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Enhancing Faculty Engagement with iLearn: Insights from the American University of Sharjah

This report explores faculty and academic staff utilization of the Course Management System (CMS) iLearn at the American University of Sharjah. Based on a comprehensive survey involving 394 teaching staff, we delve into their usage patterns, motivations, and challenges associated with iLearn. Key findings reveal various pedagogical gains, the impact of specific features on faculty engagement, and firsthand perspectives gathered through interviews and focus groups. This analysis aims to identify best practices and areas for improvement to enhance the effectiveness of iLearn in academic environments.

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Enhancing Faculty Engagement with iLearn: Insights from the American University of Sharjah

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  1. Faculty and Academic Staff Use of the Course Management System (CMS): iLearn at the American University of Sharjah April 5th, 2012 AMICAL Panel

  2. Outline • Part One: • Background to the Study (Dr. David Prescott) • Survey information (Mr. Walid Alieldin) • Interviews (Ms. Shireen Baghestani) • Focus Groups (Dr. David Prescott) • Part Two: • Discussion of Data (Panel members)

  3. The research team

  4. Survey • 7 questions. • Sent to 394 faculty/teaching staff using iLearn’s survey tool. • 98 responses were received.

  5. Opening Survey Screen The survey will take a maximum of 15 minutes of your time. It is voluntary and anonymous. Electronic personal data is neither collected nor stored. The study addresses four questions: • What do faculty and academic staff use iLearn for? • What factors encourage faculty and academic staff to increase or decrease their use of iLearn? • What pedagogic gains does iLearn facilitate? • What examples of helpful practice do users identify? INFORMATION GIVEN IN THIS SURVEY WILL BE COMPLETELY ANONYMOUS NO PARTICIPANT DETAILS CAN BE IDENTIFIED

  6. Demographic Questions • Age category: please tick ( ) a box • 25 – 35 • 36 – 45 • 46 - 55 • 56 - 65 • 66+

  7. Demographic Questions • Excluding current study what is your highest educational attainment? Tick ( ) one. • Doctorate • Masters degree • Bachelors degree • Other postgraduate • Other (please specify)

  8. Demographic Questions • What is your AUS College/Department? Tick ( ) one. • Achievement Academy • CAAD • CAS • CEN • LIB • SBM • Please specify Department

  9. Question 4: Which iLearn tools do you use? Tick () your selections

  10. Question 5: Please tick your responses to indicate your purposes for use of iLearn

  11. Question 6: In your view what features would encourage greater use of iLearn?

  12. Question 7: In your view what features discourage greater use of iLearn?

  13. Interviews • Interviewer training • Conducting the interviews • Transcribing the interviews

  14. Focus Groups • Expectations • Realities

  15. Optional Separator

  16. Part Two Findings

  17. Demographics Age Education Level Academic Unit

  18. Tools favored by AUS survey respondents

  19. Faculty purposes for use of iLearn

  20. General Findings from the Interviews • Time-saving • Hard to use • Problems with features

  21. Pros • Time saving • Saves paper • Good way to communicate with students • Helps keep classes organized • Secure testing environment (lockdown browser)

  22. Cons iLearn was described as: • Clunky • Slow • Counter-intuitive • A mind-boggling waste of time

  23. Problems with the features • Useful features missing. • The quizzes don’t always save. Students get frustrated. • The gradebook is not user-friendly. • Safe assignment is not reliable.

  24. iLearn Specific Debatable point iLearn has too many features in one program. Con: In this way, iLearn does a lot, but none of it well. All the features make it very slow, clunky, etc. Pro: A faculty member can pick and choose what he/she likes without having to do much extra work.

  25. CMS Debatable Point The availability of course material for students. Con: Students are given too much help – everything is available for them so they are not pushed in any way. They are “spoon-fed”. Pro: Students are given the opportunity to take responsibility for their learning.

  26. Thank You! David Prescott, dprescott@aus.edu Walid Alieldin, weldin@aus.edu Shireen Baghestani, sbaghestani@aus.edu Kathleen Botter, kbotter@aus.edu Cindy Gunn, cgunn@aus.edu

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