Faculty and Academic Staff Use of the Course Management System (CMS): iLearn at the American University of Sharjah

April 5th, 2012AMICAL Panel

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Outline

• Part One:– Background to the Study (Dr. David Prescott)– Survey information (Mr. Walid Alieldin)– Interviews (Ms. Shireen Baghestani)– Focus Groups (Dr. David Prescott)

• Part Two:– Discussion of Data (Panel members)

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The research team

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Survey

• 7 questions.• Sent to 394 faculty/teaching staff using

iLearn’s survey tool.• 98 responses were received.

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Opening Survey ScreenThe survey will take a maximum of 15 minutes of your time. It is voluntary and anonymous. Electronic personal data is neither collected nor stored.

The study addresses four questions:

1. What do faculty and academic staff use iLearn for?2. What factors encourage faculty and academic staff to increase or

decrease their use of iLearn?3. What pedagogic gains does iLearn facilitate?4. What examples of helpful practice do users identify?

INFORMATION GIVEN IN THIS SURVEY WILL BE COMPLETELY ANONYMOUS NO PARTICIPANT DETAILS CAN BE IDENTIFIED

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Demographic Questions

• Age category: please tick ( ) a box– 25 – 35– 36 – 45– 46 - 55– 56 - 65– 66+

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Demographic Questions

• Excluding current study what is your highest educational attainment? Tick ( ) one.– Doctorate– Masters degree– Bachelors degree– Other postgraduate– Other (please specify)

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Demographic Questions

• What is your AUS College/Department? Tick ( ) one.– Achievement Academy– CAAD– CAS– CEN– LIB– SBM– Please specify Department

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Question 4: Which iLearn tools do you use? Tick () your selections

Tool Consistently Occasionally Almost never

Never

Announcements        Blogs        Calendar        Discussions (Discussion Board)        Emailing students        e-Portfolios        Grade Center        Groups        Journals        Posting content and materials (files, documents, videos etc)

       

Rubrics        Safe Assign        Self & Peer Assessment Tool        Test and Quizzes and Surveys        The Assignment Tool        Wikis        

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Question 5: Please tick your responses to indicate your purposes for use of iLearn

Purpose Consistently Occasionally Almost never

Never

Cater to diverse learning styles

       

Communicate learning expectations

       

Emphasize time on task        Encourage student interaction

       

Improve communication with students

       

Increase transparency        Provide more interactivity between student & content

       

Provide prompt feedback        Supplement lecture material         Any other comments (please add)          

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Question 6: In your view what features would encourage greater use of iLearn?

() Feature   Greater ease of use (please add suggestions)

   

  More features (please specify)   

  More training for faculty and academic staff (please give examples)   

  Training for students (please give examples)   

  Reliability factors (please specify)   

  More intuitive interface (please add suggestions)    

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Question 7: In your view what features discourage greater use of iLearn?

() Feature   Incongruity with pedagogy (explain briefly)

   

  Unsuitable for my discipline (explain briefly)   

  Difficulty of use (please give examples)   

  Time consuming (please give examples)   

  Failure to engage students meaningfully (explain briefly)   

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Interviews

• Interviewer training

• Conducting the interviews

• Transcribing the interviews

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Focus Groups

• Expectations• Realities

Optional Separator

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Part Two

Findings

21

2731

181

25 – 3536 – 4546 - 5556 - 6566+

2 13

46

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1 12

Achievement AcademyCAADCASCENLIBSBM

Academic Unit

Age

56

42

Doctorate

Masters degree

Bachelors degree

Other

Education Level

Demographics

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Tools favored by AUS survey respondents

Wikis

Blogs

Self &

Peer A

ssessm

ent

Calendar

e-Portf

olios

Journals

Discussi

ons

Groups

Rubrics

Tests,

Quizzes

and Su

rveys

Assign

ment T

ool

Safe A

ssign

Announcemen

ts

Grade C

enter

Email

Posting conten

t0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

90

NeverAlmost neverOccasionallyConsistently

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Faculty purposes for use of iLearn

Discussi

ons (Disc

ussion Board

)

Encourag

e studen

t inter

action

Cater to

diverse

learn

ing styl

es

Provid

e pro

mpt feed

back

Emphasi

ze time o

n task

Provid

e more

interacti

vity b

etwee

n studen

t & co

ntent

Communicate

learning e

xpect

ations

Increase

transp

arency

Supplem

ent le

cture

materia

l

Impro

ve communica

tion with

studen

ts0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

90

NeverAlmost neverOccasionallyConsistently

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General Findings from the Interviews

• Time-saving• Hard to use• Problems with features

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Pros

• Time saving• Saves paper• Good way to communicate with students• Helps keep classes organized• Secure testing environment (lockdown

browser)

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Cons

iLearn was described as:

• Clunky• Slow• Counter-intuitive• A mind-boggling waste of time

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Problems with the features

• Useful features missing.• The quizzes don’t always save. Students get

frustrated.• The gradebook is not user-friendly.• Safe assignment is not reliable.

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iLearn Specific Debatable point

iLearn has too many features in one program.

Con: In this way, iLearn does a lot, but none of it well. All the features make it very slow, clunky, etc.

Pro: A faculty member can pick and choose what he/she likes without having to do much extra work.

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CMS Debatable Point

The availability of course material for students.

Con: Students are given too much help – everything is available for them so they are not pushed in any way. They are “spoon-fed”.

Pro: Students are given the opportunity to take responsibility for their learning.

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Thank You!

David Prescott, dprescott@aus.eduWalid Alieldin, weldin@aus.edu

Shireen Baghestani, sbaghestani@aus.eduKathleen Botter, kbotter@aus.edu

Cindy Gunn, cgunn@aus.edu