From:        Cynthia Kelley

Date:        May 6, 2004

Subject:     eCollege Student Survey

 

I asked all professors who were involved in an eCollege course during the spring 2004 semester to send an eCollege Student Survey to their students in April 2004.  The survey received eighty eight responses from students, a 20% response rate.

 

   eCollege Pilot Spring 2004

Total # of classes

21

# of pure online classes

 1

# of hybrid (meets part time online, part time in class)

 1

# of “blended” eCompanion classes (eCollege used as an online tool for classes that met at SMC for all class sessions)

19

Total number of students involved with eCollege in Spring 2004

456

 

 

The survey was composed of questions in a Strongly Agree to Strongly Disagree format.  Students were also given three questions to express what they liked and did not like about eCollege and any other comments that they wished to make.

 

I.  Overall Summary

 

The student attitudes toward eCollege are mostly positive.  Perception of the reliability and ease of use of the eCollege system is very high.    Students reported no problems with the training that they received.  Having the faculty train the students in the beginning of class was all that these students needed to be successful. Students appeared to appreciate consistent commitment to eCollege from their faculty members. It seems that the students who appeared to like eCollege the most were the students whose faculty members used eCollege consistently and employed advanced tools such as the “dropbox” and online gradebook. There were, however, some things that students did not like about eCollege.  Some students did not appreciate having to print out online materials themselves, preferring to receive hand-outs from their faculty members.  While some students loved discussion forums, some students resented having a requirement to access them.  Students did not feel that eCollege made them work harder or communicate better with their professor and only one third of them thought eCollege made them more organized.  Overall, however, most students liked the readily available access of the materials online, especially announcements and syllabus.   

 

II.  Summary of Responses

1.  Access and availability of the eCollege system – These responses speak to the easy access and availability of the eCollege system.

  • 97% of the students reported that they had no problems accessing eCollege
  • 94% of students reported that the system was always available when they needed it

 

2.  Attractiveness and efficiency of the system

  • While 63% found eCollege attractive, 25% were neutral and 12% found eCollege unattractive
  • The students found it easy to locate their classes and their professors’ materials
  • However, almost 20% of the students reported that the navigation buttons were tricky to find
  • 68% thought discussion forums were easy to use, but 20% felt neutral or negative about the simplicity of the forums

 

3.  Training

  • For 78% of our students, eCollege was their first experience in on online course management system
  • 89% of the students replied that eCollege was easy to learn. 
  • Only 18% said they would go to eCollege training classes if they were available and only 38% felt a manual should be available for students

 

4.  Use of the eCollege Site, Likes and Dislikes

  • Over 76% of the students found that having faculty announcements and course syllabus online were helpful.
  • 50% of the students preferred accessing readings and materials online and 42% preferred paper hand-outs from their professors. 
  • 41% of the students were neutral to this statement “Communicating with my professor is better because of eCollege.”
  • 63% of the students reported that they liked using eCollege, 23% were neutral, 15% responded negatively to this statement
  • 51% of the students would like more of their classes on eCollege, 26% were neutral and 23% responded negatively and would not like more of their classes on eCollege
  • Since the gradebook, dropbox and discussion forums were not used by many faculty members, many of the students responded with “Not Applicable” to these features. 

 

5.  Fifty nine of the eighty eight students responded to the open ended question, “What did you like best about eCollege?”

  • Nine students commented that they liked having their grades online
  • Seven students reported that they liked to turn their papers n online
  • Seventeen students commented on how easy eCollege was to use and access
  • Seven students commented on how much they enjoyed the discussion forums
  • Twenty students commented on how much they liked having information available online

==>Here are some of the direct comments to the question posed as to what students liked best: 

-       “Knowing what was expected of me”

-       “..everything I need was accessible for me, when I had time to get it and organize it”

-       “[I liked] arguing on the discussion posts”

-       “It was simple to use and I am always on my computer anyway”

-       “[I liked to] have the handouts available to look at and take notes on during lecture”

-       “I could pass my papers in at anytime and they couldn’t get lost”

-       “I love being able to see all of my grades…there’s no guessing in involved!”

-       “[I] missed some school this semester due to illnesses in the family.  Was able to keep up fairly well, and knew upon my return exactly what I still had to catch up on.”

 

6.      Forty seven of the eighty eight students responded to the open ended question, “What did you like least about eCollege?”

  • Six students commented that they did not care for some aspects of the discussion forums
  • There were some trust issues with the dropbox
  • A number of students made comments about having to print out the hand-outs, especially since their professors used to do this for them
  • Three students remarked that eCollege was impersonal
  • Seven students made comments that their professors were not using eCollege as the students thought it should be used:  “…toward the end of the semester my prof started using eCollege less.  I think it [eCollege] works well if prof is consistent with it.”  “My teacher failed to put up things he said he would so it was harder to get work done on time.  Though that does not reflect poorly on eCollege.”
  • Thirteen students reported different issues on navigation, firewall, loading, dropbox, too many clicks, Internet, not having a printer, difficulty of access.  While some of these issues appear to be training issues, each issue will be investigated. 

==>Here are some of the comments about what students liked least about eCollege: 

-        “I can’t always remember to access it once a week, because I am not used to it, seeing as I only have one course on eCollege.”

-       “I hated having to do the discussion groups.  I think that they can be useful, but it is sometimes unnecessary to respond to certain class discussions.”

-       “It required using a computer.”

-       “Having to get used to something new”

-       “After handing in an assignment online, it would be nice to get a response saying that my professor has it….because I get a little anxious that he did not receive it.”

-       “Taking eCollege and going to a class is like taking two classes.  It gets to be a lot of extra work.”

-       “took way to long to print them [the hand-outs] out…I didn’t like doing the teacher’s job.”