Classrooms – what staff say

Posted on: 27 March 2015
By: saundeg
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Filed under: Classrooms

a) Classroom technology

• It needs to be simple and work
• Standard whiteboards were still quite critical
• Front position of display can dictate pedagogy
• Support for mobile ‘lectern’
• Support for plug and play and own devices
• Support for capability to display on any wall

b) Basic fixtures and fittings

• Need good:
  • Lighting
  • Ventilation
  • Bright walls or glass walls
  • Blinds that work

c) Furniture

• Needs to be lightweight, easily moved
• Not too much of it in the space available
• Allowing for fast, flexible re-configuration of the room
• Need to facilitate group work

d) Layout and capacity

• Stop with the rows being the norm
• Innovative arrangements
• Circles, semi-circles
• Lecturer in the middle
• Lecturer not restricted by location of display device

e) Old technology

• Must still have whiteboards
• Flip charts
• Have digital display screen positioned separately to whiteboard
• Use these old technologies as well as modern display approaches

Blackboard – what students say

Posted on: 27 March 2015
By: saundeg
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Filed under: Blackboard

Over the past 15 months several surveys of students have been conducted to get views on various aspects of Blackboard. Included in all surveys were either specific questions like ‘What information would you most like to see in Blackboard’ or ‘What single thing could we to improve Blackboard for you’ or free text questions like ‘Is there anything else you would like to tell us’?

All of the qualitative contributions made by students to these questions (some 1257 separate undergraduate students) have been analysed using Nvivo software. This is what we see.

What services would you most like to be able to access directly in Blackboard?

Email and library get the most mentions here; followed by timetable information. More than few commented they would like to see more information on their timetables – all coursework deadlines for example. SRSWeb was mentioned less frequently as was the H-drive. A few comments related to the need to have contact information for staff and or information of when they were in; a chat facility to contact staff was also mentioned more than once.

What information would most like to be able to access directly in Blackboard?

Most common here were job opportunities, summer placements and internship/work experience opportunities. Course news was highlighted significantly. Events and training workshops were mentioned more than once.

What single thing could we do to Blackboard to make it more useful to you?

• Add a path through to all exam and assessment details/deadlines
• Make it possible to move to other services without always signing in again
• Make the navigation/UI simpler
• Make it simpler and clearer
• Change the look, it’s boring
• It’s too slow; (often related to the Blackboard Mobile app)