When technology bites back: A case report describing an instructor's experience with online teaching

Journal of Physical Therapy Education, Spring 2003 by Hayward, Lorna M

I wanted to let you know what was going on with Blackboard tonight. I am really having a hard time using Blackboard. I was just in the middle of typing my discussion on the [Web newspaper article] Dinosaur when I was kicked off of the program. I lost everything that I had typed in, and now I can't get back onto Blackboard. I'd rather type out my answers and give them to you than to be stressed out with this system. (Student e-mail 10/01/01)

As a result of 3 weeks of infrastructure problems, the workload for both the students and me was increased in several ways. Students spent hours of extra time attempting to access and retrieve materials from the course Web site. In addition, if they were "kicked off the system" in the middle of completing an online requirement, extra time was necessary to resubmit the assignment.

...it is extremely frustrating to try to get onto Blackboard and find the system is down. For me, I plan each day out, and I write down all I plan Io get done. IfI can't get onto Blackboard, then that is one homework assignment I have to push to the next day. It is frustrating when you are trying to get work done and you just can 'tget online. If Blackboard is working, it is great. It is fast and easy. But if it is down, it makes everything take so much longer.... (Student reflection 10/19/01)

To manage the Web-site access problems, I spent time and energy responding by e-mail, in class, or in person to student complaints. I spent numerous hours communicating by telephone and e-mail with management personnel working in the Information Services (IS) Department to alert them of the system problems and then to follow up with proposed solutions. The IS Department responded by increasing the resources available for Internet connectivity, which by the fourth week of the term had improved Internet performance.

Another way in which the infrastructure problems affected my workload concerned the necessity for providing students with the materials contained on the course Web site. For example, all lecture notes resided on the site, but students could not access these documents. Therefore, I had to devote time to copy my lecture materials and place them on reserve in the library. To address the concern of student difficulty with completing the online assignments and the resultant increase in workload, I responded by cutting back on the number of course requirements. At week 3,1 reduced the number of assignments from 7 to 4 reflection papers, from 7 to 4 chat room discussions, and from 8 to 7 discussion board postings. In addition, I reduced the number of required discussion thread postings from 2 to 1 time per assignment. Due to the large number of students in PTIi 1405, the thread postings became repetitious. By requiring one thread posting per assignment, repetition was reduced and the quality of student comments increased.

Once the infrastructure problems were resolved, I was interested to learn how the students' initial experience with Blackboard might affect their willingness to use and learn from technology during the remainder of the term. To gather data on this perspective, I did 2 things. First, at the term midpoint, I asked the students to reflect and respond to the following question: "How did the problems associated with Blackboard during the first few weeks of class affect your willingness to use the technology? Now that many of the bugs have been worked out, have your ideas about the use of technology in health science education changed in any way? If so, please describe how." This particular student reflection articulated the perceptions of approximately 50% of the students: