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Blackboard Survey - Spring 2008
Total - 213 Responses
- Which of the following Blackboard access permissions applies to your account?
Instructor - (90%)
Teaching Assistant - (9%)
- How long have you been using a Blackboard course site?
Two years or less - (34%)
Three years or more - (65%)
- How often do you generally expect your students to access your Blackbaoard course site?
Less than once a week - (10%)
Once a week - (40%)
Several times a week - (47%)
Students are not expected to access my Blackboard course site - (0%)
- Which of the following file types do you generally post on your Blackboard course site?
Microsoft Word documents - (79%)
Spreadsheets (.xls) - (17%)
HTML documents - (19%)
Images (.gif/.jpg) - (28%)
PowerPoint presentations - (45%)
PDF documents (Adobe Acrobat/Reader) - (74%)
Flash files (.swf) - (1%)
Sound files (of any type including links to streaming audio files) - (8%)
Video files (of any type including links to streaming video files) - (14%)
Links to other web pages or web sites - (53%)
I do not post any files or links on my Blackboard course site - (3%)
- Which of the following Blackboard interactive tools do you generally use during the course of the semester?
E-Mail - (86%)
Discussion Board - (33%)
Chat Room - (0%)
Groups - (10%)
Digital Drop Box - (15%)
Student File Exchange - (11%)
- Which of the following online Tufts library resources are linked to your Blackboard course site?
Tufts Library Indexes and Abstracts - (5%)
Tufts Library Full Text Journals - (13%)
Tufts Library Subject Resource Pages - (5%)
There are no special links to any online Tufts library resources - (83%)
- Which of the following statements correctly describes your opinion of the Blackboard software?
I am generally satisfied with the functionality of the Blackboard software. - (94%)
I am generally unsatisfied with the functionality of the Blackboard software. - (5%)
My students seem generally satisfied with the functionality of the Blackboard software. - (94%)
My students seem generally unsatisfied with the functionality of the Blackboard software. - (5%)
- Which of the following statements correctly describes your opinion of the ITS support for your Blackboard course sites?
I am generally satisfied with the ITS support for my Blackboard course site. - (98%)
I am generally unsatisfied with the ITS support for my Blackboard course site. - (0%)
My students seem satisfied with ITS support for Blackboard. - (99%)
My students seem unsatisfied with ITS support for Blackboard. - (4%)
- ITS is considering upgrading to the Enterprise version of Blackboard which includes many tools not currently available to instructors and TAs. Which of the following course tools would you likely incorporate into your Blackboard course site if available?
Full-text search of Blackboard course site - (36%)
Drag and drop files or folders (with multiple files) from desktop to course site - (69%)
Department wide central storage of files for use on course site. - (19%)
Built-in web editor for creating web pages - (28%)
Authoring of mathematical and scientific equations - (15%)
Integrate searching of library database and resources into course site. - (35%)
Plagiarism detection system for digitally submitted papers - (39%)
Voice messages, discussions and e-mail - (15%)
Student or Instructor Blogs incorporated into Blackboard course site - (21%)
Online course evaluations - (48%)
Interactive scheduler (students make on-line appointments or reserve equipment) - (28%)
Site e-mail archive (stores all e-mail sent through site) - (27%)
E-mail alerts (sends e-mail to students when item is posted to site) - (50%)
Avatar images of students associated with course rosters. - (17%)
Expanded gradebook calculations. - (26%)
Updated RSS feed of online articles. - (12%)
Student or course site wiki. - (16%)
Online student journals. - (26%)
- Upgrading to an Advanced Learning Management System would allow for a number of system-wide tools currently not available to instructors and students. Which of the following system-wide tools would you like to see incorporated into our Learning Management System?
Automatic creation of new course sites each semester for all Medford classes. - (49%)
Automatic population of all course sites with the accounts of all registered students each semester. - (70%)
Retention of each semester's course site content for both instructors and students. - (53%)
Course site username and password the same as Tufts e-mail usernames and passwords. - (49%)
Student Portfolio (student storage of assigned papers and projects). - (31%)
Instructor Workspace (storage area for instructor files for all their course sites). - (40%)
Tufts Emergency notices posted on the main login page. - (30%)
Course site disability support for users with visual and hearing disabilities. - (49%)
- Use the space below to add any additional comments you may have concerning Blackboard or Blackboard support.
None
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Auatomatic creation of new course sites each semester might be useful but only if coupled with an easy way to move (eg drag and drop) files and folders from the previous year or semester.
Some kind of brief (half day) optional instruction on how to use tools on Blackboard would be welcome (eg it took me time to learn how to create separate dropboxes for each assignment which is inprinciple very handy - but so clunky at least as I figured out how to do it that I end up using the generic dropbox instead.
Thank you to the Tufts staff who do a great job of supporting Blackboard and helping us faculty use it.
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Despite the Tufts affiliation, there is no adequate integration of the School of the Museum of Fine Arts into the Blackboard system.
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So far, I have used the Blackboard for posting quizzes but I plan to use it more, especially if you can create a discussion board that is more robust and user friendly that the one on TUSK.
I would appreciate if you register the 1st year veterinary students automatically to the Blackboard site in the beginning of the spring semester. I added them manually one by one this year. I did not have this issue in previous years.
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My technical knowledge is so limited that I do not know what I need or could use; therefore, I could not comment on the last two sections. Blackboard has been an enormous help for me; and Neal always available.
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I wouldn't really say that I am "unsatisfied" with Blackboard as such, but I find the site clunky and difficult to navigate. Put simply, I find that it takes too long to upload documents and there are too many buttons to press (e.g. "Ok" after successfully uploading).
The layout looks extremely old-fashioned.
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I use Blackboard extensively. I have two suggestions:
1) The layout of pages is too spread out. I find myself moving the cursor from one side of the page to the other, from top to bottom. Keeping buttons and slider closer together would be a huge improvement.
2) The grading program is very inefficient. I dread entering data into the program because so many steps are involved and it takes so long to do things. Once again, this is partly a design problem. It seems Blackboard designers like to keep things as spread apart as possible. This makes for a clean page, but it is very inefficient.
Charles Inouye
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I have no needs that I know of that would be provided by an upgrade.
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re satisfaction with BB functionality, I am satisfied only because I have learned how to do what I need to do within its limited functionality
re satisfaction with IT support, it could be a bit faster
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intriguing, but depends on cost; open source better?
BB not very responsive to captive market?
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Neal Hirsig is an excellent Blackboard administrator. He is responsive when BB is down and always available to support our teaching mission.
Thanks, Neal!
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I have found Blackboard very helpful. This year, I began using more features, such as the test-writing capability (which I actually use for homework rather than tests). Except for somewhat cumbersome entry of mathematical equations, it is great.
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Make it easier to add/remove students to/from a course and to a group. Right now the process is extremely long and tedious and it does not have to be.
It should be possible for multiple students to be added at once instead of having to do the long roundabout way that is set up now.
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Mr. Hirsig is the best ITS professional I've ever worked with. Ever. By far. He always responds almost immediately. He always knows the right answer, and says it in a way that is comprehensible. He is personable and pleasant to speak with and communicate with. He understands the connection between what needs to be done, what the computer can do, and knows how to explain it in layman's terms.
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Neal Hirsig is an outstanding director of this invaluable resource. I am very grateful.
Eva Hoffman
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We've tried to podcast the lectures and it's extremely difficult to podcast when you can't upload large files. Camtasia (the program that is used to produce the podcasts) always crashes my computer whenever I try to produce the podcast.
It would be great to get a platform which would support uploading larger files.
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I use blackboard in two ways. Originally I started using it in an Honors Calculus course for which I was in the process of writing the text, and the main advantage of blackboard was that students could access up-to-date corrected versions of the text. I continue to use it in this way; the delayed availability feature is very useful for posting homework answers. Second, in multisection courses like Math 11, I have started using it to post review problems and old exams for review.
I have a few minor complaints. One is that I invariably get a query from my computer that the certificate for the site is not recognized and do I trust the site? The problem is that this happens not when I first log in, but later, when I am in the middle of typing something, which then has to be retyped. In general, I have noted that reaction times for blackboard have slowed down lately. A second complaint is that linking multiple files is very awkward at present; this may change if you go to one of the new, fancier versions.
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I would like to see spell checking in the box that I make announcements. I often do these quickly and it would help catch typing errors.
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Several students have had real problems uploading Microsoft Word files to the digital dropbox this semester. Neal had mentioned it might have something to do with Macros, but that doesn't seem to be the case. Can this be addressed?
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The new discussion board format has been so difficult to deal with that I stopped using it. In the past, it was easy to have a discussion and keep it going by adding new ideas (which never disappeared when one accessed the board), but this semester, it was impossible to find what had been read once. Only new threads were visible.
It would be a good idea to allow visibility of former postings when first logging on the discussion board.
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Is there a way to let the instructor know that a certain function that she is using is unavailable to students? Sometimes I'm not sure what I can do as an instructor and what I can do simply as a Blackboard user.
This may be my ignorance of the site, but is it possible to have discussion/posting in any section other than Discussion? For instance, I wanted students to post drafts to a new category I created, but they were unable to do so.
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First time used by me. The more I use it the more I like it. Students, of course, love it .....
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Some of these new features sound interesting but I would need to know more before incorporating them. Also, its not clear how the automatic feature listed above differs from what we have now (from the user's point of view). I would like a way of archiving a site for instructor use -- we sort of have that option now but its not perfect (I can't remember why though).
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I have generally found the UI for Blackboard slow and awkward. Rather than add lots of whiz-bang new features, it would be great if I could add an entry and not wait a minute (literally; I timed it) for the interface to figure itself out. Also, it should pop documents into new tabs/windows or make effective use of sidebar navigation rather than open documents in the same window. The email communication system could also use a useability overhaul. As designed, the current interface feels clunky and slow, which is the greater block to me using the features with my students than the lack of features.
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I do have a link to an online Tufts library resource not listed in the choices above: the Research Paper Navigator at http://www.library.tufts.edu/researchpaper/
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In the future, I may be interested in adding video clips.
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I honestly don't know enough about these other things to comment, but if they seem useful to my TA and students, I'll try to add them. My TA manages my blackboard site; I rarely deal with it. Martha Pott
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I could not easily run my course without using blackboard and its features.
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A couple of minor issues: When I'm entering a new item, the cursor disappears after a couple of seconds, and I have to click back in the box to resume entering text. Not a big problem, but annoying.
The survey manager is still flaky -- display of items is inconsistent, and system for reordering questions doesn't work well.
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I would offer much stronger support for Tufts purchasing an alternative service such as Moodle (open source and free for the University) or Angel.
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Blackboard has become an integral part of my teaching. It has contributed greatly to the effectiveness and efficiency of my work with students.
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Neal Hirsig (and whatever elves are helping him) provides fast and helpful support for Blackboard users! He rocks!
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Blackboard is very good. My only complaint is that it is SLOW to post files. I don't like the new fancy editor which lets you format text in all kinds of ways... this just makes the page much slower to load and I never use the formatting features.
I mainly use the site for posting PDF files, so anything that makes it faster to post files is great.
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I am too ignorant to know what I would like to have in the future. It's all been a miracle for me.
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Because I am not a full-timer, my use of Blackboard is probably less than it might be if I was more a full-timer. But I need to say you folks in IT were great and the system seems to work quite well. Thanks. Your anticipated changes sound great as well.
jerry
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I'd like to see improved ease-of-use for courses with large enrollments with multiple sections. E.g., a gradebook that can be easily segmented into sections so that all grade categories are shared.
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Many of the functions I checked looked very interesting & I would consider for use with the necessary training. I did not know what some functions were. I particularly like the email alerts, wiki, student portfolio. I would like the student portfolios to be able to be retained by student throughout their stay @ Tufts & when they leave.
Thanks for all of your excellent support!
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I think the site is great.
My only issue has been that sometimes not all students are uploaded on to the site and that students who do not have a "tufts" e-mail address do do not get e-mails through blackboards.
thanks!
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Excellent and prompt support given throughout these years by Neal Hirsig!
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When updating a file, the availability date reverts automatically to current date. I would very much prefer if this didn't happen
montserrat teixidor
Math
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The best part of blackboard at Tufts is Neal Hirsig! He has been extraordinarily helpful and responsive every time I have needed his help.
I have been generally quite satisfied with blackboard. I am not a sophisticated user of it, but some of the enhancements on this form sound very useful even to an unsophisticated user like myself.
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The Digital Dropbox is very inadequate for turning in student work. The reason is that it does not have a way to separate different assignments over the term. Thus, by the time one is at say,the 3rd project, the dropbox is already full of student papers from the first and second exercises. It then becomes difficult to separate out the new work and grade it. What is desperately needed is a locker or folder system so that each assignment can be turned in electronically to its own spot within the dropbox.
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I have no idea what most of the upgrades on the Enterprise section mean!
I would like to be able to create new course sites that would transfer old materials in, but leave old course site intact--it would make upgrading new courses much easier than the current system I use of overwriting old courses or creating new ones whole cloth.
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could Blackboard or similar tool be integrated with the Spark tools?
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Some students have had trouble posting their papers to Digital Dropbox. (I get an "apache" something message). Is there any way to get Blackboard to accept those papers? we've had to resort to email attachments. Thanks!
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Please upgrade the real media server ASAP so that other types of files can be supported, including windows media, QuickTime, mp3, mpeg, etc.
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I would like to explore how I can create a lesson plan for each class that integrates all av etc. into one dashboard or one page. Right now I am juggling a million different programs when I am actually in front of the class room.
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I would like to use more streaming video, but was never able to figure out who handles this kind of transfer.
Other than that, great job!
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A small single homepage with log-in at the top has been much appreciated. If non-serious emergency notices (parking, construction, snow) trump log-in, I'd vote for no so-called "emergency notices."
Also, the Discussion Board was better before the upgrade. A large paragraph of text is awkward in a column of tiny print . The current Discussion Board doesn't seem user-friendly especially for the visually impaired.
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Drag and drop of files in blackboard sites would help a lot with organization. Most of the other features listed would be of limited value.
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We really want to look at Virtual Blackboard and chat. Several of our students have asked that we all meet once a week at the same time. I'm curious about using the Virtual white board.Our 3 Fulcrum courses only meet online rather than face-to-face with an online component.
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The current gradebook system leaves a lot to be desired in terms of statistical analysis and data manipulation; we have to do everything in Excel and then hand copy the results to Blackboard. Either greatly expand the functionality or make for easier transfer of SPSS/Excel files to Blackboard.
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The Blackboard is not friendly to Mac users!
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it used to be the case that we could track the times that each document posted on blackboard was accessed by each student. this was helpful to find out which students were accessing files and when. Why is this function apparently no longer available?
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Would like ability to personalize for background and design for the course. Maybe I just haven't figured out how to do this.
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I would really like an interactive scheduler!
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In general, Blackboard has worked very well, and IT has always responded extremely quickly and effectively to problems. I have had some technical difficulties this semester in particular - often being bumped off Blackboard, and even out of Internet Explorer, when posting or modifying documents. Other than that, the site is a wonderful resource, and very user-friendly.
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I know you provided some Blackboard training, but I failed to take advantage of it, and it would have helped improve my use of the site. Please keep providing it and encouraging us to take advantage of it! Thanks.
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There are a couple things that I feel are essential that I were not on blackboard. First, when the semester starts, the class web site should be updated to have current information. I recall being unable to use blackboard for Math 11 because it was populated with people and information from the past several years! The Math 12 web site was the same until Prof. Hahn requested that it be cleaned up. Second, the email functionality should be improved so that I can email all the students in my section without having to select each on of them individually from the list of EVERYONE. I believe that functionality should be there, but every time I trid it it didn't work. This has made emailing my class much more of a task.
On the other hand, I think that it's great that we can post so many things for the class to download such as prior exams.
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I find it very useful but after using it for over 4 years, I'm still figuring out what it can do. For example, I didn't know until today that I could create links to library resources. Now I'd like to find out how to do it!
I also haven't used the digital drop-box in the past because I was unsure how to set it up and use it, but I think it would be extremely useful. I have found the IS staff very helpful when I have a particular question about how to use some function of blackboard, but I don't always know what I don't know, or what questiosn I should ask, to become a more proficient user.
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Although this is not critical, I did not like the new way in which the Discussion Board is organized.
I would like a better (more flexible) Quiz maker (this is important to me)
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Blackbaord is essential to my course and if I have any problems or questions U have been very helpful.
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I and also the students had sporadic problems with a discussion board. Several of the students said they don't like Blackboard anyway (I do!). I think an instruction session in its use wd be a good idea for entering GRADUATE students!
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Classroom Technology
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