09-07-2011, 08:16 AM
I just finished the Macroeconomics course at SL and I had several issues with their blackboard program. Here is what I wrote to them in their student survey:
1. At least a third of the internet links in the course presentations were broken. I was disappointed as some of that looked really interesting. 2. There were a few times when the vocabulary words for a given unit had words that were NOT in the book and they were NOT on the test. 3. When I took the practice tests, the results would sometimes surprise me. Answers I knew were correct would come back as wrong. The Smarthinking tutors confirmed the official answer was mis-entered. It happened several times but I did not confirm after a while. This made me really paranoid when I took my graded tests. What else was mis-entered? It got to the point that the only reason I wanted to use Smarthinking was to check for your mistakes. I decided not to waste my time. 4. On EVERY practice and graded test, I would click the arrow to move on to the next question and would get an ACCESS DENIED message. I kept having to go back and try again. This would happen several times per test. It was a real concentration breaker.
Originally I was thinking I would take Econ 2 with you as well, but my experience with all the issues listed above has made me rethink that. Now I'm not sure. What I am sure about is that your blackboard program needs a complete overhaul.
Have any of you had these problems? I wanted to Microeconomics at SL but now I'm not sure. Any advice?
1. At least a third of the internet links in the course presentations were broken. I was disappointed as some of that looked really interesting. 2. There were a few times when the vocabulary words for a given unit had words that were NOT in the book and they were NOT on the test. 3. When I took the practice tests, the results would sometimes surprise me. Answers I knew were correct would come back as wrong. The Smarthinking tutors confirmed the official answer was mis-entered. It happened several times but I did not confirm after a while. This made me really paranoid when I took my graded tests. What else was mis-entered? It got to the point that the only reason I wanted to use Smarthinking was to check for your mistakes. I decided not to waste my time. 4. On EVERY practice and graded test, I would click the arrow to move on to the next question and would get an ACCESS DENIED message. I kept having to go back and try again. This would happen several times per test. It was a real concentration breaker.
Originally I was thinking I would take Econ 2 with you as well, but my experience with all the issues listed above has made me rethink that. Now I'm not sure. What I am sure about is that your blackboard program needs a complete overhaul.
Have any of you had these problems? I wanted to Microeconomics at SL but now I'm not sure. Any advice?