Presenters: Birthe Aagesen & Karen Louise Møller Organisation: Faculty of Arts, Aarhus University Description: Presentation session (45 min) with time for questions. The presentation will address: - An investigation of Blackboard Course Structures on the basis of a socio cultural perception of learning - Application and evaluation of selected Blackboard Course Structures in courses at Aarhus University.

1. Course Structures in
Blackboard
Blackboard Groningen 2016

2. Aarhus
• Aarhus University
(50.000 students, instructors &
staff)
• The second largest town in
Denmark
• Danes are the happiest people
in the world (or the least
unhappiest)
• Come and see us in 2017 - our
year as European Capital of
Culture

3. Aarhus University
Faculty of Arts
(approx. 14.000 students and 800 instructors)
CUDiM / TDM
(Center of Teaching Development and Digital
Media)

4. Karen Louise Møller
Teaching developer
Core projects
Implementation of Blackboard
Teacher training
klmoeller@tdm.au.dk
Birthe Aagesen
Project Lead Arts
and teaching developer
Core projects
Implementation of Blackboard
Teacher training
baagesen@tdm.au.dk

5. Let’s go a bit back

6. Arts course structure
Developed autumn
2013 by student and
instructors from Faculty
of Arts
Tested spring 2014
Presented in our
teaching training
materials (keycards)

7. Teacher training material

9. Blackboard Course Structures
Menu Templates
23 + 9

10. Why look at the Course Structures in
Blackboard?
• Curiosity: What’s in the box of Course
Structures and can we use it?
• Strategy for Educational It, Faculty of Arts,
Aarhus University
– Challenge: Low use of interaction tools in
Blackboard (2015)

11. Educational It Strategy Arts, Aarhus
University
The vision for Educational It:
Relations between students, teachers and academic
content must be supported, so that the best conditions
are given for:
• The teachers' planning, implementation and
evaluation of teaching
• The students opportunities to work with and learn
what is required
• Interaction between students and between students
and teachers

12. What to do?
PART ONE
TAKING A CLOSER LOOK AT
THE BLACKBOARD COURSE STRUCTURES
(What’s in the box?)
PART TWO
TESTING THE COURSE STRUCTURES IN
UNIVERSITY TEACHING
(Do they provide clarity and structure and do they
deliver possibilities for collaboration?)

13. Clarity and structure
Research shows that clarity and structure is an
important element in teaching (Meyer 2008)
So…
We want the students to experience
• Overview
• Ability to find materials and information
• That the titles of the menu-items covers what
they head to

14. Socio Cultural Learning
Learning is social and mediated by culturally created
tools such as language or other more specific tools
(Jones and Dirckinck Holmfeld, 2009)
“Research has shown that student interaction can
indeed increase group performance and individual
learning outcomes”
(Papadopoulus 2013 referencing several researchers, p. 383)
 WE WANT THE STUDENTS TO COLLABORATE

15. Part One
Analysing 23
Blackboard Course Structures

16. Findings Part One
5 of 23 course structures contains blog,
discussionboard and wiki
x

17. Social Learning Web 2.0

18. Part Two
Course structures in
University Teaching

19. Course structures in University
Teaching

20. Method
• Survey (9 questions)
• Observation - We counted the number
of:
–Blog Posts + Comments
–Discussion Board posts + Replys
–Wiki Posts + Comments
–Teacher organized activitivies involving
the use of blog, discussion Board or
Wiki in the course

21. Survey Questions focused on the students’
experiences of clarity and structure

22. Survey Questions focused on the students’
experiences of collaboration opportunities

23. The scale (Likert)

24. Findings part two
(Clarity and structure)
Survey Response Rate: 44% (59 students)

25. Course Overview
Question 1: To what extend did the course
structure provide an overview of the content
in the Course?
%

26. Menu Items
Question 3: To what extend does titles of
the menu items cover for the information,
materials or features they lead to?
%

27. Finding information and materials
Question 5: To what extend have you been
able to find the information or materials, that
you needed in the course?
%

28. Conclusion Part Two
A majority of the students:
• Experienced overview of the course content
• Were able to find materials and information
• Experienced the Menu Titels adequate for the
information, materials and features they
headed to
The students experienced Clarity and Structure in
the courses with the course structures:
”Web 2.0” and ”Social learning”

29. Findings part two
(Collaboration)
Survey Response Rate: 44% (59 students)

30. How many posts per. student?
Observation Data
Observation data

31. How much collaboration?
Question 7: To what extend have you had the
opportunity to collaborate with others (for
example ask questions, answer questions, share,
deliver) by the options in the course?
%

32. Why collaboration in two courses?
No. of posts per student
No. of teacher
organized
Collaboration
activities
Assistant Prof., Teacher
training Course
China Studies
Entrepreneurship
Student, Teacher training Course

33. Conclusion
A majority of the students in two of the
courses* experienced opportunities to
collaborate with others
*: Teacher training course for Assistant professors and China Studies
Collaboration happens in the two courses where the
teacher organize activities involving the use of blogs,
discussion boards or wikis

34. Recommendations
Using these two* Course Structures will not
automatically result in more collaboration among
the students, but they are able to provide clarity
and structure
Therefore……provide the teachers with:
• Good examples of activities with blogs, discussion
boards and wikis
• Teacher training courses with focus on student
collaboration in Blog, Discussion board and Wiki
in Blackboard
*: Web 2.0 and Social learning Course Structures

35. Comments from the
students/participants
”The Discussionboards and Wikis has brought many
exchanges of good ideas”
(Assistant prof., Teacher training Course)
“It has worked fine”
(Assistant prof., Teacher training Course)
“It is not possible to create an overview in Blackboard. That's just
how it is and you just have to accept it”
(Teacher training course for students)
“It seems like there are so many categories and relatively little
content to distribute. Most often it becomes a safari hunt to find
the right file” (Teacher training course for students)

36. Our findings and research on
CSCL (Computer supported
collaborative learning)
“Collaborating students often fail to engage
in fruitful interactions when left without instructional
support” (Papadopoulus 2013 , p. 383)
But…..
”Scripted collaborative learning has reportedly
resulted in improved learning outcomes”
(Papadopoulus 2013 referencing several researchers, p. 384)

37. Script
A script contains information about:
Why participate in the activity ?
(learning objectives )
What activities must take place ?
Where and when do they take place?
Specific roles for students?

38. Example of an activity
Objective
To investigate the usefulness of Discussion Boards in your own
classes
Activity
1. Read the guide “ Discussion forums in university teaching“
2. Watch the video " Rasmus B. Møller : Use of Discussion
Boards in University Teaching ”
3. Describe how to use discussion board in your own teaching
in the discussion board "Discussion Boards in education ”. You
can find the board under "Discussion board, questions and
answers ." ( 200-500 words) (deadline)
4. Comment to one of the other participants in the course.
Focus on possible improvements. (deadline)

39. Questions?
Do you have experiences with Blackboard
Course Structures?
How do you train teachers in using
blackboard interaction tools?

40. Literature
• Jones, C & Dirckinck Holmfeld, L. (2009), Analysing
networked learner practices : An introduction I:
Dirckin-Holmfeld, L., Jones, C & Lindström, B (eds).
Analysing Networked Practices in Higher Education and
Continuing Professional Development. s. 6 - 34. Sense
Publishers
• Meyer, H., 2008. Hvad er god undervisning?
København: Gyldendal.
• Papadopoulos PM, Demetriadis SN, Weinberger A.
'Make it explicit!': Improving collaboration through
increase of script coercion. J Comput Assisted Learn
2013 08;29(4):383-398.