The History of Soba-Net

There is no doubt that technology has had a major impact on our daily lives. Currently, there are several CMSs on the educational market, and in the summer of 1999, Duquesne University adopted Blackboard®. Like Blackboard®, the others - WebCT, TopClass e-Learning Suite™ and eSocrates Knowledge Exchange™ to name a few - offer faculty essentially the same features and functions. For example, an instructor can use a CMS course site simply and easily for increasing the availability of course materials, assignments, resources, and/or grades. In addition, an instructor can make use of the CMS's communication, assessment, and management tools to extend the course beyond its physical, spatial, and temporal confines.

In an effort to meet student and faculty demands of improved communication throughout the school, a Blackboard® site was created to encourage students to take an active role in their academic career. The creation of SOBA-Net has taken the foundation of a CMS and altered it to become an AMS. It services nearly 2,000 undergraduate and graduate students, along with their academic advisors and departmental organizations, and provides them with curriculum, school, and professional information. In addition, it has promoted communication among the business school faculty, staff and students, while greatly increasing faculty familiarity with Blackboard® and, thus the use of it in their teaching. As a result, several other Duquesne University programs are now developing similar Blackboard® sites for their students and faculty.

What is a Course Management System?

A CMS is a course shell created for faculty to use to enhance a traditional face-to-face course or to deliver a course entirely online. A CMS provides a password protected Internet site with the web interface or framework necessary for instructors to make course materials of various types readily accessible to students on the Internet, conduct online discussions and communications with and among students, and create and disseminate assessments and surveys of various types.

A CMS is only a tool that enables faculty to use the Internet to disseminate course content and instruction - the content, methodology, and purpose should always remain separate - while eliminating the need to have advanced level Website creation and management skills to facilitate their teaching and enhance student learning.

Why Blackboard®?

Blackboard® makes it relatively easy to provide students with course materials in Web page, PDF, Word, or PowerPoint formats. It provides student home page creation, built-in chat and online discussion capabilities, e-mail, collaborative or group work facilitation and management areas, assessment creation and automatic grading, grade book distribution, class management features (such as calendaring or tasks), and a digital drop box for students to submit assignments. Course sites are password-protected and available only to registered students.

Although Duquesne University supports both WebCT and Blackboard® CMSs, Blackboard® was selected because of its low learning curve, visual appeal and secured environment. In addition, some of the school's faculty participated in training when Blackboard® was initially implemented campus-wide in summer 1999, bringing a familiarity component into play, and encouraging faculty involvement during construction and implementation.

SOBA-Net reinforces both Duquesne University and the School of Business's directive of integrating technology across the curriculum. For many faculty members, the shear thought of integration can be greatly intimidating. By using Blackboard® as an AMS, faculty members can observe how a CMS is used to aid in distributing materials and communicating with students. In moving from observing to participating, the intimidation can be significantly reduced. In addition, students can become familiar with the mechanics and feel less anxious when they participate in a Web-enhanced course.

What Were the Initial Objectives?

It was first thought academic advisors would benefit most, as they constantly searched for a better method of communicating with the students and distributing information relevant to their academic career. Thus, they embraced and encouraged this improvement and, rather than merely adding to the student's knowledge bank, the objective was to set students up for success by requiring them to take an active role in their education. Students and advisors would be able to work smarter and more efficiently, help improve overall communication between faculty, staff and students, validate concepts taught throughout the business curriculum (i.e., teamwork, planning, and communication), and greatly reduce the paper trail.