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CourseWare Applications:
An Evaluation of
BlackBoard, First Class, and WebCT
by
Judith Nuņo
jdenuno@mhs-la.org
UCLA
Extension 396.01 Introduction to Online Technologies
Winter 2000
..To me, a product like WebCT is simply a classroom. My
students should be able to make some assumptions about
the classroom they enter. They should be able to easily
find the classroom, easily enter the door, easily navigate
between the desks, find me in the room, hear what I say,
see what I write, etc. Do most of our classrooms look
the same? Probably yes. Is this a good thing? For the
most part, yes. The students can begin to ignore their
location and concentrate on the more important aspects--the
content. The classroom itself becomes a non-issue. Does
the similarity of our classrooms mean we teach the same?
Clearly not.:-) And may it ever be so.
(Lacefield, 2000)
..First
Class, though we do not use it as courseware, provides
a solid, somewhat easy-to-use tool to create class conferences,
to correspond with students and colleagues, and to provide
access to files on a server. Its user interface requires
a great deal of familiarity, but its intranet and extranet
web capabilities promise a great deal. (Lynch, P.
2000)
...the
total impact of using CourseInfo [BlackBoard] was greater
than the sum of its parts. At least for this class, [an
onsite MBA class with an online component at the University of Wisconsin] CourseInfo
radically changed the nature of the learning experience.
Students were used to having a one-night a week class
'meeting,' with perhaps one outside team meeting every
two weeks to prepare assignments. The addition of CourseInfo
metamorphosed the more traditional experience into an
ongoing, interactive community of learners....literally
active on a daily basis. (More, 1999)
The
complementary fields of web conferencing, online education,
and web course applications are growing at a remarkable rate.
Only six years ago, in 1994, only two products of web conferencing
software packages were available, both as primitive freeware
products (Woolley, 1996). In 1996, there were over 60 simple
to sophisticated freeware and commercial products (Woolley,
1996), and undoubtedly more are available today, in 2000.
I was introduced to the "concept" of courseware two years
ago, when I joined the faculty of Marymount High School,
a private girls college preparatory school in Los Angeles,
California. The school had just received a grant to "wire"
the school and they chose First
Class for the school's intranet, conferencing, and email
requirements. This was my first use of email, other than sending
a few messages via my son's email account. I soon became an
email convert, not to mention a web surfer, easy to do if
the school has a open online connection. I investigated and
set up class conferences, posted course documents, and solicited
email from my students, but not in a consistent manner. I
knew somehow that it was a powerful tool, with untapped potential,
but my computer skills were really at the level of an advanced
word processor. Then I discovered Power Point. And then I
introduced my students to Power Point. I posted my Power Point
lectures on the class conferences so my students could preview,
review, and copy them. They posted their Power Point presentations
in the class conferences so their friends could see them.
Soon they will discuss each other's presentations in a discussion
forum.
I
was having "so much fun" exploring the computer~classroom connection
that I enrolled in an online education course at UCLA extension and discovered
conferencing, synchronous and asynchronous discussion, a new
vocabulary, and an entirely different education~interface appearance,
very different from the First Class user interface. It
looked and felt like a classroom; it even had a "whiteboard"
that I could draw a graph on! And then I was give a courseware
evaluation assignment, so I chose to write about two applications
that I know, First Class
and BlackBoard., and one that I
didn't know, WebCT. First
Class I know as an instructor and as a user, BlackBoard as a student, and
WebCT as an outsider. Of
course, during the evaluation process I have taken advantage
of demonstration versions of all three courseware applications
and have visited several online courses that use them.
Marshall
University's comparison of online course deliver software
products uses over 125 rating categories and the Landon's online evaluation
tool for webcourse and conferencing applications uses about
60 categories. I chose to evaluate the applications according
to 23 categories that are important to me as an instructor and
a student. These categories are summarized in Table 1. I did not focus on technical aspects on the software,
because my assumption is that "superior" technological minds
can understand that particular vocabulary set. I'm interested
in how the courseware applications look, how they work, what
they can and cannot do, ease of navigation, and simplicity or
difficulty of learning. Online promotional materials for all
three courseware applications provide links to testimonials,
demonstration areas, and schools using the products. To get
some "actual user" input, I solicited comments from the faculty,
students, and staff at my high school about First
Class use, and I compiled responses in a discussion thread
on WebCT from DEOS-L , a mailing list provided
to the Distance Education community by The American Center for
the Study of Distance Education, a mailing list I have recently
joined. I did not request nor find "actual user" comments for
BlackBoard, other than
promotional testimonials, but I was impressed by list of about
400 individual CourseSitesTM
supported by BlackBoard
that can be accessed and explored via the web.
Each
of the three courseware applications that I reviewed have an
attractive presentation that can be modified by the instructor
and are supported by both MAC and IBM platforms~PC, provide
e-mail, message threading and sorting, file-attachment, online
chat, multimedia support, and entry security. My experience
with First Class is primarily with its
email function. I conducted my my First Class survey via First Class a function I had not
previously considered and received 22 responses, not bad considering
the time frame. Interestingly, although many of the instructors
Marymount High School
have class conferences, the responses from 12 teachers and 3
administrators focused on the email function of the system,
its utility in storage of course and college documents and faculty
and administration forms and messages, and the security of the
system. Two of the teachers mentioned the security function
of First Class. All three courseware
applications provide security, but only First Class and BlackBoard provide variable
levels. The seven students who responded liked the email function
and the ability of retrieving their homework assignments from
the web. Its utility as an actual asynchronous conference was
not mentioned, nor was its chat function. I intend to remedy
this situation in the near future, at least for my biology and
chemistry classes.
First Class email does have an
advantage the other two evaluated applications do not: Public
email. The email function of both BlackBoard and WebCT are solely for instructor~student
and student~communication, while that of First Class allows for mailing
and receiving messages and attached documents and files from
anyone, separation of private and public messages, and the ability
to use a single application for communication. An annoying thing
about BlackBoard email has been the
separation of public and private email messages. I can send
a private email about course work or collaboration to the instructor
or anyone in my class and even to the entire class or collaborative
group, but these messages to their private email, necessitating
opening two applications to find, read, and respond to messages.
First Class also allows for the
separation and organization of messages in separate sub-folders,
an advantage in keeping my UCLA course messages
separated from other messages.First Class also allows message
searching and summarization of selected messages or message
threads. WebCT also allows
message searching, but BlackBoard does not, according
to both evaluation reports (Landon and Marshal
University).
Fortuitously,
this week the DEOS-L,
an online contained a thread in response to a email about the
"cumbersome" nature of WebCT.
Two of 18 responses criticized WebCT
for lack of integration and difficulty of use, but the other
16 responses praised its consistency, ease of use and learning,
flexibility, and good high-end interactivity. I liked the appearance
of the several WebCT sites
I visited, especially the presentation of graphics on a login
page. The entry page of both WebCT
and BlackBoard provide
the semblance of a classroom: I know that I am in a classroom.
The First Class entry desktop can be
configured to resemble a classroom, but the format used at Marymount High School
highlights its email function! All three courseware applications
have design controls, but my impression is that those of WebCT
and BlackBoard are more flexible.
Both WebCT and BlackBoard also have instructional
design support, a function lacking in First Class. All have word processing
ability, editing tools, and HTML support, but only First Class has a separate document
component. Presentations are an important function for me. WebCT
has a built in presentation function. The promotional materials
for BlackBoard state that it has
a presentation function, but I have not found it! I know from
personal experience that presentations can be created elsewhere,
sent as an attachment to, and stored in First
Class; I imagine this can be done for BlackBoard as well as WebCT. Testing, grading, and student
tracking is included with both WebCT and BlackBoard packages but only
as an ad-on in First Class.
In my opinion, the test appearance is more attractive in WebCT and BlackBoard than in First Class. Several types of test
questions can be used and all applications allow for graphics
in the tests. I have little experience in online testing, so
I am really not able to evaluate this function well. I also
hope to remedy this situation in the near future!
Navigation
ease is, for me, a key function for a courseware application.
If navigation is easy, the learning curve for both students
and instructors should not be too steep, thus decreasing anxiety
and fostering a sense of accomplishment. I found navigation
very easy throughout WebCT and BlackBoard. I have always considered
navigation through First Class awkward, but did not
realize how awkward until I experienced the navigation ease
with the other two applications. I'm curious how my fellow classmates
feel about navigation in BlackBoard. Navigation in the
whiteboard~chat in BlackBoard area is a separate
issue. A perusal of the initial virtual chat archives for this
UCLA extension
course indicates some difficulty in entering the chat and in
figuring out how to use the whiteboard. All three applications
provide BlackBoard as well as First Class provide an online student
manual, that can be downloaded and printed, and an online help
feature. WebCT provides
an instructor manual, as do the other two applications, but
only provides online help for its email and conference functions
and short descriptions for its other tools.
Overall,
I prefer WebCT and BlackBoard to First Classfor providing online
education opportunities and onsite education support, primarily
because they are more attractive and easier to navigate. I need
to explore the discussion support ability of First Class and my ability to moderate
and manage an asynchronous discussion. My sense of awkwardness
with First Class may be
due to a "learning curve" factor and my association of First Class with its email function.
Participation in asynchronous discussions and collaborations
has alerted me to the power of this form of student~teacher
and, more importantly, student~student interaction. I have enlisted
the help of the "tech support person" at my high school in setting
up a discussion conference. And yes, the discussions about setting
up the discussion conference have been asynchronous, via the
superb and secure email function of First Class.
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