current documents and settings to the new system.
This can be an issue in an educational organization, which is somewhat resistant to new technologies.
(Simsovic 2) If the district decided to proceed with this scenario, and when a time comes where the
budget is more flexible, an upgrade to the newest version of Blackboard should be considered. The most
recent version of Blackboard provides a slick web 2.0 experience, as well as newer ways to manage files
along with newer collaboration tools. (Blackboard) These features would address many of the concerns
raised by the teachers. Assumedly, an upgrade to the newest version of Blackboard would also mean
that teachers would not have to migrate their information, which is a definite advantage. In short, if
budget concerns are alleviated, upgrading Blackboard without switching to another system might be the
best course of action.
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Upgrading the current Blackboard system, while advantageous, is constricted by the district’s
budget. While the budget might improve, there is no clear timeframe for such an improvement, and
savings are still relevant in times of surplus. This brings in the possibility of switching to a lower cost LMS
such as open source solutions Moodle or Canvas. Besides the advantage of saving money, these systems
also introduce different concepts and might be advantageous to IUSD as a whole even without the
budgetary benefits. In a study published in 2006, researchers described Moodle’s user interface as
easier to use than Blackboard, but preferred Blackboard for student collaboration and the control of
content. They ultimately concluded that the choice of an LMS should be made based on finding the
“right tool for the job”. (Beatty and Ulasewicz) Although slightly dated, this paper demonstrates that
Moodle is a formidable replacement for Blackboard. They specifically mentioned that because of its
open source nature, newer features are more quickly introduced and the platform is more flexible
overall. Along with Moodle, Canvas is a fairly new LMS which is also open source. As far as the
researcher can tell, Canvas contains all of the core features present in Blackboard along with additional
multimedia features presented in a modern Web 2.0 interface. Interestingly, Canvas provides a version
created specifically for the K-12 environment, instead of one product geared towards both K-12 as well
as higher academic institutions. Canvas also includes the ability to interface with an iOS app, which
might be useful to students given their increasing popularity. (Instructure) In brief, Moodle, Canvas, and
possibly other open source LMS should be considered when deciding the future of Blackboard at the
IUSD, as they could present a tremendous value with a greatly reduced cost.
Regardless of which route the district decides to take for the future of Blackboard, the following
list of important features, as identified based on the data collected, should be considered. The core
features that must be present in any upgrade or replacement product include: the ability to send class
announcements, a robust document management feature, the ability to allow students to collaborate
similar to a bulletin board or similar platform, a modern look and feel, and easy to learn for teachers
switching from Blackboard. Along with these core features, it would be beneficial if the new system also
included: the ability to embed audio and video without an external site, the ability to synchronize with
the Aeries SIS system, the ability to integrate with social media as a one-way notification tool or
embedded feed, and the ability to integrate with the ABI gradebook.
Conclusions
All in all, it is clear from this study of the Blackboard LMS system at Northwood High School, that
technology use in classrooms today is widespread and increasingly so. Internet use amongst students
and teachers alike is unlikely to be reduced anytime soon. Because of this, educational organizations and
their teachers must prepare themselves and adapt to this increasing rate of technological change.
Although schools may be viewed as slowly changing organizations in terms of technology adoption,
teachers at NHS have clearly demonstrated that this is not true. Blackboard use at Northwood is
ubiquitous and most teachers are very comfortable in incorporating technology into their classrooms.
Teachers use Blackboard as a way to communicate with students in a way not possible before, and not
only that, they are able to hold students accountable for responding to these new methods of
communication. While the benefits of Blackboard are clear, there is still a future of LMS use at NHS and
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other schools that has not yet been realized. It is up to the collaboration between teachers, their
support staff, as well as web developers to figure out imaginative new ways that web technology can fit
into the educational space.
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