Students in online classes are required to navigate complex learning management systems (LMS), the software that is used to deliver online course materials, communicate with students, track student learning, and serve as a depository for student assignments. For students to achieve their fullest potential in online classes, they require technological skills and confidence as well as content knowledge. Blinn College’s online orientation for its LMS—BrightSpace D2L, also known as eCampus—affords the needed training that has resulted in higher success rates in online courses and less stress for students and professors.

The Role of Technological Efficacy and Self-efficacy

Students who lack needed technological skills and knowledge are too often doomed to failure in an online learning environment. They are described as having low technological efficacy, which contributes to low technological self-efficacy (the level of belief that one has necessary skills) (Wang et al., 2013). This low confidence level becomes a reinforcing feedback loop in which students’ high anxiety levels and negative attitudes toward the online learning system cause them to perceive the LMS as excessively difficult; avoid using the LMS; have fewer interactions with course content, other students, and the instructor; fail to gain competency in the use of the LMS; and, as a result of low engagement with content, peers, and the instructor, be more likely to drop or fail online courses (Getenet et al., 2024). Conversely, students with technological efficacy are more likely to have high technological self-efficacy that allows them to engage with the course, peers, and instructor; experience positive academic outcomes; and become more proficient in the use of the LMS (Barbero, 2021; Banerjee, 2020).

Unfortunately, marginalized students, including those who are low-income, first-generation, and often students of color, are even more likely to lack technological efficacy and have low technological self-efficacy (Tawfik et al., 2016). As noted by Lokken (2020), “Community colleges face special challenges due to their commitment to serving underrepresented populations and students who are on the wrong side of the digital divide” (p. 38). Researchers stress the need for effective online training for students to reduce frustration and prevent technology from impeding student learning in online courses (Edris, 2020; Fish & Wickersham, 2009). Blinn College’s LMS orientation is intentionally designed to incorporate mastery experiences, described by Albert Bandura (1997) as providing “the most authentic evidence of whether one can muster whatever it takes to succeed” (p. 80).

Design, Development, and Maintenance of the Orientation

More than 50,000 students have completed the orientation, which has created a high-quality online learning environment at Blinn College. From its inception, the orientation has engaged employees from across the college in its design, development, and maintenance. Representatives from student services, faculty, academic support services, and research created the initial training. This collaborative effort was the direct result of the collective work of frontline employees in the college’s leadership academy, FutureWorks. Instructional designers, distance learning support personnel, and faculty continue to maintain, modify, and update orientation modules. Mandatory student surveys for course completers provide a student voice for improvements.

Orientation Structure

The LMS orientation is a 10-module stand-alone course. Orientation topics include information deemed by faculty and distance learning staff as critical tools for effective eCampus navigation. Modules combine instruction in how to navigate the system as well as application activities so students can practice what they are learning. The sequentially arranged modules address the following topics:

• Quizzes, including instructions on how to take a quiz and a sample quiz for student completion
• Course navigation and content, including instructions on how to use navigation tools and a quiz to check understanding
• Syllabus, notifications, calendar, and app, including instructions on how to locate and utilize time management tools and an application assignment in which students use these tools
• eCampus email, including instructions on how to use the eCampus email system and submission of a student-generated email
• Dropbox, including how to submit assignments and review feedback and the submission of a student-generated written assignment
• Discussion forums, including how to post and respond to discussions and submission of a student-generated post
• Grades and user progress, including information on how to access grades and monitor progress in a class and a quiz to check understanding
• Profiles, including how to customize account settings and edit an eCampus student profile
• Getting help, including how to identity the type of help needed and available technical assistance
• Additional software, including information about digital tools external to eCampus, such as lecture-capture and communication software

Each module includes learning objectives, recorded lectures, handouts, videos, and, in most instances, an assessment that is either an activity or a quiz. To ensure that students complete the full course, designers restricted access to subsequent modules until the preceding module is successfully completed.

Those who score at least 80 percent on the end-of-course quiz after completing all modules receive a certificate of completion. In addition, students may bypass the entire course and receive a certificate of completion if they take the end-of-course quiz and score 100 percent on their first attempt. Course completers can download a quick guide handout for future reference. The guide includes a summary of key concepts covered in the orientation.

The orientation is available in all eCampus course shells no matter the teaching modality. Faculty are encouraged, but not required, to incorporate the orientation into their courses. Instructors use a variety of strategies to encourage students to complete the training, including requiring the orientation as a graded assignment, offering it as a bonus project, or denying access to content modules until students complete the training. Faculty usage has increased with greater awareness of the program’s success. Of those students enrolled in any modality in fall 2023, 77 percent completed the orientation by the end of the semester. This completion level provides evidence of the course’s broad acceptance.

Orientation Course Results

Outcome data indicate significant improvement in course success for students who complete the orientation, regardless of course modality (see Figure 1). In its first iteration, students completing the training were not as successful overall as those who did not. Designers reviewed these initial results and made adjustments that appear to have impacted success rates. Modifications included revisions to course content and shortening the length of time required to complete the course. Wider acceptance by faculty also may have contributed to more positive course outcomes for students who completed the orientation.

Figure 1: Course Success for Students in All Modalities (Grade of C or higher)

The success gap is more impressive for students enrolled in online classes, as shown in Figure 2. The trend of the results mirrors outcomes reflected in the overall success rates for all courses.

Figure 2: Course Success for Students in Online Courses (Grade of C or higher)

As shown in Figure 3, the orientation is especially effective in improving course success for economically disadvantaged students, or those identified as being Pell Grant eligible. The trend for student success varies from results reflected in Figures 1 and 2, as even in its first iteration, the orientation benefited economically disadvantaged students. Success rates for students who completed the training varies more than 20 percent in some semesters and the success gap for students who have completed the training with their counterparts narrows significantly.

Figure 3: Course Success Rates for Economically Disadvantaged Students (Grade of C or higher)

After completing the course, 95 percent of students report that they are confident they can navigate eCampus, thus confirming their technological self-efficacy. Faculty report their satisfaction with the quality of the training and the concomitant reduction in their workload.

Replication Considerations

The orientation has been successful because it combines the strengths of college administration support with the knowledge of frontline staff. Support from upper-level administrators is key to a project that requires substantial amounts of human capital to develop and relies on broad voluntary implementation by faculty. The course is effective because those closest to students’ knowledge gaps, including faculty, instructional designers, distance learning specialists, and the students themselves, are the primary drivers of orientation content.

The course design ensures that students master the skills they will need by:

• Placing restrictions on each module to force students to complete the module before advancing in the course;
• Setting minimum scores on the final quiz to reduce potential gaps in knowledge about the LMS (100 percent for those testing out of the course and 80 percent for those completing the course);
• Creating application assignments so that students can practice what they are learning; and
• Making a handout available to course completers with usage tips.

Adjustments to course structure have been made to keep the orientation from becoming onerous for students, faculty, and staff. The modifications included:

• Changing the program design from requiring faculty to import the training module into their courses to a stand-alone course that all students can access directly in the LMS without faculty involvement;
• Creating completion certificates so students do not have to repeat the orientation in multiple classes; and
• Reducing the amount of information covered to essential knowledge about eCampus, thus shortening course completion time. This adjustment reduced the average completion time from more than three hours to less than 90 minutes.

Consistent with past efforts, Blinn College’s staff and faculty monitor success rates and make program adjustments regularly to ensure that the orientation remains relevant, current, and beneficial to students. This model of continuous improvement has marked the orientation since its inception and undergirds its success.

eCampus Summary

Students achieve technological efficacy and technological self-efficacy as a result of the student eCampus orientation. Research identifies both elements as critical to online student success and persistence. The skills needed to navigate technology are as important as a student’s confidence in their ability to do so (Navarro et al., 2023). At Blinn College, the eCampus orientation continues to bridge the digital divide and affords students both the skills and confidence to succeed.

References

Bandura, A. (1997). Self-efficacy: The exercise of control. Macmillan.

Banerjee, M. (2020). An exploratory study of online equity: Differential levels of technological access and technological efficacy among underserved and underrepresented student populations in higher education. Interdisciplinary Journal of E-skills and Lifelong Learning, 16, 93-121.

Barbero, N. (2021). The new digital divide: How edtech self-efficacy is shaping the online student learning experience in higher ed. College Innovation Network EdTech Student Survey Series. https://www.wgulabs.org/posts/cin-student-survey-2021-the-new-digital-divide-how-edtech-self-efficacy-is-shaping-the-online-student-learning-experience-in-higher-ed

Edris, D. D. (2020). Identifying strategies for preparing and supporting Florida college students in elearning: Case study of a Florida public state college’s student success in elearning (Publication No. 28258722) [Doctoral dissertation, Florida Atlantic University]. Proquest Dissertation Publishing.

Fish, W. W., & Wickersham, L. E. (2009). Best practices for online instructors: Reminders. The Quarterly Review of Distance Education 10(3), 279-284. 

Getenet, S., Cantle, R., Redmond, P., & Albion, P. (2024). Students’ digital technology attitude, literacy and self‑efficacy and their effect on online learning engagement. International Journal of Educational Technology in Higher Education, 21(1), 3. https://doi.org/10.1186/s41239-023-00437-y

Lokken, F. (2020). Tracking the impact of elearning at community colleges. ITC National Distance Learning Report: Survey Results. https://www.itcnetwork.org/assets/docs/2020ITCAnnualSurveyMay2020.pdf

Navarro, R., Vega, V., Bayona, H., Bernal, V., & Garcia, A. (2023). Relationship between technology acceptance model, self-regulation strategies, and academic self-efficacy with academic performance and perceived learning among college students during remote education. Frontiers in Psychology, 14. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1227956

Tawfik, A. A., Reeves, T. D., & Stich, A. (2016). Intended and unintended consequences of educational technology on social inequality. Tech Trends, 60(6), 598-605.

Wang, C., Shannon, D. M, & Ross, M. E. (2013). Students’ characteristics, self-regulated learning, technology self-efficacy, and course outcomes in online learning. Distance Learning, 34(3), 302-323.

Blinn College's online LMS orientation prepares students for success.

Joyce Langenegger is Dean, Academic Support Services, and Marcelo Bussiki is Vice Chancellor, Academic Affairs, at Blinn College in Brenham, Texas.

Opinions expressed in Learning Abstracts are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect those of the League for Innovation in the Community College.