e-Learning: The Academic Staff Perspective

'A significant proportion of students on Business School courses are from overseas, and often non-native speakers of English. Technology mediated communication through the VLE offers these students the opportunity to revisit and rephrase their contributions and answers before going public, which helps in building confidence.'

'The system is seen as being of immense benefit to students. It allows distance-learning students to maintain a better sense of community and, where previously these students might have felt isolated, they can more easily know everyone on the course and communicate with them. The VLE also facilitates collaborative working arrangements, and has changed the role of the tutor to facilitator and observer rather than active participant in discussions, for instance. '

'I feel as though I have regained my module - students used to start out well then learn by rote - I can see a shift towards greater student responsibility in learning, not just taking handouts and notes.'

'Using [BlackBoard] enables me to deploy a whole new dimension - the contemporary dimension - to the teaching of [this subject]'

'[What I like about the VLE is that...] "it enables me and studnets to explore dimension of [this subject] that would have been otherwise impossible.'

'This is perhaps the most revolutionary and brilliant move in education since libraries! The potential is boundless." (On MIT's OCW) '

- - -

'The time available to staff, necessary to update their skills and experiment with and exploit opportunities provided by the VLE, is still a barrier to wider uptake. Maybe more dedicated support is needed.'

'One lecturer started to use the VLE more or less independently in a fairly basic manner: 'glorified hand-outs' enriched with cluster of multiple-choice questions. This lecturer believed that some colleagues are unlikely to make even these first steps, and suggested that resources that seem to be available to support and encourage technology-related developments seem sometimes disproportionate to what is available to improve or sustain other areas of our work.'

'There is a tendency for staff to dump materials on the VLE and assume that they have an 'online' course. The system is also not yet fully integrated with either email or other VLEs.'

'Staff often underestimate how much time and commitment is necessary to get courses properly onto the system in a way that makes sense and which students can understand. Few staff understand that teaching online is much more difficult than face to face. It has been estimated that 1 hour online = 3 hours face to face.'

'Some students just don't engage with the VLE - the key need is to get them to attend lectures and seminars and to give them printed handouts. Students don't know how to learn - can't generally make best use of a wealth of materials on a VLE.'

'My biggest difficulty has been getting access for student users. I have not done as much with [BlackBoard] as I would have liked for fear of excluding students who hadn't yet received usernames. As ours is a large first-year class, it takes until roughly Reading Week for the roster to sort itself out.'

+ + + / - - -

'The system 'fell over' frequently and both staff and students found it hard to log in to the system - sometimes it took up to 20 minutes to log in, which meant that the system was unpopular and not used to its fullest potential. The network problem was solved by investment in a new server "backbone" and the centralisation of support for the VLE and other e-learning systems. The new system allows much better communication between staff and students and students can also communicate with one another much more easily.'

'Discussion lists are a very positive aspect - sharing and communicating is valuable, but they need a lot of facilitation and work. There are real worries about managing the sheer volume of questions and postings when undergraduate classes are up to 110.'

'Perhaps the role of staff will change - course materials will be expected to be delivered only through the VLE and staff will focus more on monitoring and counselling individual learners.'

Notes:

* This institution was a case study for the JISC and UCISA Managed Learning Environment Activity in Further and Higher Education in the UK. Quoted from concluding report, December 2003.
† SOAS was also a case study for the above. Quoted from Staff VLE Evaluation results — December 2003 by Zoë Toft. Original punctuation and grammar preserved.
₁ From MIT OpenCourseWare: World Reaction