Continuous Improvement in e-Learning:
Investigating the Effect and Impact of Our
WebCT Chemistry Support Initiative (CSI)
and Implications for Further Enhancement
of the Virtual Learning Environments
(VLEs) Developed
EdTech 2007, 24th May, Bolton St.
Claire Mc Donnell, Christine O’Connor & Michael Seery,
School of Chemical and Pharmaceutical Sciences, DIT
Background - Teaching and Learning Strategies Used to
Support Learning for First Year Chemistry Students at DIT
 Contextualisation
 Visual Images
 Molecular models
 Virtual learning environment (VLE) introduced Sept 2004
 Problem solving workshops / tutorials
 Integrating study skills into subject
teaching
Aims We Had for this Virtual Learning Environment
Pool resources in Chemistry at DIT
Provide formative assessment quizzes (“cyber
tutorials”) with instant and detailed feedback
Promote a learner-centred environment
Enhance visualisation and animation/ simulation in
our delivery to improve engagement and
understanding
Provide a central resource for course information
Utilise the e-learning platform (WebCT) that our
Institute has invested in
General Template of the
VLE
Necessary Information – contains course handbook,
assignments, assignment criteria, selected lecture notes,
summary sheets, useful links.
Noticeboard – access to WebCT mail and
calendar (assignment schedule and
assessment dates) and discussion board.
Tutorials – sample and past exam questions, problem
solving question sheets,
Welcome and General info – course information.
Glossary – chemical definitions.
Careers – examples of careers in Chemistry.
Quizzes – database of chemistry multiple
choice quizzes and crosswords.
Evaluation of Current Use of WebCT by Staff
 WebCT incorporated into every year of every programme in the School since Sept ’04
 Staff surveyed last month to ascertain level of use of WebCT in the School.
 The results of the survey are discussed under the following headings;
1. Motivation for adoption
2. Resource implications
3. Training and support required
4. Current use of WebCT (Programme management, School management)
5. Level of interactivity
6. Management of VLE
7. Constraints and problems encountered
Motivation for Adoption of
WebCT
 Comments from staff reflected that use of WebCT stemmed from a personal
interest and student expectations.
“Taught first year group who already had a WebCT site for another subject (Physics)
and got a Learning and Teaching grant with a colleague to develop VLE with quizzes for
first year students. Also, had used WebCT as a student in the Learning and Teaching
Centre and could see it was useful.”
“Positive impression from colleagues, expectations of students, makes
life much easier.”
 Main motivation is to use WebCT as a programme administration and
communication tool.
 Facilitation of work placement students in 30 companies in Ireland.
 Coordinators for part-time postgraduate programmes in particular use the
VLE for:
(i) making programme material available, (ii) the discussion board functionality,
(iii) storing module and programme information, (iv) as a remote learning tool.
 Applications of the VLE for part-time postgraduate and full-time
undergraduate programmes are different to cater for different learner
types.
Resource Implications
 250 undergraduate students, 89 part-time taught postgraduate students in
the School of Chemical and Pharmaceutical Sciences supported by our
VLE and large amount of service teaching to other schools (Physics,
Biological Sciences) and faculties (Tourism and Food), some of which are
also supported.
“With greater use of WebCT, there will be a greater pressure on access to
the system perhaps requiring more student facilities”.
 The School currently has one computer room which has 20 computers
with internet access for student use and one computer for the lecturer. All
computers were replaced in January 2007 through school budget.
 There is access to one printer in our computer room and other than that
there are printing facilities in the library.
 Students have poor Wi-Fi access on the floor where our
school is located. However, they do have Wi-Fi access in most
other areas of the college.
Training and Support
Required
 Most members of staff received their training on courses run by the DIT
Learning Technology Team (LTT).
 In-School training was requested in 2005 and the LTT facilitated this
request over lunch time once a week for 6 weeks. 60% of the staff
attended.
 In general one day training events are not sufficient.
 The timing of the training is significant as it is felt that WebCT is not user
friendly.
“Received introductory training. It was good and covered all aspects, but I find
learning by doing is best once basics are covered.”
“Training was fine, but I did not use it straight away so all was forgotten by then.”
 Peer tutoring from colleagues in the School and over the phone support
from the LTT are useful support mechanisms.
 38% of staff would be interested in learning more about: (i) more WebCT
functionalities, (ii) extending their current use of WebCT and (iii) to learn
from other users how and why they use WebCT.
Future Training
Required
The Staff in the School of Chemical and Pharmaceutical
Sciences have expressed an interest in the use of WebCT
applications such as:
My grades – for formative assessment results
Quizzes (especially uploading from Respondus)
Discussion boards
Interactive sites and developing own animations
E-packs to enhance visualisation of programme material
and provide support material.
Current Use of WebCT
Programme Management
 WebCT facilitates effective programme management and the main
applications of the VLEs are listed in the following Table.
WebCT
Application Tool
% Staff
using
tool
WebCT
Application Tool
% Staff
using tool
Programme
Management
88 %
Handouts (summaries)
88 %
Discussion
Board
38 %
Tutorial Sheets
88 %
WebCT mail
75 %
On-line learning activities
38 %
Lecture Notes*
63 %
On-line assessment
12.5 %
Calendar
88 %
Simulations/ Animations
25 %
Quizzes
50 %
Others
N/A
*Only for final year students and part-time taught postgraduate programmes.
School Management WebCT Site (launched (2006/ 2007)
Level of Interactivity
‘to use the web as simply a coat hanger where files are left for students to
access will not engage students and thus be counter productive’ (Broad, 2004)
 Young and Kornblith, (2006) gave examples of the interactivity to look for:
‘case studies, games and simulations at a level that should require input and
actively engaging students in a learning process.’
 Some staff replied that the level of activity was based on how regularly
students logged on to the VLE. However, some of the existing users are
making efforts to enhance the interactivity of the VLE.
“High when using discussion board, crosswords or
quizzes.”
“Low; students mainly use e-mail except for on-line
assignments.”
“Basic interactivity in terms of quizzes, crosswords and
links to interactive websites, but I have not developed
animations/ simulations myself.”
http://jchemed.chem.wisc.edu/JCESoft/CCA/pirelli/
index.html
Management of VLEs
 Programme coordinators or a responsible person are the VLE designer for
the year and programme they coordinate. Other users can send their
material to the VLE coordinator for uploading or ask for designer status.
 In future preferable if all the teaching team on that programme year are
added as students so all can view what the students have access to.
 Designers feel WebCT is a very cumbersome and unintuitive system,
especially as it is not Microsoft compatible.
 For many designers the programme template was already designed.
 VLE designers access WebCT on a weekly basis and spend on average 1
to 3 hours a week uploading/ maintaining the site.
 One designer required 2-4 hrs per week when using a discussion board.
 As an exception one member of staff uploaded all of the material required
for a mature student part-time programme last year and has not accessed
the VLE at all for this academic year.
Constraints and
Problems Encountered
'Time is perceived by staff as the major inhibiting factor to e-learning.’ (Oates,1999)
The main factor arising with staff as an issue is time. Nearly all users
complained of the time it takes to upload onto/maintain a VLE.
“One by one uploading/ managing is ridiculously primitive even with Netdrive!”
“Uploading and removal of material takes too much time when using the site
regularly.”
“Having the time to upload quizzes and write messages on discussion boards.”
Other issues arising are:
- ease of adding staff as students/ teaching assistants.
-the current programme template is limited in terms of how
material is presented as a list under module title for programme year.
- students forgetting passwords.
- WebCT is not intuitive so if you are not using it regularly it is not very
user-friendly.
- a ‘save-draft’ option is not available on the discussion board.
- WebCT mail is not linked with Microsoft Outlook.
Staff Not Using WebCT
 20 % of staff in School are not using WebCT directly as a VLE.
 60 % of that 20 % are using our school staff administration site on WebCT.
 From the comments below it is hoped that in the next academic year the teaching
team on each programme year will have a minimum of student access.
Reasons for not using WebCT
Suggestions to overcome the reasons
“Do not know enough about it”
“If one had access to current programme/ student WebCT it
would help in learning more about WebCT”
“Not familiar with the system”
“taking time to learn how to use it”
“Stress”
“None”
“Lack of time prevents me from
loading material onto WebCT”
“Introduction of small portions of programme gradually”
 Of the staff surveyed who are currently not using WebCT, only one felt they would
not like to use it in the future. This individual felt that they had done all the courses but
were unable to get a grasp of WebCT.
 All other members of staff felt that they would all like to use WebCT in the future.
Evaluation of Current Use of
WebCT by Students
 One group of 2nd Year students surveyed last month. Evaluation
questionnaire; series of questions, some open-ended.
 Group selected as had used greatest number of applications of the
VLE (calendar, WebCT mail, discussion board, quizzes, grades, on-
line assignments)
 Feedback from shorter questionnaire given to 1st Years and verbal
feedback from other students similar to data from this questionnaire.
 Review of the VLEs in use also carried out to assess categories of
use they belong to. Very similar patterns to those reported in staff
questionnaire.
Student Responses
 91% had found the Chemistry VLE useful in 1st Year
 The features they found useful in 1st Year are presented in the
table below;
Tutorial sheets
73%
Email
45%
Calendar
36%
Exam papers
18%
Course handbook
9%
Necessary information
9%
79% said they found the VLE useful in 2nd Year and the pie
chart on the next page summarises which aspects they found
most useful.

Student Responses
Pie Chart Summarising Responses to the Question
"What Aspects of the VLE That You Have Used in
Second Year Were Most Useful?"
Exam papers
Email
Discussion board
Calendar
Grades
Assignments
Tutorial sheets
Benefits of the VLE
Past papers, tutorial sheets
50%
Keeping in touch / up to date on
course info and assignments
21%
Communicating with lecturers
14%
Project information
14%
Website links
7%
Access to grades
7%
Access to useful information
7%
 100% of the students surveyed would like to see WebCT
used more in the future
Disadvantages of the VLE
None
43%
Not all lecturers use it
29%
Lecture notes not up
14%
Remembering password
7%
Calendar
7%
How Could the VLE be Used More?
Lecture notes up
71%
Tutorial questions
50%
Past papers, sample qs
21%
Assignments
7%
Calendar used more
7%
Lab report advice
7%
Advice on references
7%
Discussion board easier to use
7%
VLE Review
Categories of Use Made by Academic Staff of VLEs (School
of Chemical and Pharmaceutical Sciences, DIT)
12
10
8
6
4
2
0
Lecture notes
Grades
Exam papers
Assignments
Learning
support
Discussion
board
WebCT mail
(student
response)
WebCT mail
Quizzes
Course
management
Main Conclusions/Issues from Student Responses
 Usefulness as a central repository and means of
communication with staff and project group members
 Flexibility cited as an advantage
 Students would like more staff to use WebCT and many
are also asking for lecture notes to be available
 Survey will be extended in 2007-8
Main Conclusions – Where to from Here?
 Introduction of new version of WebCT in September should address
some of the current barriers to adoption. Additional training required.
 Proposed to give all teaching staff student access to relevant VLEs
 Specific topics for future training have been identified
 In-School workshop in September to plan strategy and review survey
results
Evaluation In Other Colleges
 At Michigan Technological University (Charlesworth and Vician, 2003),
WebCT introduced as course management tool for First Year Chemistry
in 2000 (Course notes, on-line quizzes and exams, e-mail and
discussion board)
 Students appreciated the flexibility
 Used WebCT to complement other methods
of learning, not to replace them
 Improvement in students perceived learning and confidence. 75% said
WebCT helped them enjoy the class more than traditional Chemistry
classes they’d had before.
 University of Texas-Pan American (Gregorius, 2005) and Sunderland
Pharmacy School (Cunningham, 2003) also report positive effects
References
Broad, M. et al (2004) Accounting education through an online
supported VLE, Active Learning in HE, 5(2) pp135-150
Charlesworth, P. and Vician, C. (2003) Leveraging Technology for
Chemical Sciences Education: An Early Assessment of WebCT Usage in
First-Year Chemistry Courses, Journal of Chemical Education, Vol. 80,
11, pages 1333 - 1337.
What Can A Virtual Learning Environment Do for you and Your
Students, Oral presentation by Dr Anne Cunningham, Sunderland
Pharmacy School at LTSN Physical Sciences Workshop, Cardiff, 19th
November 2003. Accessed at;
(http://www.physsci.ltsn.ac.uk/Events/WorkshopReportsExtras/wsr_id52/
Cardiff03v2.ppt )
Gregorius, R. (2005) Traditional Versus PowerPoint and WebCT
Augmented Classes, The Chemical Educator, Vol. 10, pages 72-77.
Young E. and Kornblith P., ‘Evaluating an e-Pack in 10 Minutes or
Less: Using the WebCT Key Features’, Accessed in May 2007 at:
https://www.elluminate.com/site/pmtg.jnlp?psid=d1812929470.397628
Acknowledgements
 Colleagues in School of Chemical and
Pharmaceutical Sciences and Faculty of Science
 Learning and Teaching Centre Staff
 Learning Technology Team
 DIT e- Learning club