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Using Blackboard to Survey Students at Midterm

Abstract

Increased attention on the quality of teaching has meant an increase in the use of student surveys as a measure of teaching quality. Most student surveys are conducted to give feedback to the instructor after the class is concluded. We will share how we used the anonymous survey feature in Blackboard, our course management software, to survey our students at midterm in order to give our teachers feedback when they could still make necessary changes in the class.

Description

While the literature on student surveys of teaching is constantly growing, it usually focuses on the instruments used, with very little about the mode in which the surveys are administered. At Louisiana State University in Shreveport, we are trying midterm surveying of students to help instructors make necessary changes in their classroom practices during that same semester. While our faculty felt student surveys conducted at the end of the term were extremely important, their main concern was this: What could they be doing "now" to improve their teaching and their student's learning? Prior to this use of Blackboard's survey feature, the results from the end-of-semester types of surveys were not returned until at least a month into the next semester. Additionally, the surveys were only administered in the fall. Evaluation was always seen as the last step in the process. Few studies look at what happens after the evaluation. What does exist is generally concerned with how feedback is given to staff (Brinko, 1993) how staff deal with it (Busuttil, 1995) or how useful it is (Marsh & Roche, 1994). Ramsden and Dodds (1989) suggest communicating with students on changes that have been made so that students complete the questionnaires seriously.

This study examines five instructors who agreed to administer anonymous mid-term Blackboard surveys to all their classes. The instructors are to give feedback to the students about the pedagogical decisions they have taken as a result of feedback received from previous groups of students, if they actually have that data. While providing this information to students may reinforce their views of the importance of the surveys, this study addresses the mode used to administer the surveys, whether or not the instructor receives helpful information, and if students took the surveys seriously using this online mode at the mid-term point in the semester. Students in this study will have input into our report as well as the instructors. The main issue for the instructors is that it provides evidence of the instructor's concern for students by surveying them when changes can still be made in their classrooms. Current literature on higher education suggests that concern and respect for students is an integral element of good teaching practice.

A second phase of this study will be about the development and creation of this particular survey so that it would work well in an online environment such as Blackboard. We will also share how we developed it in one Blackboard class and exported it to be available to all faculty who wanted to use it. Since "importing" and using the Pool Manager within Blackboard is not an easy or simple task, we will also share how we were able to successfully teach our faculty members how to do this without becoming frustrated. Each faculty member could then adapt the survey to his or her specific discipline if they chose to or leave it in the more generic form if that suited his or her needs. If the teacher acts on the information received through the online surveys and communicates that action back to students, can it be determined if he or she is ultimately saying 'I am willing to let your views influence and change what I do in my teaching and in this way I am making you a participant in this process?" We survey these teachers to see if they feel they have opened up the process of teaching and improved teaching to students as a result of these mid-term surveys.

This study will be a report on the online survey creation itself, the anonymous survey feature in Blackboard used as the mode to administer the survey, and the results that the instructors experienced as they affect teaching and learning.

Proceeding

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