“Vula is my survival kit”
Stephen MarquardCentre for Educational Technology,
University of Cape [email protected]
Vula Vital Stats
91% of UCT students used Vula in 2008 (20,351 / 22,231)
Vula is Sakai at the University of Cape Town
In 2009, 12,000+ people use Vula every day
Vula User Survey
Derived from Sakai community survey question bank
Student survey delivered online, 12–19 Oct 08• 4235 respondents = 21% of student users (20,351)
• 83 questions
• Median time to respond: 11 minutes
• 425 A4 pages of results
Staff survey delivered online, 12 – 23 Nov 08• 152 respondents = 7%-13% of staff users (1202 / 2313)
Survey responses were not anonymous, allowing more complex analysis.
Students like Vula
Staff (n=148): 53% very positive, 42% positive, 5% neutral, 0% negative
Students have easy access to Vula
• 65% use Vula daily (28% weekly)
• On campus, 74% use Vula from Faculty computer labs, 10% from Library
• 92% have easy access to Vula (“Whenever I need to use Vula, it's easy for me to get access to it”)
• For how long have you been using computers?68% More than 8 years20% 4 – 8 years12% < 4 years
Students find it easy to use
I found it easy to learn how to use Vula93% agree or strongly agree (30%, 63%)
I can quickly do what I need to do or find what I'm looking for on Vula:91% agree or strongly agree (33%, 58%)
When you have a problem with Vula, what do you most often do to get help?71% ask a friend or another student14% Ask a lab administrator or lab assistant
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Some challenges facing higher ed in SA
• Highly diverse student body• Under-prepared university entrants (disadvantaged schooling
background)• Many first-generation university entrants• Differentiated and low throughput rates (political, social equity,
efficiency and funding concerns)“At the University of Cape Town, for example, the difference in throughput rates between English first language and second language students in 2002 was more than 20% in several degrees / programmes (Spiegel et al., 2003)” http://ijedict.dec.uwi.edu/include/getdoc.php?id=2566&article=421&mode=pdf
• “Survival of the fittest” no longer an acceptable engagement strategy for supporting students
• We therefore have a particular concern for and interest in supporting at-risk students, especially in education development units such as UCT’s CHED.
July 2009
Staff vs student responses: course use
I would prefer my courses to … / For my courses I … Students Staff
use Vula extensively 60% 33%
make moderate use of Vula 31% 52%Use of Vula has improved my learning / improved student learning
agree or strongly agree 80% 69%
Most valuable benefit (choose one)
Improved resource sharing: 23% 21%
Improved course administration: 21% 33%
Improved communication: 17% 32%
Improved my/student learning 16% 5%
Improved my/student time management: 11% 1%?
A mismatch in perceptions or description?
Vula Student Survey: Themes
• Vula helps me organize my academic life• Staff should use it more (so it’s more useful to us)• Vula means I don’t always need to go to lectures
• When I go to lectures, I’m better prepared and can take better notes
• If I miss lectures, I can catch up
Students said …
• “I was a student in the days before the coming of Vula, those were dark times… Vula has significantly improved all aspects of student/staff communication.”
• “vula sums up an entire course, when properly used, vula provides a strong link between class activities, lecturers and students”
Organizing my academic life• It is extremely vital for my academic career.• It help me alot to do all my Tuts and assignment. vula save my life• Vula was extremely useful in checking what was required for the next day, especially if lectures were missed!• vula is like my survival kit!• Our schedule on Vula is not always up to date :-(• If it were not for Vula I would most likely not know what to do for some of my courses• I have too things change all the time and it helps to be on top of everything and Vula makes it that much easier
i mean I can even access it from my phone when not on campus.• Vula is really helpful for me, I check it out at LEAST twice a day to see if Im up to date with my work, and its
good for calculating my coursework grades as the marks come in.• I would not survive varsity without the use of vula!• I need vula!! When most of the course material is online I have a better opportunity to understand and go over
the work done in class.• psychology dept does this incredibly well. find it much harder to keep ducks in a row with drama courses as
there is NO Vula site at all for any of them• It is very easy to keep up to date with what is going on with the course. Courses that are not on vula are very
difficult to keep up with and it is a hassle to keep visiting the Noticeboards on an every day basis• It makes life soooooo much simpler My Organisational Psychology class doesn't use Vula and it's almost
impossible to find out whats new what has changed what i need to do etc• If vula was used by majority of the faculties, it would create a less stressful vibe of students• I am up to date with notes and deadlines. This helps me to plan and work more efficiently.
Impact on face-to-face contact time• “I know that some people will be discouraged to come to lectures, but I've found that if I have a
very valid reason for missing a lecture, or have misplaced my tutorial work and dont know what to do for an assignment, a quick login to Vula immediately sets me at ease. I can get notes, feedback and interact with other students in my courses without too much hassle and running around.”
• “lecture slides must still be printed for the students as this allows annotating of slides while listening to the lecturer, as writing all notes down hampers my ability to fully listen to what the lecturer is saying”
• “Sometimes you happen to miss lectures on purpose or not on purpose and vula makes it possible that the material covered, announcements made and all that was done in your absence is made available for you.”
• “It is so useful having lecture slides online so that we can listen in class and take extra notes rather than just focussing on writing every word down from slides or what the lecturer says. I realised how useful lecture slides on vula are because history lecturers … do not have or put very few lecture slides online.”
• “for subjects like psychology, their extensive use of vula has made me not go to lectures etc”• “by putting up lecture notes on vula prior to lectures (at least a day before!) I listen better in class
and take notes, but also that way i can look at the material beforehand and see whether it seems necessary/worthwhile to go to class that day, or whether i can make better use of my time”
• “I miss more lectures by simply downloading them off Vula.”
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Student concerns are …
• affective, emotional, visceral (“dark times”, “saved my life”, “vital”, “less stressful”, “sets me at ease”, “survival”)
• practical (easier, less hassle, simpler)• about access to and engagement with
learning processes • about structure, pacing, tasks (and
feedback?)• rational (how to make the best decisions)
July 2009
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So what about the software?
• In the “what is this software useful for” spectrum, showing spikes in this area, even though Sakai is not specifically architected for this outcome
• This = “Vula helps me understand and plan to achieve what’s required of me for academic success” ?
• Who would have said: “Let’s design software to reduce student anxiety” ?
• Let’s design software to help students succeed.
July 2009
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What to do with this
• We need good context to make services and capabilities work well and be useful
• An important context and filter for aggregation (synoptic / wrapup views), notifications (what’s coming up, what’s happening now), event streams (what have other users done), multiple interfaces and access methods (web, mobile, PLE), search, tagging
• A design element in good choice architecture for the software and templates (“capability profiles”) – guide people to produce good outcomes by default without increasing complexity or effort.
July 2009
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