Oracle Online

The recent upturn in Blackboard use by professors is due in part to encouragement from the University.
Kate Conners, Hamline’s Instructional Technology Coordinator, said “the university has a strategic initiative for the professors to use technology in the classroom. They are encouraging the use of not just Blackboard, but other technologies as well.”

According to Conners, online learning management systems such as Blackboard are important for students to use in order to develop skills necessary to compete in the 21st-century job market.

“To be able to articulate yourself in any way possible”, said Conners, “is only to enrich your value as a global citizen.”

When Conners arrived at the university in February, not many professors were using Blackboard. Other professors had created their own web sites for the purposes of posting syllabi and uploading course materials. According to Conners, when it comes to Blackboard “the real benefit...is that it allows more instructors the same kind of [online] capability.”

Individual instructors wishing to post materials on their web sites previously had to bother with their own web design, including understanding HTML code in many cases. These web sites still lacked such features as password-protected access to grades and discussion forums. “[Blackboard] is an interface system;” said Conners, “it’s easier to upload, and it allows more faculty to take advantage.”

Conners noted that the creativity with which professors are building on the Blackboard system is very impressive. The use of Blackboard and other instructional technologies is “all about fulfilling the Hamline Promise,” said Conners.

Conners is particularly excited about the discussion board feature, explaining that “it provides a way for those students who are more introverted or for those whose first language is not English to participate, and also for those of us who have big mouths to be able to hear them.”

Rather than copying the materials and handing them out in class, professors are increasingly making course documents available on Blackboard. Conners said that the practice is a way “to allocate money for other things.”

Although this now places the copying burden on the students’ budget, the convenience outweighs the cost. Said Conners, “the material is there 24/7, [so] you can get it whenever you need to use it.”

As more and more teaching begins to occur online, there will unavoidably be debates about which format, online or face-to-face, is better. Conners responds to this issue by saying that “I don’t think you can say one is better than the other, just that they’re different.”

Regarding Hamline’s use of online resources, Conners sees professors as “augmenting their already fine instruction”. Students will have the chance to show what they think of the evolving system through their own participation throughout the semester.