Groan! I use WebCT

Just when I think that I am out of it, they pull me back in.

Silvio's imitation of Al Pacino's anguish in The Godfather II that causes Tony Soprano and his pals to break up in laughter.

I use WebCT extensively with my U. S. history classes. I assumed that I was doing the right things by dragging my students into 21st-century-behavior. After reading this report, I dunno.

[x CHE]
From the issue dated July 4, 2003

Study of Wisconsin Professors Finds Drawbacks to Course-Management Systems
By DAN CARNEVALE

As course-management systems become staples of college instruction, some students and professors say the software is harder to learn to use than they expected, a survey in the University of Wisconsin System has found.

Professors at many universities say that course-management software helps them organize their courses better and brings new levels of interaction both among students and between students and professors. The Wisconsin study sought to test that hypothesis by asking what professors really think about the software.

According to the study, faculty members find course-management systems time-consuming and inflexible, and students find them difficult to use. Some faculty members in the Wisconsin system reported that their students actively discourage the use of course-management systems.

A report on the study, "Faculty Use of Course Management Systems," confirms that the software is becoming ubiquitous as a classroom tool -- not just in online learning, but also in otherwise-traditional face-to-face courses. In fact, 80 percent of the faculty members in the survey who use the software apply it primarily to traditional courses.

Technophobic Students

The study is based on a survey of 730 faculty and staff members in the University of Wisconsin System who use course-management systems, and on interviews with 140 of them. The survey participants make up about 11 percent of the system's faculty members and about half of those who use course-management software.

Most faculty members who took part in the survey use Blackboard software, although some use WebCT. A handful of professors use other systems, including LearningSpace and Prometheus.

Glenda Morgan, the university system's learning-technology analyst, wrote the report. The study was financed by the Center for Applied Research of Educause, the education-technology consortium. Although the study covers professors in the Wisconsin system only, Ms. Morgan says she would expect to see similar results at most major institutions in the United States.

The study concludes that professors at Wisconsin generally find course-management systems to be good organizational tools for teaching, research, and administration.

But some technical difficulties limit the software's full benefits. Despite the popular notion that students are technologically savvy and converse mainly through instant messaging and e-mail, the study found that many students are not proficient with technology.

Ms. Morgan says the faculty members are reluctant to use some of the bells and whistles of the software because they see some students as a little technophobic. "Apparently lots of students are having problems using the technology," she says.

She suggests that institutions spend more time training their faculty members on how to use the technology in their courses.

Drivers and Inhibitors

James L. Morrison, a professor emeritus of educational leadership at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, says that because the survey was not based on responses from a random sample of faculty members, the results do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the system's entire faculty. Even so, he says, the findings are of value because the survey attracted many responses.

Mr. Morrison, who is also editor of an online journal called The Technology Source, says he is not surprised that some students have trouble with technology. The stereotype, he says, is of 18- or 19-year-old Web surfers, while the reality is that many students are as old as 40 and 50.

Richard Katz, vice president of Educause, says the study dispels a myth that all students are on top of the latest gadgetry and are demanding it in the classroom.

"You simultaneously have students who are drivers of faculty behavior and also are inhibitors of using technology," Mr. Katz says. "It's a bit of a twist of the problem of the digital divide."

He says that Educause will finance another study asking students what they think of course-management systems and how they use them.

Matthew Pittinsky, chairman of Blackboard Inc., says he is surprised at the finding that students were slow to feel comfortable with the software. He says he has found that students are the ones demanding that their professors use more technology in the classroom.

Sometimes, he says, students are not so much confused by the technology as they are frustrated by constantly having to check online for further course discussions and additional reading assignments. "Ease of use is the most important aspect of the technology," Mr. Pittinsky says.

Ms. Morgan says one benefit of the software is that it prompts faculty members to rethink their approach to teaching. For example, many professors use electronic bulletin boards to supplement discussions they have in the classroom.

"They have this electronic discussion running at the same time," Ms. Morgan says. "They're not thinking about student pedagogy as they go into it, but that seems to be the outcome."

Text of the Study

Copyright, The Chronicle of Higher Education, 2003