In the last two years, Northeastern Illinois University has made a significant push to take advantage of newer technology. The online application Blackboard is one of these advances. Blackboard is a powerful tool for both students and instructors alike. The application allows two-way communication between the students and instructors, as well as providing an electronic means for assignments to be both created and submitted.
Blackboard lets instructors post grades. This grade listing allows students to see not only their own grade, but the class averages as well. It provides this all while protecting the privacy of the students. Blackboard allows instructors to quickly disseminate announcements to the class, while leaving a record of it that can be viewed later in the semester if there is confusion as to receiving the message.
As the University goes green, Blackboard could possibly be one of the most critical components to this initiative. The program allows for uploading of electronic documents and notes that will help to cut back on the abuse of photocopying. No longer will instructors worry about copying documents only to see them thrown away at the end of a class. Perhaps more importantly, Blackboard archives these documents so that they are readily accessible in the event it is misplaced or thrown away.
With how helpful Blackboard can be, it is disappointing for students when instructors do not take advantage of the program. However, courses that do not use Blackboard are becoming the minority. The concern of students is no longer that Blackboard is not setup, but rather that there is a lack of consistency across the faculty that set it up for their courses. Some faculty members place their class syllabus inside of the “Course Documents” or “Course Information” area, while other faculty members take advantage of the “Syllabus” area. In some classes, assignments may appear in the “Assignments” but for another class, assignments may actually be in the “Course Documents”. The lack of consistency makes it difficult for students to utilize a tool that is meant to make several tasks easier.
When NEIU implemented the not so new banner system, instructors no longer had to create Blackboard areas for their courses. Unfortunately, these courses remain. As students progress through each semester, this will make it difficult to identify current courses. Instructors will not have to worry about the old excuse that a dog ate a student’s homework. Instead, it may be that the homework uploaded to a course with a similar name from a past semester.
As a student, I absolutely love Blackboard. It allows me to eliminate paper waste, and increases productivity because I have access to documents anywhere. Blackboard can become even more useful with the removal of past courses, and improved consistency in the setup by faculty members.