Investigating Chinese University Students’ Perceptions about Blackboard Platform to Support Their Online Learning

Abstract

In this paper, we investigated the current situation of BB (Blackboard) platform using and the Chinese university students’ learning attitudes towards BB platform. Data were collected from 164 students (51 male and 113 female) in Beijing via self-reported questionnaires: Questionnaire of Perceptions about Blackboard platform (PBPQ), including three scales (Ease of Use, Usefulness, Attitude). Results showed that the PBPQ can be used for the Chinese context with good validity and reliability. Further analysis results indicated that different frequencies of using BB platform were related the most to all the three scales except gender, major and grade. The results also showed that students’ learning attitudes can be improved by ameliorating the Ease of use and Usefulness of BB platform, and teachers should encourage students to use BB more frequently if they want to use BB platform for teaching. These results give some advice for future course designs on BB platform.