January 31, 2012 | By: Nick Morris

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Surviving the semester: Virtual Learning Environments (VLEs) - Chalkboard

Virtual Learning Environments (VLEs - see Do you speak my language: V is for Volume, Vapourware, Virus, VoIP, VNC, VPN, VLE, Virtual Campus) can really help with surviving the semester, or they can make life more difficult.

The VLE I have been using is "Chalkboard", which although nowhere near ideal or perfect, it has significantly helped (and at times hindered) my survival of the semester. What is interesting is when you use Chalkboard you do come away with the impression that it was designed by people that don't teach!

We are using the latest version of Chalkboard and I must say it is a big improvement over the previous version.

The last version was like using something, in terms of the interface and the design, from the 1990s. The new version is like something from around 2008, but with some 'features' peaking through that still hint to the 1990s.

What Chalkboard does well

The new version of Chalkboard is a lot easier to use, and this means that it is quicker and easier for staff to get things set up and get material online.

The new assessment system is a great improvement, and seems fairly robust. The system also has a number of little features that make it much more user-friendly in terms of layout of pages and menus, and also some automated control over the appearance and disappearance of material, for example, empty folders can now be set to not appear if they are empty.

It is also relatively easy to get information in and out of the system - but it tends to go in in a strange format, and come out in a format that is even worse (See Surviving the semester: Assessments - Writing the Questions, Surviving the semester: Assessments - Writing the Questions - Coding and Surviving the semester: Assessments - Marking and Feedback).

One thing that is clear is the students like the new version of Chalkboard, and the staff think it is an improvement over the old.

Where Chalkboard fails

Unfortunately Chalkboard fails on many many levels. These include design, implementation, and ease of use; automation; and most worryingly pedagogically.

Design, implementation, and ease of use - don't get me wrong, the new version is a HUGE improvement over the old, but it still has some rough edges (also see Pedagogical below). For example, the system doesn't really support drag and drop, so there is still a lot of clicking of buttons to get things done. Also, although the 'mash-up' features are greatly improved they are still very limited, and around 4 - 5 years behind what is possible.

The design and implementation of the 'Marks Book' (this is where student marks and student work can be accessed) is a real problem as it is slow, clunky, virtually unsearchable, and is like a big nasty spread, and I am not a great fan of spreadsheets (see Exam Question: Spreadsheets are evil. Discuss.).

One other issue is the staff view of what is happening and what can be seen if different from what the students can see. This causes some problems as it is not admittedly clear, particularly when students report a problem (e.g. an assessment not showing up), whether the problem is the student is looking in the wrong place, or that Chalkboard has been set up incorrectly. A 'spoof' button that allows staff to see exactly what a particular student sees would be a really useful tool.

Automation - This is a real problem, and it is where Chalkboard really shows its age. There really isn't much automation. There is no push.

To load a class grouping we had to install an add-on. This, I would have thought, would be a basic function?

The system doesn't seem to use push in any way, so student have to constantly login to see what is new, and to dig around to see what has been posted where (see [Push, don't pull your eLearners - removing barriers to learning](http://www.nature.com/scitable/blog/bioscience-elearning/push_dont_pull_your_elearners) for my views of using push and pull in eLearning), or staff have to remember to email the students details of what has been added and where. This should all happen automatically.

Pedagogical - This is Chalkboard biggest failing, and in one area it is so bad that I actually wonder if the makers of Chalkboard actually talked to anyone that teaches. Where Chalkboard spectacularly fails, and always has done, is in assessments and providing feedback.

In terms of assessment there is a real limit in the style of questions that could be set, and I found that this meant that Chalkboard was dictating the way I delivered assessment. This should not be the case. The VLE should not dictate the teaching, it should support it.

I am not going to discuss Chalkboard failing to provide feedback here as I discussed the problem in a previous post - see Surviving the semester: Assessments - Marking and Feedback. However, I would like to add that since writing that post I have found a way of allowing students back in to an assessment after it has been closed and marked so that they can see what they got right, what they got wrong, and their feedback. But (and there always is a but), this is quite difficult to set up, it takes a lot of clicks, and for the students to find the feedback it is almost impossible. (And again this is something that staff can't test as there is no 'spoof student' option (see above)).

Where Chalkboard helped

Don't get me wrong,Chalkboard really did help with surviving the semester.

First, the students really liked the system and they found it easy to find the information they wanted, and also to do the online assessments. In previous years I used my own assessment system and also my own website to distribute teaching materials as the previous version of Chalkboard was so awful, however, this year by using the new version of Chalkboard it meant that everything was in one place, it was standardised across the different modules, and the students had been trained in how to use the system. This made my life a lot easier, as I didn't have to do all that "support emails" that I usually got.

Plus, it worked, and if anything broke it wasn't my fault!

Where Chalkboard hindered

Chalkboard did get in the way of doing my teaching at times (see comments above on assessment style).

I personally think my old system was quicker and easier for me to use, and it did not dictate the style and types of assessment questions I could use. Plus, it gave better feedback than Chalkboard, and also had a higher degree of push notifications to students.

So yes, things did take slightly longer to do on Chalkboard, but balanced against the fact that I didn't have to worry about the system crashing, and also I didn't have to do all the support emails, at the end of the semester I think I actually save time by using the VLE.

Summary

I guess the bottom line is Chalkboard really did help with my teaching and it helped me survive the semester, but it did get in the way. So, overall my answer would be: Chalkboard helped, and the semester would have been a lot tougher if it wasn't around.

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Surviving the semester: Virtual Learning Environments (VLEs) - Chalkboard

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