Blackboard Discovery Workshops
Posted on: 27 March 2015
By: saundeg
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Filed under: Blackboard
A Blackboard discovery workshop was held on the 24th February. This one day event was attended by around 40 staff representing the academic community, IT support, library, student support services (careers, health and wellbeing), recruitment, admission and marketing, academic registries and core Blackboard support staff.
The day comprised a number of activities the most extensive of which involved groups deciding on a student persona and then trying to think through what that student might need from a Blackboard portal.
All groups decided on an undergraduate persona and the range of information and services they felt critical to their student were quite similar and can be collectively summed up as including:
Information
This should be personalised and include:
– timetable
– week to view calendar of timetable/events
– notifications (upcoming tasks, e.g. assessments)
– Progress bars (assessments, course)
– Key contacts including tutors and office hours
– Course Facebook page
Other key information included:
– Discounted goods and services for students
– Student support services (counselling, careers)
– Finance support
– Registry support
– Induction and enrolment information
News should include:
– SU events
– Faculty events
– Training and placements
– Extra curricular opportunities
– Talent bank
– External newsfeeds
Other key information services included: Library, email. print
An example of feedback from one of the groups is shown below:
Each group was also asked how things may need to be different for postgraduates. It was suggested that key for them would be knowing their timetable a year in advance (to support the need for greater flexibility), ‘different’ employability support, targeted training and research seminars
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)
