Based on a qualitative, narrative inquiry research study on the use of Blackboard Learn in face-to-face courses, five major themes emerged from the analysis of data. Course Administration and Management was one major theme. Participants included instructors at a primarily residential university in the southeastern United States. Participants discussed using features and tools in Blackboard Learn for storing and organizing content, getting to know students, setting up the grade center, and copying content from one course to another (Washington, 2017).
Blackboard Learn features and tools for course administration and management pertained to Course Documents, Content Folders, Photo Roster, Grade Center, Course Calendar and Course Copy. Participants shared the benefits of having a centralized location for courses. Course Documents referred to a feature in Blackboard Learn for delivering learning content to students in one location for anytime access. Course Documents also served as a repository for course resources and materials. Content Folders functioned as organizational structures for courses. Participants used Content Folders for breaking the instructional materials, activities, assignments and assessments into smaller chunks of content. In addition, the course menu provided further course organizational structure with consistent navigation for students to find course materials, assignments, discussions boards, and assessments, which led to an improved learning experience for the students. The Photo Roster was considered a course administration tool for instructors to identify students in face-to-face courses. The Grade Center classified as both a course administration and feedback tool. Participants discussed using Course Copy to easily copy course content and course settings from one Blackboard Learn course to another. Few participants mentioned using the Course Calendar feature for due dates. The following are some quoted responses from the participants (Washington, 2017):
P11: “Blackboard
Learn holds everything, so I really couldn’t do without it. I pull it up every
day. Anywhere I can access the internet, I can get access to the materials.”
P2: “I
like having a central repository for everything that’s course related, because
the courses I teach most times don’t have a textbook. So, everything is posted
under the Course Documents except for what I want students to find
themselves.”
P7: “Blackboard
allows me to make folders in the Course Documents section, so when
you're looking for a particular course document it is very easy to find. That's
where you find worksheets, worksheet solutions, quiz solutions, pretest,
pretest solutions, and the study material for the final exam.”
P8: “Photo Roster has helped me to
identify students right away and personalize my classes because I can match the
name with face from week one. So, I've
used that a lot since I found out it existed.”
P2: “It
[Blackboard] allows me to organize the grading so that the grading matches the
syllabus.”
P4:
“It’s just a very nice place to kind of collect everything. Once you have it
there you don’t have to keep recreating it you can just copy it forward the
next semester.”
P10: “The course calendar automatically fills
in if you set the due date. For any
submission due date that’s on there they get the reminders. So, I go in and make sure everything's on the
course calendar.”
The findings of the present
research were consistent with an earlier research study. Hodges and Grant
(2015) investigated the potential benefits of using course administration and
management tools, including the module structure of LMSs for organizing and
sequencing content into units and the course calendar for organizing due dates
for learning activities and assessments. These researchers found that the use
of course administration and management tools helped students with
organization, time management, and content knowledge. By using these features
and tools, instructors became better able to draw their students’ attention to
the topics at hand, which is important from the cognitivist perspective.
In view of the practical advantages
offered by the course administration and management features and tools in
Blackboard Learn, educators who use this LMS are now much better prepared to
move forward into developing and designing their summer online courses. Course
structure and organization play important roles in improving student success in
locating and interacting with course content, the instructor, and other
students in the class. Blackboard Learn serves as a repository for course
materials, such as the syllabus, PowerPoint presentations, and video lectures, giving
students access to a full range of their course materials in one central location.
This ease of centralized access helps students to stay more focused and remain
on track with due dates for assignments and assessments.
References:
Hodges, C., & Grant, M. (2015). Theories to support
you: Purposeful use of learning management system features. In T. Bastiaens,
& G. Marks (Eds.), Proceedings of Global Learn 2015 (pp. 481–486). Berlin,
Germany: Association for the
Advancement of Computing in Education (AACE). Retrieved
from https://www.editlib.org/p/150895/
Washington, G. Y. (2017). Learning management systems in
traditional face-to-face courses: A narrative inquiry study (10639584)
(Doctoral dissertation). Retrieved from ProQuest Dissertations & Theses
Global. (10639584)
Cite this blog: Washington, G. (2020, April 30). Blackboard Learn: Course administration
and management [Blog post]. Retrieved
from https://pedagogybeforetechnology.blogspot.com/
