sotl paper_by kyung hun jung

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Southern Polytechnic State University

Survey about Desire 2 Learn (D2L) at SPSU:

What do students experience with D2L?

Kendra Reece, Cindy Morales, and Kyung Hun Jung Ph.D.


School of Arts and Sciences

Social and International Studies Department

Most, if not all, courses offered by SPSU are assisted by Desire2Learn (D2L), which is

one of the few course management systems (CMS) such as Blackboard, Sakai, and Moodle.

CMS is an online application through which instructors and students can exchange course

materials such as lecture notes, assignments, and measures of student performance. CMS also

supports communication between instructor and students and among students through chatting,

email, announcement posting, and discussion thread. Such educational functions of CMS are

highly valued by both instructors and students3, and according to a survey in 2007, more than 90%

of all responding U.S. universities and colleges utilize one or more CMS2.

Various factors affect the student satisfaction with the CMS-mediated learning

experience: student’s anxiety level of computer usage, instructor’s attitude toward the CMS-

mediated teaching, course quality, ease of use (usability) of CMS, and diversity in assessments5.

Previous study showed that student satisfaction is positively correlated with student’s low

anxiety with computer usage, instructor’s positive attitude toward the CMS-mediated teaching,

high course quality, high usability of CMS, and high variety in assessment methods5. Among the

factors mentioned above, the current study focused on the perceived ease of use (usability) of

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D2L, because D2L’s usability would directly affect SPSU student’s satisfaction of their learning

as suggested above, and it also affects perceived usefulness of D2L, which in turn affects

student’s willingness to use D2L1,4. Specifically, the current study examined various student

needs that are not satisfied by the current design of D2L, and suggested design modifications.

Through this attempt, we wanted to share the unmet student needs regarding D2L and discuss

what instructors can do to accommodate those needs.

The current study

A faculty member met two current SPSU students (the first two authors of this paper)

weekly for about an hour for more than three months, and heard about their generic needs as a

student and determined the corresponding needs in D2L. For example, one generic student need

was easy access to instructors’ contact information, which corresponds to finding instructor’s

contact information from the main page of the each course homepage in D2L (this is not

currently available in D2L). Such mapping between generic student needs and the corresponding

needs in D2L was followed by a discussion about what to change in D2L to meet those needs,

which comprises the main body of the current report.

In the beginning of the meeting, we focused on the design of D2L that students see.

However, as the discussion continued, we learned that the interface for instructors should be

modified significantly to encourage instructors to act in a way that accommodates the student

needs. Therefore, many of the design suggestions made in this study are about interface for

instructors only. We also suggested what instructors can currently do to accommodate the unmet

student needs using the current D2L.

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For each design issue addressed below, we reported a generic student need or what

students need from D2L which is followed by design suggestions for D2L, and finally

suggestions for instructors to satisfy the student needs using the current D2L. The first set of

student needs below are about easy access to and sharing of course-related information as well as

schedule management. The second set of student needs are about instruction- or grading-related

issues.

Easy access of instructor contact information

Students need to access the contact information of the instructor easily through D2L.

Currently, on each course homepage in D2L, there is no separate section dedicated to the

instructor’s name and contact information. Therefore, when students need to access the contact

information through D2L, they are required to download a syllabus from D2L, which works only

if the instructor posted a syllabus that includes his/her contact information. To meet such a basic

student need, D2L should arrange a separate section on the course homepage providing the

instructor’s name and contact information. In this contact information section, D2L should

update most of the instructor information such as name, email, office number, office hours, and

so on by cross-referencing the school database to avoid requiring instructors to manually enter

the information multiple times for different courses.

Until we have such section in D2L, what instructors can currently do is to have their

basic information as the first News item on the course homepage in beginning of the semester.

Then, the contact information will be shown in the course homepage until the instructors add

another post to the news. Also, instructors can add a greeting to students along with their contact

information.

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Easy access of course material

Instructors can upload course materials in the Content menu of D2L. Materials in the

Content can be organized effectively by keeping them appropriately in different folders with

different names. However, the current D2L allows instructors to upload individual files in the

Content without locating them in a folder, which can lead to disorganization. A solution to this

problem would be that D2L provides some default folders in the Content with basic names such

as syllabus, lecture notes, study guides, other resources, and so on. Such pre-built folders in the

Content would not only increase consistency across courses but also encourage instructors to be

more organized. Until instructors have the pre-built folders with basic names, they should make

an extra effort for organizing the uploaded contents effectively by creating folders with proper

names. Even a single file such as a syllabus deserves its own folder to increase the search

efficiency for students within the Content.

Another problem of the Content is that materials in each folder are not visible until

students actually open them, which lowers the search efficiency. An obvious solution is to

provide the inner view of a folder when the mouse cursor is hovering over the folder, so that

students can easily figure the nature of the materials contained in each folder without opening

them. Another solution could be providing a search function in D2L with various search scopes

(e.g., within a course), in case students know (part of) the name of the material they are looking

for.

Easy management of schedule

Another generic student need is an efficient schedule management. D2L currently

provides notifications of the due dates of assignments through text and email. However, students

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often do not know how to turn on the notification function or they completely turn off the

function because they get too many repetitive notifications that fill up their message box. D2L

also provides a monthly calendar that highlights days with assignment due dates. A common

downside of these two features (i.e., notifications and the calendar) is to provide notifications of

the near-future assignments only without providing an overview of the whole tasks students need

to handle in a given semester. Solely relying on these features, students may not be fully aware

of the exact due dates of assignments outside of the notification range. Therefore, to better assist

students with their schedule management, D2L should provide a task list that shows all the

assignments and exams in a given semester. The task list should allow students to sort their tasks

by due dates or course names as they prefer. The task list should also have features such as

striking out or removing completed tasks, which would encourage students to check off their

progress. Until instructors have such features in D2L, instructors should provide a list of tasks

students are required to perform in the syllabus. A course schedule that includes all the

assignments and the due dates would be especially useful. Providing an estimated time required

to complete each assignment would help students manage their schedule as well.

To further encourage students to be aware of assignment due dates, instructors can

verbally remind them of the upcoming assignments during class. However, instructors may

forget to do this at an appropriate point in time. Potentially, D2L can send a reminder of the

upcoming due dates to instructors through a text right before a class, so that they can offer a

verbal reminder of the due dates in time.

Student Forum

Students may want to ask questions regarding the course to peer classmates rather than

instructors. For example, they may want to ask other students what was covered in a class they

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missed or request help with assignments. Currently, students can meet such need only through

contacting their close classmates or asking other students around them right before or after a

class. However, some students may not know other classmates’ contact information, or they may

be too shy or embarrassed to ask in person. To assist such students, D2L can provide an online

discussion space (which we call Student Forum) for questioning and answering among students.

To avoid disorganization, D2L may provide different discussion topics in the Student Forum. For

example, every time the instructor posts a new assignment in the Dropbox or Quiz, D2L

automatically generates a corresponding folder in the Student Forum with the same name as the

assignment so that students can use the folder only for the discussion regarding the specific

assignment.

Student Forum should be especially useful for classes without any teaching assistants.

Instructors often receive emails with simple questions regarding class administration or

assignments that teaching assistants or even other students in the class can answer. Student

Forum in D2L may encourage students to seek answers from other students first, which in turn

reduce the simple student requests instructors receive.

Student Forum can be utilized as a work table for a group project. Often, students

working on a group project utilize online applications such as Google doc or Dropbox to share

files. However, such system requires students who are new to the system go through the sign-up

process and learn how to use the system. Since all SPSU students are already members of D2L,

providing a folder under the Student Forum exclusively for each group’s members should be an

efficient alternative to using the commercial file-sharing applications.

Until instructors have such features in D2L, they can pair students to each other in the

beginning of the semester and encourage them to share their contact information in case they

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need help from each other. Also, instructors can generate folders with specific topic names in the

Discussion, to encourage communications among students about the topics.

The student needs mentioned above were about easy access to and sharing of course-

related information as well as schedule management. The second set of student needs below are

about instruction- or grading-related issues.

Rubrics and example assignments

For most assignments, students need a rubric showing the grading criteria. Unfortunately,

instructors often forget or refuse to add a rubric when they generate assignments on D2L. To

encourage instructors to post rubrics, D2L could provide a reminder of attaching rubrics

whenever instructors generate assignments without any rubrics. Currently, D2L provides a link,

rubric, in the Dropbox or Quiz, with which instructors can upload rubrics when they generate

assignments. However, D2L does not send any reminder regarding rubrics when any rubric is not

attached along assignments or quizzes.

Another student need regarding assignments is having good and bad examples of

assignments with which they can better understand how the rubric is applied for grading. When it

is appropriate, instructors can satisfy this need simply by posting good and bad previous

assignments. To encourage instructors to post example assignments, D2L can add a link in the

Dropbox or Quiz, with which they can post good and bad example assignments. Until instructors

have such features in D2L (i.e., reminder of the rubric and example assignment links), they

should make an extra effort to post a detailed rubric for each assignment as well as good and bad

example assignments that show how the rubric is applied to assignments.

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Draft submission

Students striving to succeed often want to submit drafts to instructors to know their

assignments are headed in the right direction. Instructors should also encourage such behavior to

better guide students early rather than giving low scores to students who provided poor

assignments as their final work. As a way to encourage students to submit drafts, D2L should

add a checkbox such as mark as draft checkbox in the Dropbox, with which students can notify

their instructors that the submitted work is a draft and they are waiting for feedback about the

work. To keep students from submitting drafts too late, the checkbox could disappear a certain

amount of time (e.g., a week) before the assignment is due.

Until we have such checkbox in the Dropbox, instructors should allow students to post

assignments multiple times in the Dropbox and provide feedback for the initially posted ones that

were marked as drafts by students. However, the rounds of draft submission followed by

instructor feedback may increase the workload of the instructors. Therefore, instructors may

direct students to indicate how they have addressed the instructor’s initial feedback in their

subsequent work, based on which instructors can grade the work.

Automatic plagiarism check

Plagiarism is a big worry for both students and instructors. Currently, instructors can

check the plagiarism level of a student work once students submit the work, and then students

may be informed about the result by the instructor. However, if students can receive automatic

feedback from D2L regarding their plagiarism level when they submit their work to the Dropbox,

students may fix their work by themselves early to avoid serious consequences resulting from the

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plagiarism. D2L can also show a link to the school’s writing center next to the Dropbox, where

students can sign up for an appointment to get writing related assistance, including plagiarism

check. Until instructors have such features in D2L, they should encourage students to turn in

drafts, and provide feedback regarding their plagiarism level. Providing an expected score based

on the draft would be also informative for students and may encourage them to revise their work

for a better score.

Notification of the status of late assignments

Instructors occasionally allow students to turn in late assignments. However, after the late

submission, D2L does not provide any feedback to students regarding the status of their work

until the instructor posts a score. Until that time, students may keep wondering about the status

of their assignment anxiously, especially when they feel embarrassed asking about their work.

Therefore, it would be helpful for students if D2L notifies the status of the late assignment:

whether the assignment was opened by the instructor, when it was opened, and how much time

the instructor had needed to post a score after he/she opened other students’ assignments that

have been submitted in time. At the same time, instructors should get a reminder of the late

assignment from D2L if it has not been opened for a while (e.g., two weeks). Students can be

notified of this reminder as well, so that they know that the instructor got a reminder regarding

their late assignment. Until we have such notification features in D2L, instructors should pay

extra attention to grade late assignments promptly.

Midterm grade and final letter grade

Students want to know how well they are doing in the class throughout the semester, not

only after the final exam. Therefore, D2L should inform the calculated letter grade of each

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student at least once in the middle of a semester based on the assignments and exams

administered until that point in time. Then, students would have a better understanding of how

much effort they should make in the remaining half of the semester.

To release final letter grades through D2L, instructors have to go through somewhat

confusing steps: manually setting up a custom grading scheme and applying the scheme by

checking certain boxes in D2L that are hard to find. Until instructors have better D2L interface

for easily providing midterm and final letter grades, they need to calculate the grades semi-

automatically using another software (e.g., excel) and inform students of their performance

throughout the semester.

Conclusion

D2L needs significant modifications to improve its usability, especially for the

instructor’s interface. However, even without any modifications mentioned, instructors can

provide a better learning experience to students by following the guidelines addressed above that

are also summarized in the table below (see the right most column).

Summary Table

Generic student needs

The same needs on D2L

Suggestions for D2L design change What instructors can do

Easy access of instructor contact information

Instructor contact information in the main page of class homepage

Add contact information section in the course homepage that automatically fills from other databases

Add contact information as the first News item

Easy access of course material

Well-organized course materials distributed across folders with proper names

Provide default folders (syllabus, lecture notes, study guides, other resources) with the inner-view feature

Generate folders with proper names and organize materials using the folders

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Easy management of schedule

Knowing all assignments and exams for the semester

Provide a customizable task list showing all assignments and exams for the semester / Due date notification to instructors via text messages

Provide a task list in the syllabus with due dates and estimated times, and verbally remind students of upcoming tasks

Sharing information among students

An online place (Student Forum) for communication among students

Online discussion spaces for student Q&A that are automatically generated upon new assignments

Pair up students in the beginning of a semester and encourage them to exchange contact information / Generating discussion topics under the Discussion

Seeing rubric and good and bad example assignments

Having rubric and good and bad example assignments on D2L

Provide a reminder of the rubric and a link for posting example assignments

Upload rubrics and example assignments upon assignment generation

Submitting drafts to check the adequacy of their work

A way to indicate the status of the work as a draft

Add a mark as draft checkbox in the Dropbox

Encourage students to submit drafts in the Dropbox folder and provide early feedback

Plagiarism check of essay

Automatic plagiarism check through D2L

The Dropbox runs plagiarism check and informs the plagiarism level

Check plagiarism level using the feature in the Dropbox and inform students of their plagiarism level

Check the status of late assignment

Notifications regarding the status of late assignment

Notify students when a late assignment is opened and how long the instructor would take to grade it

Should respond immediately when they received a late assignment and promptly graded it

Midterm grade and final letter grade

Midterm grade and final letter grade posted on D2L

Provide a midterm grade based on tasks administered until the point / automatic conversion of the final scores to letter grades at the end of the semester

Semi-automatically calculate letter grades (e.g., using excel) in the middle of a semester / create a custom letter-grading scheme for final letter grades

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sotl paper_by kyung hun jung

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