CUOnline: The Evidence
CUOnline: The Evidence
September 2007
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CUOnline: The Evidence
CUOnline: The Evidence
Introduction
The e-Learning Unit (eLU) has a major objective to base the development of CUOnline
on firm evidence of what works and is wanted by staff and students. Part of that evidence
base (along with research and experience elsewhere) derives from internal sources.
During the academic year 2006-7 a number of projects were undertaken by the eLU and
others which contribute to this evidence base.
The report looks at evidence from six sources:
1. The Report of the Student Experience at Coventry University 2007
2. The reports on issues raised with our 24/7/365 Help Line
3. A survey undertaken as part of a project for the eLU
4. An independent project undertaken by some undergraduate students in statistics
5. A survey undertaken by eLU and CSHE staff in connection with the Pathfinder
project
6. A survey of Level 1 modules undertaken by the eLU
The data from these surveys is not pooled for the purposes of this report. Instead we rely
on triangulation to give greater credibility to the results.
The outline characteristics of the data sources used are summarized in the table below.
For convenience the report will refer to data sources by the shortened name shown in
brackets (for example SE for the Report of the Student Experience).
Source Population Size Data Data type
Collection
Period
Report of the All students 1284 March 2007 Externally
Student except research conducted
Experience (SE) degree ones survey
Help Line (HL) Calls made to 498 October 2006 Call logs
24/7/365 help to June 2007
line
eLU Survey FT undergraduate 385 Spring term Questionnaire
(eLU) students 2007 responses
Statistics Project FT undergraduate 700 Spring Term Questionnaire
(SP) students 2007 responses
Pathfinder Mainly FT 223 March 2007 Questionnaire
Project (PP) undergraduate responses
students
Module Survey Level 1 modules 359 June 2007 Analysis of
(MS) module webs
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CUOnline: The Evidence
This report does not comment on the evidence but presents it for further discussion and as
a base for further research on specific issues.
Who uses CUOnline?
The vast majority of students make use of CUOnline (eLU = 99%; SP = 99%). Most use
it at least twice a week (SP = 80%) and many are frequent users accessing it five or more
times a week (eLU = 40%) or daily (SP = 32%). Over half of students had five or more
modules which used CUOnline (SP = 57%).
However usage rates are much lower among Art and Design students where frequent
users only account for a small minority (SP = 20%; eLU = 17%) although nearly all AD
students make some use of CUOnline.
Is CUOnline useful?
Whilst the raw data is not available from the Report on the Student Experience (SE) it is
clear that he vast majority of students find CUOnline very useful. However
Students in AD and EC find CUOnline less useful than those in BES and HLS.
Part-time students have a consistently lower opinion of CUOnline that FT
students.
Postgraduate students rate CUOnline lower than undergraduate students.
Women over 25 rate CUOnline poorly compared to other groups.
CUOnline is rated much higher by non-white students than white ones.
CUOnline is not rated highly by students with a disability, particularly those with
dyslexia.
Is CUOnline easy to use?
The majority of students (SP = 81%; eLU = 63%) find CUOnline easy to use. Those who
had not previously used WebCT (ie Year 1 students) were much more positive In the SP
survey 97% of first year students found CUOnline easy to use either straight away or
after a short period of time.
Most students find CUOnline easy to navigate (SP = 73%) although 36% of third year
students in the SP survey did not find it easy.
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CUOnline: The Evidence
What do students use CUOnline for?
61% of students in the SP survey agreed or strongly agreed that CUOnline provides a
good channel of communication between staff and students.
The top 10 features used within CUOnline are (source = SP):
My Grades 72%
Discussion board 61%
Module mail 59%
Assignment tool 56%
Accessing course content 44%
Accessing H drive 40%
Accessing library pages 29%
Calendar 20%
PebblePad 14%
Turnitin 9%
The survey of Level 1 modules (MS) looked at features used in module webs and the top
six were:
Links to module mail 87%
Lecture notes ands support material 80%
Announcements 43%
Web links 43%
Discussion board 35%
Calendar 17%
The survey of social software usage conducted for the Pathfinder project (PP) reported
that 21% of students said they used PebblePad.
Students use a variety of social software outside that provided in CUOnline. The top five
were (PP):
YouTube 73%
Myspace 57%
Facebook 43%
SecondLife 6%
ActiveWorld 4%
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CUOnline: The Evidence
How Do Students Access CUOnline?
Most students access CUOnline from both on and off campus (eLU = 74%; SP = 75%);
just under half of students used wireless connections (eLU = 46%) with students from EC
being heavier users of wireless (eLU = 61%) and those in AD using wireless relatively
less (eLU = 30%).
What Problems Do Students Have With CUOnline?
The major source of problems for off-campus users were related to their own computer
systems (HL = 30%). In a quarter of cases the issues were with using CUOnline itself
(HL = 24%). Over 90% of user issues reported to the 24/7/365 help line were
satisfactorily resolved. Other problems included password issues, usually a result of
incomplete enrolment and enquiries about other university software services such as
SOLAR, the student portal etc.
A third of students have problems using CUOnline off-campus (SP). The top four
problems encountered were:
Pop-up blockers 41%
Java 35%
Too many log-in screens 30%
Compatibility with home PC 12%
Other frequently mentioned issues were inability to access the H drive, overloaded
caches, Active-X, security systems settings and slow system speeds.
What Do Students Do If They Have a Problem With CUOnline?
The Report on the Student Experience (SE) provides strong evidence that many students
want better support to use CUOnline effectively.
72% of students report that had received a copy of the CUOnline guide (SP) but only a
minority of students had used it (SP = 29%). 42% of students were aware of the 24/7/365
help system although only 12% had used it (SP). Of those who had used it 89% found it
helpful (SP).
Most students facing a problem with CUOnline either do nothing (eLU = 49%) or assume
it is temporary and try again later (eLU = 20%). Only 10% contact the help desks
provided by the university with the CSV help desk being the major point of contact
(eLU). The majority of students who did use help desks found them helpful (eLU = 68%)
A quarter of students use more informal routes to get help including asking friends, tutors
or faculty technicians (eLU).
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CUOnline: The Evidence
What Computing Devices Do Students Own and Use?
One of the biggest trends in recent years has been the increasing use of student-owned
devices for study purposes. 75% of students owned their own computer with laptop and
notebook variants being the most popular (eLU). All students owned a device with some
information processing and communication capability (for example a smartphone, games
console or MP3 player) (eLU) but students only tended to use dedicated computing
devices for study purposes. 88% of students used a device they owned for study purposes.
What features of CUOnline would students like to be able to download to mobile
devices?
The top three answers were (eLU):
Assignment marks 66%
New announcements 40%
New CUOnline mail 32%
Where announcements were concerned students particularly wanted information on class
changes.
David Morris
September 2007
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