Blackboard: College Necessity
Technology has revolutionized how society functions. All aspects of our lives have been tailored to simplicity because of technology. Blackboard is one of many benefits of technology that has been adapted for institutions such as Arizona State University. Completing tasks and communication becomes straightforward and manageable. Overall, Blackboard provides students with the essentials to make academic networking and coursework simpler, but also has its flaws. Blackboards appearance is unique per institution and user; allowing users to personalize the pages to their own preferences. Blackboard proves to be useful to students as it informs the students with its state of the art announcement system and its toolbars that directs the user to many different dynamics of Blackboard. Content found within Blackboard is almost always useful, but professors may sometimes neglect to update information. More times than not, Blackboard functions like a well oiled machine and is efficient and purposeful, but sometimes it comes up short. It is likely that users will encounter problems with Blackboard that may severely inhibit the user from completing necessary tasks at the most inconvenient times, but generally, Blackboard efficiently works as a medium for students and professors alike.
Sporting the maroon and gold theme Arizona State University wears so proudly, Blackboard’s appearance represents the very institution it serves. Blackboard’s heading is illustrated with a gold background and an ASU symbol in the top lefthand corner. The level of intimacy Blackboard creates is increased with the user because of this. Blackboard could have simply used any tasteful color scheme and design plan to communicate with the users, but instead the designers used the ASU logo and color palette in order to be more personal to the students and faculty who utilize the website. The tabs located at the top of the page are maroon against the gold, which makes navigation pleasing to the eye. If users want to switch things up from plain old maroon and gold, there is a “Personalize Page” button located near the top of the page that allows users to pick from different color schemes that divert from the permanent gold and maroon header. There are seventeen available themes that allow users to change the color schemes. Personalizing Blackboard initiates a level of exclusiveness which makes the user feel at home, while still maintaining the website’s composure.
Everything on Blackboard is organized into tabs and compartments; “Tools”, “Announcements”, “Courses”, “Library”, “To Do” are just a few to name. The simple and modern appearance makes navigation around the website easier and more manageable. Compartmentalization is an effective method of organization because it keeps everything separated and organized into its respective categories. Next to the “Personalize Page” button there are arrows which, when selected, delegates the user to customize the order of each section on the page, thus enhancing organization according to individual’s preferences. Being able to customize so many aspects of Blackboard to alter the appearance and enhance organizations, makes users more likely to want to use the program and makes using the program manageable. Adaptability is an important characteristic of a website, especially when the users of Blackboard are all unique and use the program differently.
Professors and students, the primary users of Blackboard, use many aspects of the website differently, but the main function of Blackboard is to be used as a medium for professors and instructors to communicate with students in an academic, learning environment. Blackboard is used primarily for students to submit homework, take quizzes and tests online, review lectures and information pertaining to specific courses, and receive announcements for upcoming assignments. Unfortunately, it seems nearly every student has encountered a problem when using Blackboard to turn in an assignment or take a test. We have all seen it: the deadline is 11:55 and you start the assignment at five, but Blackboard is down all evening, and you end up not being able to turn it in, and your professor does not extend the deadline because “you had plenty of time to turn it in”. Or, you go to check for when something is due, but Blackboard is down and it ends up being due the next day, but you never knew because Blackboard was conveniently down right before the deadline. It seems that just when you need something most, it is not working properly.
Blackboard has a clear usefulness in mind that has been used for years. The way that blackboard begins to show how it is useful is by being able to quickly navigate between your entire schedule. Switching from one page to another needs to be quick and easy for when a student might be rushed for class or in a hurry to turn an assignment in. Blackboard has a notification system built in that can quickly let you know if your professor or TA has an announcement or the class might be canceled. This system is very useful if you check it daily, or whenever you might need to know an update for a class. On the left side of the blackboard homepage there is a toolbar that can direct you from grades, all the way to personal information and libraries to NBC news. this toolbar is great for quick navigation to checking grades for all classes at once. Some professors fail to direct from their own Blackboard page to grades easily; having this link trumps all other links. Blackboard creates simple links; ASU libraries on their own are difficult to find books by just walking around, but having a quick link to the online library web page makes for an easy way to find your books. Media and news can sometimes be out of reach for college students, but on Blackboard there are links to archives of NBC to easily access information. Between tasks, organizations and calendars, Blackboard has a function which ties all of these together. Some students are very disorganized and are unable to effectively keep up with the strains of the day and can fall behind with assignments. Sometimes making a written “To Do” list daily is tedious and annoying. Blackboard’s online “To Do” function can find out exactly what you need to do, when you need to do it, and how it should be done. Every day of the week can have written examples and assignments of organized tasks.
The content that Blackboard possesses is vast and wide and spans from simple assignments to full length documents, powerpoints, lectures, and discussion boards. Without this much material, getting information to students and professors would be a very arduous task. Continual updates and content refreshing is necessary to keep up with the constant demand of student material. When a student is unable to come to class he or she may get class information from powerpoints on Blackboard. If a student cannot view an assignment, they can find professors’ emails and office hours to schedule a time to talk with them. Each course students are enrolled are labeled on the “My Courses” section in the Blackboard homepage. The content page of a class per student will vary, but each class is required to have a Blackboard resource page, which makes most content universal. Each class has grades, assignments, powerpoint, lectures, and announcements. A class might not have all this information posted constantly and it can be very difficult to deal with. A professor may find it tedious to update their Blackboard page, which is a fault of the professor, rather than Blackboard. As long as it is updated consistently, the information within Blackboard is of exceptional help to its users.
Overall, Blackboard functions with ease and keeps up with the daily demands of
professors and students. Support for Blackboard runs across servers that can be very clear throughout a semester and school year. Certain times though, the functionality of Blackboard can come to a halt due to much traffic flow; this is due to so many student using Blackboard at the same time. The times when Blackboard is constantly in use by students all over is near the beginning and ends of the semester. These times are during the registration for classes, exams, and grade input. The frustrating truth about Blackboard is that when you really need something to work, such as a simple task of reloading a page or changing to different views, it can fail to deliver. Many times students may say that during a crucial time of turning in an essay or an assignment, Blackboard has crashed or been unresponsive. Simply put, it is unlikely that students and professors who use Blackboard will not run into any problems with it; imperfection is inevitable.
Functionality can be complicated. When individuals rely on the functions of a website, they expect for it to work all the time, every time. That is impossible; the internet is far from perfect and there is no way to have a flaw-free web page. To be able to say that the functionality of a page is reliable, then you need to take into account the constant flaws of the internet as a whole.
Surely there are websites that are just like Blackboard, as useful or less. What makes Blackboard uniquely useful is how its users have shaped it and how it has shaped them. Everyone has experienced a good day on Blackboard and a bad day. Someday there will be another new, innovative and effective site that will replace BlackBoard and its flaws, but for now users will have to live with its limitations. Functionality of the website swerves from flawless and exceptional all the to inadequate and dysfunctional as systems reboot, update, re-install and crash. Even with its flaws, Blackboard sufficiently, and effectively accomplishes the task at hand when up and running properly.
Taylor Kent
Haley Sims
https://myasucourses.asu.edu/webapps/portal/frameset.jsp
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