Uptake and Usage of Virtual Learning Environments: Findings from a multi institutional student usage survey. Robert Cosgrave (UCC)Theresa Logan-Phelan (TCD)Marion Palmer (IADT)Nuala Harding (AIT)Margaret Phelan (ITT Dublin)Willie Ward (LIT)

Claire McAvinia (NUIM)Angelica Risquez (UL)

Fiona O'Riordan (Griffith College)

Noreen Vaughan (LIT)

Tom Farrelly (IT Tralee)

Virtual Learning Environments are now core infrastructure in most

tertiary institutions.

But what do students actually do with VLEs?

Do we get the best use of our VLEs?

Does the choice of VLE matter?

Where should we focus our effort in making them work

well?

2008 – 5 institutions2009 – 11 institutions

HE TimesUniversity of

Leitrim has best VLE!

No use of findings for PRAll published results to be anonymous by Institution.

Institutions letter coded A,B,C…

Warning. Your Mileage May Vary.

Response Rate

0%

4%

8%

12%

16%

20%

I 2009 F 2009 D 2009 G 2009 D 2008 B 2008 A 2008 A 2009 H 2009 E 2009 C 2008 E 2008

Online Survey > Self Selecting Sample >

Built in sample bias

Different institutions, Different stories

0.0

0.2

0.4

0.6

0.8

1.0

0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

System Age (Years)

TA

L s

taff

per

100

0 st

ud

ents

Size indicates institution size. Colour coded by VLE

Are they used?

What proportion of your coursework this term has had material in your VLE?

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

None Some About Half Most All

D F G I A AVERAGE

How often do you use your VLE?

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

Daily A few times a week Once a Week Once or twice permonth

Never

I 2009 D 2008 D 2009 G 2009 H 2009 A 2008 A 2009

E 2008 F 2009 B 2008 C 2008 Series13 AVERAGE

If you use your VLE, Why?

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

80%

90%

100%

Keep Track ofclass times

Get copies oflecture notes

Get other coursematerial

Onlinediscussions

about the course

Online Quizzes SubmitAssignments

2009 A 2008 A 2008 B 2008 C 2009 D 2008 D 2009 E 2008 E 2009 F

2009 G 2009 H 2009 I Average

But what for?

If you use your VLE, Why? (All sites)

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

80%

90%

Keep Track ofclass times

Get copies oflecture notes

Get other coursematerial

Onlinediscussions

about the course

Online Quizzes SubmitAssignments

Average

If not, why not?

If you don't use your VLE, why not?

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

My Lecturers don’tuse it

The information on itisn’t useful

I can’t access it I find it difficult to use I don’t have accessto the web

2008 A 2009 A 2008 B 2008 C 2008 D 2009 D 2008 E 2009 E 2009 F

2009 G 2009 H 2009 I Average

If you don't use your VLE, why not?

0%

10%

20%

My Lecturers don’tuse it

The information on itisn’t useful

I can’t access it I find it difficult to use I don’t have accessto the web

Lecturers Usage

1

2

3

4

5

1 2 3 4 5

Q10k My Lecturers make good use of (VLE)

Q10

j I

wo

uld

lik

e m

y le

ctu

rers

to

mak

e m

ore

u

se o

f th

e V

LE

Do they help students learn?

Easy to Use vs. Helps to Learn

1

2

3

4

5

1 2 3 4 5

Q9d Ease of Use

Q10

m E

asie

r to

Lea

rn

Getting notes on the VLE makes me less likely to go to lectures

0%

5%

10%

15%

20%

25%

30%

35%

40%

45%

50%

Strongly agree agree neutral disagree strongly disagree

2009 A 2008 A 2008 B 2008 C 2009 D 2008 D 2009 E 2008 E

2009 F 2009 G 2009 I

Do they make students lazy?

What have we learned?

VLE still mainly content management tools.

The challenge for learning technologists is to find ways to move staff beyond that.

What will we find out next?

Does the choice of VLE really matter?

What is the right level of resourcing and technology assisted learning staff?

How important are other factors like staff usage? Training approaches?

Pros and Cons

Survey helps put institutional issues in

national context

Time series will help us build up a picture of the evolution of an

institutions VLE over time

Understanding the findings requires deep understanding of each

institutions VLE history.

Survey not a ‘silver bullet’ for evaluation.

Your mileage may vary!

Next StepsFull Analysis. Find correlations

What about staff? Staff survey in summer 2009

Institutional Case Histories. Build up a case history for each institutions VLE so we can interpret the findings more fully

Review the questions:What have we learned? What else do we need to find out?What do we need to keep monitoring?

Doing it all again in 2010!

New institutions welcome.

Project coordination work supported by NAIRTL