The influence of staff use of a virtual learning environment on student satisfaction

205 1 The influence of staff use of a virtual learning environment on student satisfaction Olaf Hallan Graven, Magne Helland, and Prof. Lachlan MacKinnon Abstract The use of virtual learning environments in higher education has shown significant growth over the last few years. This presents challenges in a variety of ways, challenges to provide effective educational materials within virtual learning environments (VLE), challenges in teaching style and the development of appropriate pedagogy. In this paper we discuss the work done introducing a VLE at Buskerud University College (HiBu) in Norway, and the impact that there can be shown through the use of satisfaction surveys, A longitudinal survey which have been carried out on general level of student satisfaction over a nine year period, a specific survey on satisfaction with the use of a VLE and a survey on staff attitude to e-learning. Our interest is in considering how the introduction of the VLE itself has impacted on satisfaction of students, whether it has changes the nature of the environment and whether it has resulted in changes in expectations. And from the survey we will attempt to describe what effects it has had HiBu has been engaged in a number of activities aimed at increasing staff and student use of its VLE. These efforts have been focused on training staff in different discipline areas and some training of students, and the optimisation of the development of learning material to support academic activity. Additionally there has been further product training in the various facilities available through the VLE to support other aspects of academic factors. This training has not been limited to the lecturing staff but includes all categories of employees. Additionally HiBu has established a major task in focusing on the pedagogical model to support the use of the VLE. This task has been the responsibility of a group of predominantly academic staff, but with representation from technical and library staff. The responsibility of this group has been to identify this pedagogical model as the basis for e-learning within HiBu. HiBu has been collecting data on student satisfaction for a number of years, both pre and post use of the VLE. The model adopted for the student satisfaction surveys is reasonably consistent, with the exception of some questions that have been introduced to cover the use of the VLE. As a result of this HiBu has been able to determine the effect on student satisfaction of the use of the VLE. There has been no significant change in the satisfaction levels in the last few years. However there is a notable change in the student requests for change of activities. Index Terms Learning systems, staff and student surveys, blended learning Manuscript received April 10, 2006. This work was supported in part by the Norwegian Goverment and Buskerud University College in providing PhD funding to support this research. O. H. Graven and M. Helland is with Buskerud University College, Kongsberg, Norway (phone: +47 32869500; e-mail: Olaf.Hallan.Graven@ hibu.no e-mail: Magne.Helland@hibu.no). L.MacKinnon is with School of Computing and Creative Technology, iversity of Abertay Dundee, Uk, (e-mail: l.mackinnon@abertay.ac.uk). T I. INTRODUCTION he use of virtual learning environments in higher education has shown significant growth over the last few years. This presents challenges in a variety of ways, challenges to provide effective educational materials within virtual learning environments (VLE), challenges in teaching style and the development of appropriate pedagogy. In this paper we discuss the work done introducing a VLE at Buskerud University College (HiBu) in Norway, and the impact that this has had, determined through the use of questionnaire based surveys. A longitudinal survey which has been carried out on the general level of student satisfaction over a nine year period, a specific survey on student satisfaction with the use of the VLE and a survey on staff attitude to e-learning. Our interest is in considering how the introduction of the VLE itself has impacted on student satisfaction, staff attitude, whether it has changed the nature of the environment and whether it has resulted in changes in student expectations. A. The surveys The initial condition was that before 1998 there where no use of any VLE at HiBu, from 1998 until 2003 there were multiple VLEs in use with HiBu offering a central system in. The major rollout of that VLE for administration staff use was in 2003. Since 1997 HiBu has carried out general surveys on the student opinion on their learning environment. Part of this survey has dealt with student satisfaction with IT equipment, the access to information and learning material. In the last few years a question about the HiBu VLE has been included. In the same period HiBu developed a policy that the use of the VLE should be increased both academically and administratively. We are utilising part of the HiBu survey of the environment to consider issues relating to the use of the VLE together with the survey HiBu carried out on the students perception of the VLE and how the VLE is used by staff. This paper is pulls together this information from these two groups of surveys combined with the change in expectation of the students. We are also using information from two surveys (in and 2006) on staffs use and perceptions of IT and e-learning. The whole study of student and staff satisfaction is set against the efforts at HiBu to increase the use of the VLE. The surveys which focus on the VLE were performed in

205 2 early 2004 and in late 2005 before and after a significant institutional push to increase the use of the VLE. Some of the students in the early VLE survey (2004) found the use of a VLE a novel experience, whereas the students two years later are much more familiar with the use of a VLE. The new students that come into the college in 2005 are more used to a VLE as all further education schools in the Buskerud area are now using a VLE. Their experiences are from different VLEs depending on which schools they previously attended. HiBu introduced a VLE with campus wide access in January, in December a survey of the staff at HiBu was performed. The focus of the survey was to gather information on staff knowledge and access to IT-equipment and, their knowledge about, and effort to keep up to date on, the development in e-learning. Further, the survey focused on their impression of how important e-learning would generally, and for them personally, in the near future. With the exception of some small groups of academics, students and staff knew little about the use of a VLE before this. Generally the staff in the survey knew very little about e-learning, when the survey was repeated in 2006 the general knowledge was expected to be higher. Our work here considers the information from the previously mentions surveys, and attempt to address the following questions: What was the impact of the introduction of the VLE on student satisfaction? Has there been a change in student and staff environment? Has there been any change in the desires of the students, in regard to information and communication with the administration? Has there been any change in the staff attitude? Has there been any change in student attitude? We will present some of the background work carried out at HiBu, the result of the surveys carried out, with specific focus on addressing these questions. B. Buskerud University College (HiBu) HiBu is a medium sized Norwegian university college with three campuses which are all located in the region of Buskerud. HiBu offers a broad range of degree programs and diploma courses across various fields of study. We prepare our students for professional careers in public institutions, within health services, education and management, as well as for technical, financial and administrative positions in trade and industry. HiBu has a total of 2500 full time students and 1500 part time students, in 13 Bachelor programs and 11 Master programs C. Virtual learning environment Learning Management System (LMS) is a broad term that is used for a wide range of systems that organize and provide access to online learning services for students, teachers, and administrators. These services usually include access control, provision of learning content, communication tools, and administration of user groups. Other terms that are often used as synonyms for LMS are learning platform and virtual learning environment (VLE). There are many commercially available VLE systems. Two large well known international suppliers are WebCT[1] and Blackboard[2]. There are also several national systems in use in Norway, e.g. Classfronter[3] and It s learning[4]. There are also a number of open source or free to use tools like Moodle[5] and Sakai[6]. There was a proliferation of these tools in recent years, but they have converted into a few larger ones that are commercially supported. II. ACTIVITIES AT BUSKERUD UNIVERSITY COLLEGE A. An early start Buskerud University College s (HiBu) initial work with e- learning as an official central activity started with the formation of a group with 10 members, that had representatives from administrative, technical and lecturing staff in 1999. The project was managed by the head of library services and the group met a few times over the next six months. The main activities identified by the early work were: HiBu should set up a project group consisting of mostly academic staff. This group should report directly to the principal, and be responsible for the development of future e-learning activities within the institution. E-learning services should be offered as a common facility to all HiBu campuses. B. Second phase The project Learning using the web (LPW) came out of the initial e-learning project. The project group was made up of mostly academic staff, with the head of library services as its leader in the first two years, and an academic in the last two years. The project had one major task in its early stage: Choose and implement a Virtual Learning Environment for the whole of HiBu within 6 months. The chosen VLE was Blackboard [2]. The next part of LPW work was focused on: Create the outline for a pedagogical model to be used for the assimilation of e-learning activities into the curricula at HiBu Set out a strategy for e-learning activities at HiBu Promote the use of the VLE. The focus for LPW work was first to set down the guidelines for the pedagogical model for HiBu. This model is described later. After settling on a pedagogical model the work was focused on promoting the new model and general use of the VLE. The main activities for promotion were small one day or half day courses and seminars for staff focusing on different aspects of e-learning. Parallel to the promotional activities LPW worked on an e- learning strategy for the University College, this strategy took a long time to finalise, concluding when the University College board passed the strategy in fall of 2003. The LPW project

205 3 was finished at the end of 2003. Since 2004 HiBus effort in e- learning was guided by this strategy developed by the LPW. C. E-learning group In late 2003, at the end of the four year project Learning using the web, HiBu created a permanent combined advisory and work group for all e-learning activities at the University College. This group consisted of six staff, four academics, one of whom is the leader, one representative from the library staff and one from the technical staff. The main focus of this group has been to further develop and continue to promote the pedagogical model and to support the use of the VLE within HiBu. The group has taken on some responsibility for planning and coordination in connection with its main task. This is the responsibility to make sure that there are systems in place for the daily maintenance and operation of the VLE servers. In addition to these tasks the group is also acting as an advisory board for the principal in matters connected to e- learning. D. E-learning instructor HiBu has made available resources for one academic to be employed half time to work purely on promoting the pedagogical model and the use of e-learning. The e-learning group is the main contact point for the HiBu E-learning instructor and is responsible for planning their activities in cooperation with them. The E-learning instructor s main task has been to promote the use of e-learning in general and the VLE in particular. The E-learning instructor has been involved in two main tasks: giving small 1-3 hour courses and seminars for staff; and producing online and paper guides focused on practical examples for staff and students using the VLE. Participation in the courses has been completely voluntary and driven by staff desire to gain knowledge about the topics covered in the courses. In total there have been 28 courses/seminars with a total of 174 participants. Since the total number of staff at HiBU is around 250, it is our view that the e-learning instructor has been necessary and successful. III. PEDAGOGICAL MODEL TO SUPPORT THE USE OF THE VLE The main principles for the pedagogical model used at HiBu were created by the LPW group. The initial work on the model was done during the spring of. The model is similar to what has become known for some as blended learning.[7] Blended learning is generally used to describe learning that mixes various event-based activities, including face-to-face, asynchronous and synchronous e-learning. The HiBu model is based upon a mix of face-to-face traditional lectures and lab work coupled with web based material. The web-based material is used as a support and extension to the face-to-face activities. During the development of the learning model HiBu s view was that the model later known as blended learning was an effective and low-risk strategy which would position the University College for the technological developments that would be forthcoming. This does not represent the demise of campus-based courses, but it has forced us to examine how best to utilise both face-to-face and online learning for the purposes of higher education. There is considerable intuitive appeal to the concept of integrating the strengths of face-toface and asynchronous learning activities. HiBus initial aim was to get staff to use and become familiar with the VLE. Secondly when people were familiar with the basics of a VLE, or showed particular interest, the full scale blended model was introduced. The real blended learning is when staff starts to work on the effective integration of the two main components, face-to-face and online delivery, such that they are not simply augmenting the existing traditional approach, but moving into a new form of delivery One of the arguments for blended learning is that a closer examination reveals the ability of asynchronous Internet communication technology to facilitate a simultaneous independent and collaborative learning experience[8] That is, learners can be independent, work at their own pace, time and location, and still maintain the all important social links when learning. Learning with web-communication has the significant educational implication that the emphasis is often on written material. The importance of writing and its ability to encourage reflection and precision of expression is well known.[9] When writing is integrated with verbal communication in a face-to-face learning environment, the educational possibilities are multiplied. As can bee seen from the above, HiBus view is not that the only learning that can occur is face to face, but rather that social activities are an important and significant part of the process. As Mayes[10] puts it: Lectures are occasions where the individual is confirmed as a member of a learning community. The view within the LPW has been and still is that this important social dimension of learning is not possible to achieve within a purely online setting. The selected approach enabled HiBu to quickly evolve an institution-wide use of web based learning material as a support for students with the minimum of effort for the lecturing staff. The effort involved in converting traditional courses into blended courses is considerably more than this first step. The first step of just pushing material on the web so that the students have access to it in electronic format is known as showleware. This approach is recognised within HiBu as a process through which we move to a blended learning environment were the material is improved and integrated with the face-to-face approach, to provide abetter quality. The effectiveness of blended learning has been examined by many others as examples see [8, 11, 12] IV. STATISTICS FOR VLE USE AT HIBU The net result of all the promotion and introduction of the VLE as the main point for learning material and information has been the use of the system has grown steadily, as can be

205 4 seen in fig 1and 2. In the last year the increase has slowed due to the fact that we are getting close to 100% practical use. All courses at HiBu have a corresponding course in the VLE, and all academic staff are required a minimal use of the VLE, for at least the minimal use of announcing assignments and lecturing plans. 9000 8000 7000 6000 5000 4000 3000 1000 0-09 2001-01 2001-05 2001-09 2002-01 2002-05 2002-09 2003-01 Users Per Month 2003-05 2003-09 2004-01 V. ADMINISTRATIVE USE OF THE VLE In addition to the promotion of the VLE, HiBu has introduced what we refer to as information courses. These courses are for administrative purposes. At HiBu these courses exist at three levels: All students are automatically enrolled into Information from HiBu. All students at a specific faculty are automatically enrolled into Information from HiBu-Name of faculty. All students at a specific department are automatically enrolled into Information from HiBu-Name of department. The result of this is that all students are enrolled into three courses that contain administrative information, like rules, regulations and exam dates. These courses are also used to post messages to groups of students. The main aim of the introduction of these courses is that the students have one place where they can find all information and receive all messages in one system, both academic and administrative. 2004-05 2004-09 2005-01 2005-05 2005-09 2006-01 Users Student Users Instructor Users Fig. 1. Number of users on the HiBu Blackboard system per month, observe the cleanup performed over the summer each year. 700 600 500 400 300 200 100 0-09 2001-01 2001-05 2001-09 2002-01 2002-05 2002-09 2003-01 2003-05 Courses 2003-09 2004-01 2004-05 2004-09 2005-01 2005-05 2005-09 2006-01 Courses Active Courses Fig. 2. Average number of available and active courses on HiBu s Blackboard server. Logging of active courses started in august 2003. VI. SURVEYS ON STUDENT SATISFACTION AND USE OF VLE A. Annual student surveys HiBu has been collecting data on student satisfaction for a number of years. The questions have been identical in yearly surveys from 1997 on, with the exception that a number of questions added in, in relation with the VLE and other items. For the purposes of this study we shall only consider those questions form the annual survey which relate to the IT elements, access to information and later on the use of the VLE. All tough they are only part of the survey those are the question that with which we are concerned. The initial questions that have bearing on the later use of the VLE are: Satisfaction on the access to IT-equipment. Satisfaction on information and access to information. More recently a further question has been added: Satisfaction on HiBu s use of its VLE. With regard to the raw data from the early surveys, it has not been retained. Hence we have only summary data for 97 through to /01. Concerning the survey in 2001/02 we believe the survey was not carried out, as there is no data available. From the academic year 2004/05 the survey is no longer carried out. The number of students responding to the surveys has varied: All surveys performed by the college are on a 7 point Likert scale, four represents a neutral position. The only exception to this is the results from 2002/03. These were performed on a 5 point scale, these have transformed to fit with the other results. 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 TABLE I OVERVIEW OF SURVEYS Year Students responses Survey method 1997/98 752 Paper 1998/99 806 Paper 1999/00 709 Paper /01 626 Paper 2001/02 - - 2002/03 251 Electronic 2003/04 469 Electronic Satisfaction on the access to IT-equipment. 97/98 98/99 99/ /01 01/02 02/03 03/04 Fig. 3. Student satisfaction on access to IT equipment at HiBu

205 5 The information on access to and quality of IT-equipment is included in the survey due to the fact that inadequate access to IT-equipment is a negative factor when students are exposed to a VLE. They need to gain access to the material in the VLE. The students are generally satisfied with the access to ITequipment. The reason for the low ratings a few years back was due to the restricted access to the University College in evenings and weekends. The physical access to the buildings has improved. In addition most students have their own portable computers. All in all access to a high speed network and equipment should not be a limiting factor in accessing the VLE. 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 Satisfaction on information and access to information. 97/98 98/99 99/ /01 01/02 02/03 03/04 Fig. 4. Student satisfaction on access to information at HiBu. Information to the students in the past was generally posted on notice boards. In 2002/03 HiBu moved into using the VLE for this information, promoting that through information courses. The main challenge in this has been to get all staff to post information on the VLE. Some departments have made their own web notice boards, some used the external public website for HiBu and some have stayed with the old fashion physical notice boards. This situation has taken some time to rectify, mainly because the e-learning groups have never had the power to enforce, and general management have been slow to follow up on these issues. B. Student surveys with focus on VLE The HiBu E-learning group carried out two surveys with the aim of collecting more information from the students on their satisfaction with the VLE, and how it was currently being used. One of the aims was to determine whether the hiring of a dedicated e-learning instructor had any measurable effect on the students. The effect on staff is registered by other means. The same questions were put to the students in early spring 2004, and late autumn 2005. The main results from these surveys are the basis for future work to improve the use of HiBu s VLE. The surveys used a questionnaire and follow up reminders through the VLE, to all students. The response to the first survey was 450 (about 18%) in the later survey only 293 answers (12%) were received. 60 % 50 % 40 % 30 % 20 % 10 % 0 % Satisfaction on HiBu's use of its VLE - - - - +/- + +++ Fig. 5. Student satisfaction on use of the HiBu VLE. General satisfaction with the VLE has not changed markedly over nearly two years between the surveys. Taking into consideration all the work that has gone into the promotion and training of staff during this time the results are disappointing. However from looking at the comments from the students, is that with the increased use of the VLE, the demands on better use increases. During the first survey the student s comments were grouped into some themes, as shown in the next figure. The grouping of the comments was done by the e-learning instructor, in both of the surveys. These themes were formed into questions for the second survey to compare how the students impression of the importance of these themes had changed. The students had an opportunity to select more than one of these choices as important. The average number of selections was 2.3 per student. Do not use Blackboard (VLE) Use Blackboard more, and for everything Use Blackboard more coherently and uniformly Staff knowledge of Blackboard must be increased Information on Blackboard is too late Better content maintenance on the Blackboard server Autumn 2005 Spring 2004 03/04 04/05 0 % 10 % 20 % 30 % 40 % 50 % 60 % 70 % Fig. 6. Importance of areas for improving the use of HiBu s VLE. The numbers from the two surveys are not directly comparable as, the results were obtained in different ways. It is however notable that the number of students suggesting that HiBu should drop the use of Blackboard as the VLE has dropped significantly. It is also notable that in 2004 the main bulk of the students were focused on the increased use of the VLE. By 2005 this focus has shifted. This shift in focus is mirrored in the comments posted by the students in the survey.

205 6 40 % 35 % 30 % 25 % Comments grouped into topics not using the VLE for information and course material. Analysis done by the e-learning instructor when looking at the general positive and negative comments, the positive comments outnumbered the negative comments by a factor of 10 to 1. This general trend can also be seen in the general satisfaction with the VLE. 20 % 15 % 10 % 5 % 0 % Order and structure Unused posibilities in the VLE Information is made avaible too late Organisation and training (staff & students) General positive comments General negative comments Fig. 7. Student comments on the use of HiBu s VLE grouped into themes. As noted before, the expectations on how the staff use the VLE have changed over the last few years, and as a result of this the focus of the e-learning committee at HiBu has also changed. The initial focus was on increasing the use of the VLE, while the new focus is on how to better use the VLE. The demands from the students are pushing us towards a better use of the VLE in a blended learning model, as suggested by the e-learning committee. The survey results are a clear indication of what the students want: Better order and structure in the VLE. The students want a clear structure that is equal throughout all the courses the student attends. Too many students spend too much time trying to locate material. Staff must utilise all the possibilities present in the VLE. Too many staff are content with the basic use of the VLE for posting messages and making lecture notes available. This basic use is just a start not the goal. The students are here clearly showing that they expect more than the shovelware approach utilised by most of the staff. Messages and information available earlier. Too many of the admin staff still forget to post messages or make information available for the students on the VLE. Some students are still struggling with some of the basic features of the VLE. In addition to this new students arrive every year. All these need to be trained in how to use the VLE. Training of students has been done in different ways in different parts of HiBu. The general consensus is that all students need a small introductory course. There is also an opinion among the students that some staff would benefit from more training on how to use the VLE. Overall the students are more satisfied and expect more use of the VLE than the staff are currently able to support. One interesting example of this is that one particular group of students registered a complaint at the dean, due to one lecturer VII. SURVEYS ON STAFF ATTITUDE AND USE OF E-LEARNING There have been two major surveys administered for staff members with a considerable period in between. The first survey was posted in December and the second in February 2006. The two surveys had identical content. The focus of the surveys was to gather information on staff knowledge and access to IT-equipment and, their knowledge about, and effort to keep up to date on, developments in e- learning. Further, the survey focused on their impression of how import generally, and for them personally would be, in the near future. The participants in the first surveys were academics from the department of engineering with a response from 43 out of 75 (57%). The participants in the second survey were all HiBu staff, academics and others, generating a response from 71 of 250 (28%). It should be noted that although the response to the second survey is lower, it does also include part time and admin staff. In fact part time and admin staff makes up more than half the total staff and only 17 respondents from this group answered. However since the focus of the survey was on e-learning and the use of the VLE. It is unlikely that the majority of the admin staff and part time staff would answer, since they wave limited involvement with the VLE. If we only considering the responses from the academic staff it were 54 of about 120 or 45%, which corresponds better to the previous survey. The first survey was administered approximately one year after the introduction of the VLE platform at HiBu. When the second survey took place some of the lecturing staff had more than five years experience using Blackboard. For both surveys the female to male of respondents reflected the gender profile of the entire University College. Some of the key results for both surveys are presented in figs 8 to 11. 40.00% 35.00% 30.00% 25.00% 20.00% 15.00% 10.00% 5.00% 0.00% Very low Low Neutral Good Very good Unansw ered Fig. 8. How do you assess your own knowledge in the use of a computer program to administrate e-learning (Blackboard, Classfronter etc.)?. 2006

205 7 Fig 8 shows a major increase in VLE knowledge amongst staff members has been achieved after the introduction of a VLE. In 2006 more than 50% assess their personal knowledge to be Good or Very Good. One major reason for this positive development is of course based upon their experience as active VLE users. One other possible explanation for some uses can be seen from fig 9. 60.00% 50.00% 40.00% 30.00% 20.00% 10.00% 0.00% Fig. 9. Have you read any textbooks or papers related to e-learning? In only 9% read books or papers related to e-learning Often or Very Often. In 2006 almost twice as many answered under these categories (17%). 50.00% 45.00% 40.00% 35.00% 30.00% 25.00% 20.00% 15.00% 10.00% 5.00% 0.00% 40.00% 35.00% 30.00% 25.00% 20.00% 15.00% 10.00% 5.00% 0.00% Never Once Couple of times Unimportant Less importat As now More important Unimportant Less importat As now More important Often Very often Unansw ered Very important Very important Unansw ered Fig. 10. How important do you think e-learning will become in the near future generally? Unansw ered Fig. 11. How important do you think e-learning will become in the near future for your personal lecturing areas? Throughout the survey period a great majority of staff members have judged the importance of e-learning in general to be Important or Very important (60% in, and 69% in 2006) as seen in fig 11. However, even though the survey 2006 2006 2006 shows a slight increase from to 2006, it is interesting to see that they assess the importance of e-learning for their own lecturing areas to be of less importance than in general (42% in and 44% in 2006). VIII. CONCLUSION What we can observe from the results is that there has been no significant change in the satisfaction levels over the period covered by the general satisfaction surveys HiBu. In the period covered, HiBu has moved from a complete traditional paper based system to a VLE that is the common medium for all student contact, information, learning material, and setting and delivering coursework, etc, This period has not shown any increase in satisfaction, neither has there been any significant decrease in satisfaction. Over the period covered by these surveys HiBu has gone through a significant change in the environment for students and staff. The current students are as satisfied as the students were at the beginning of the period. This can be seen as a disappointing result, but during the period covered by the surveys HiBu has gone through massive changes. During massive changes there is natural to expect trouble and a period of unhappiness. The introduction of the VLE at HiBu has been a massive change in the environment for all students and staff. Students are now getting all their information from the VLE. Academic staff no longer produce material for handouts in class, the material is entered into the VLE. All coursework goes through the VLE. Information from admin staff is not hand delivered or put on notice board it is also entered into the VLE. In addition to the changes taking place at HiBu, the expectation the students currently have to the use of technology and access to information are increasing, additionally the use of a VLE is no longer a novelty, and the initial boost in satisfaction when exposing students to technology is diminishing. There was a temporary small drop in some satisfaction in 2002/03. In fig 4 the general satisfaction on access to information dropped the year (2002/03) admin staff moved to a complete use of the VLE. The drop in student satisfaction can be explained with the general challenges of a rollout like this, inconsistent and late supply of information to students etc. It is also notable that the rollout of academic use of the VLE has followed a different model from that of the administration. The academic rollout has been a more gradual process over several years. The consistency that was forced on the admin staff has not been forced on the academic staff. There were several different VLE s in use during this period, all staff at HiBu are now using the same VLE. The desired pedagogical move is to a full scale blended learning environment, some staff are already there and are linking their use of the VLE in with their face-to-face activities. Some staff are using the shovelware approach and some staff are just using the VLE in a pure administrative fashion, posting administrative

205 8 information on courses, lecture schedule and posting assignments. This mixed use of the VLE is the basis for the model adopted by HiBu, first encourage the use of the VLE, then introduce the elements of a blended model. Currently no academic at HiBu is forced to use the VLE, beyond posting a syllabus and lecture schedule. The student s expectations of how the staffs use and can improve their use of the VLE has changed over the last few years (fig 6). The initial focus was on increasing the use of the VLE. The new focus is on how to better to use the VLE. The results of the 2006 VLE survey clearly show that the students want: - Better order and structure in the VLE - Better staff utilisation of more of the possibilities present in the VLE - More training of students - More training of staff When it comes to staff training and attitude, it is notable that the majority of the staff rarely or never read any publications, textbooks or update themselves on new trends in e-learning (38% in and 49% in 2006), note that the sample size in the second survey was the whole of HiBu and the first only the academic staff in department of engineering.. However, at the same time the majority have the opinion that e-learning will become an even more important part of their future. One of the consequences of this for HiBu is the need to continue to offer courses and seminars to update and further educate the staff on the developments and possibilities in e-learning. An interesting observation is that 69% of the staff judge that e-learning will be more important in general, but only 44% judges it to be an increased importance for themselves. This is up from 61% on general importance and 42% importance for the academic themselves in the earlier smaller survey. These numbers show that about 25% of the total staff see the use of e-learning as important but not for themselves, which indicates that they have a reluctance to utilise the technology themselves, more than they currently do. The reasons for this may be many: preparing material for a VLE is more work that reusing old material; some staff do feel the need for more training in the use of the VLE; and some plainly state that they do not wish to use a VLE and feel that the human contact with students are so important that this rules out the use of VLE for learning material completely. The number of staff that see e-learning as unimportant or becoming less important is low 4-5% in both surveys. This shows that nearly all staff see e-learning as an integral part of HiBus activities. The main challenge for the near future will be to promote the VLE and get more than the current 44% to see the importance in getting more involved in the use of the VLE. The obvious target group for the first efforts are 25% of staff that see e-learning as important but not for them. In general students are satisfied and the staff see the importance of using a VLE. There are however some issues that arise both on how the academic staff use the VLE and how they see the future use. Overall the students are more satisfied and expect more use of the VLE than the staff are able to currently support. The students with new groups coming in every year are much quicker to pick up and use new technologies and environments than staff. This may give HiBu problems over time as new student groups adapts quicker to the new environment than the academic staff are able to utilise it, creating a ever increasing gap. We can conclude that the use of VLEs in higher education is now a prevalent and a manageable process. Much of the concern about the introduction of a VLE in higher education, and the impact it will have on students and staff, has been shown by our surveys to be both small and of a temporary nature. ACKNOWLEDGMENT The authors wish to thank all the participants in the e- learning projects at HiBu for their contributions. A special thank to Knut W Hansson for organising the survey on student use of the VLE, and Anne Kari V Simonsen for going though the archives and supplying the information on student surveys. REFERENCES [1] "WebCT," http://www.webct.com/. [2] "Blackboard," http://www.blackboard.com. [3] "Classfronter," http://fronter.info/com/. [4] "It's learning," http://www.itslearning.no/. 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