Technology Used in Online Learning: You’ll Keep Using It

What online learning tools do students need to use to be successful in an online degree program? And, how will becoming proficient in technology used in online learning help them in the future, particularly in their careers?

The University of Arkansas offers more than 100 online degree, licensure and certificate programs. Understanding tools used in online classes is a must for success in these programs.

James Martin, a former instructional designer at Global Campus, was promoted last year to manager of the Learning Technology Support team. He said many of the types of technology that students in online degree programs at the University of Arkansas use will be familiar to them, either from high school, or if they are older, as many online students are, from their work life.

Younger students will likely be familiar with Google products because many high schools use them, Martin said, for instruction, meetings, sharing documents and storing documents. Many colleges and universities use Microsoft products, on the other hand, he said.

“If they come here, they’re going to be dealing with OneDrive for file management,” he said. “They’re going to have Word, Excel and PowerPoint as their tools rather than Docs and Sheets and Slides that they are used to in the Google ecosystem. It will be a matter of them, the ones coming straight out of high school, just shifting gears from one platform that does very similar stuff to another platform that does things in a little bit of a different way in the details, at least.”

Blackboard Ultra is the learning management system used by the U of A, a sort of hub around which all online instruction revolves. Older students who have attended another college or university may have used Canvas, the biggest competitor of Blackboard Ultra, Martin said.

“The Google suite makes it really easy to connect your documents with the learning management system, whereas in Blackboard and Canvas, too, you’re mostly authoring things in one environment and then downloading them and uploading them to an assignment in your learning management system. So, there’s a little more file management involved than they might be used to if they’re coming straight out of high school.”

 

Technology Used in Online Learning

Here are some types of technology that students may use to successfully complete an online course.

• A learning management system
• Digital collaboration tools
• Communication tools such as virtual meeting platforms and video conferencing
• Tools for creating and uploading video
• Proctoring software for tests
• File storage, including mobile and cloud file sharing
• Open educational resources
• Tutoring and study aids
• Project management tools

Students in degree programs offered in person on campus also may take courses delivered online if space is available. Often, on-campus students will take an online course that they can’t fit into their schedule if they were to attend a face-to-face class, Martin said. According to the Global Campus annual report, 36% of U of A students took at least one online class in the 2025-26 academic year.

The U of A uses Kaltura Capture for recording video required in assignments, but students also may record using a different platform, after getting permission from their instructor, and then upload with the Kaltura tool, Martin said. It’s often used by both students and instructors to record what’s on their screen along with their face as they talk about the information in the presentation.

“Now that will be a different thing than most of them are used to doing,” Martin said. “If they’ve done it before, they’ve done it with web-based tools like Screencastify and others … it's not entirely different. It's just again, the details are a little bit different in how it works and how that tool integrates with our learning management system.”

Instructional designers suggest to instructors that they start students off with a low-stakes assignment when they are learning a new tool, Martin said. It helps to have an assignment early in the semester that won’t make a big impact on the students’ grade until they get familiar with the tool, he said.

For example, the student may have to create three slides to introduce themselves and record their narration over the slides that they then post to a discussion board.

“That gets them using the tool in a similar way but at less depth than they would in a final presentation or a midterm presentation assignment,” Martin said.

 

Tools to Prepare You for the Workplace

A 2024 survey of students in U of A online degree programs found that 81% are employed full time.

“Part of the reason we use the Microsoft tools as our foundation is that it’s the foundation in most of American workplaces,” Martin said. “In some ways, people going back to school … they are already familiar with the Office productivity tools. That gives them a bit of a leg up, really. Getting familiar with Teams and Microsoft’s other collaboration tools in the context of higher education has a direct application in most offices.”

Most will not be familiar with a learning management system unless they transferred from another college or university, Martin said, except possibly an employee training system they used in a job, although those generally include content and a test, no discussion boards or other interactive features of a university learning management system.

Students who are older will learn about more modern ways of working, Martin said, such as collaborating on web-based files in real time rather than sending attachments back and forth.

“That whole idea of sharing a link to something is really common with young people,” he said. “There are only a couple of scenarios where you really want and need to send someone an attachment.”

Sharing a link for collaboration eliminates the need to reconcile multiple files sent by other people involved in the project, making sure no one grabbed an old version to work on, Martin said.

 

Tech Support for Online Students

The U of A employs people to provide help with online learning technology.

“I think one of the cool things that we as an institution offer that’s really a competitive advantage is we have people whose job it is to support those folks (who need help),” Martin said about IT help for online students. “My team is one of those teams, but it’s just one of them. We also have (online student liaisons) to help guide them through the process of getting enrolled. Once they are here taking classes, we have the Blackboard Help desk. We have a lot of things in place, a lot of scaffolding to help people.”

Abi Moser works as Blackboard support coordinator. She said students in online degree programs cover both ends of the spectrum as far as their familiarity and competency with technology. Some who have been in the work world for 30 years may be excellent at working on Excel spreadsheets but don’t know how to take a computer screenshot or log in with authenticator on their phone, Moser said. Younger students who are considered digital natives may be reticent to ask for help because they are so comfortable with technology they don’t expect to need any help, she said.

She pointed out that students need to understand that, once a paper or project is ready to turn in, it has to be saved as a file that can be uploaded. Otherwise, it will be inaccessible to the end user, Moser said.

One of the biggest issues for students in online degree programs is file management, she said.

“What may be the biggest help for the future is file management and also seems like the dullest part to say that but, there are a number of people who don’t know where their documents are saved,” Moser said. “They don’t know how their downloads work. They don’t know where that file went they just worked on.”

 

Foundational Technology Skills

Moser tells students they need to create a folder for every class they are taking, name their folders and their files clearly and save every piece of work in every class they are taking. The computer will save the date of each file, which can also be important if you have a problem uploading an assignment and need to show your instructor you finished it on time.

Good file management also is a great start to creating a portfolio you might use for a job application, she said.

“You’ve got a wonderful folder full of your work,” she said.

Learning new technology, even if they don’t use that particular technology in the future, moves people forward, Moser said.

“In 15 years, we’re going to be doing this as a hologram and I’m going to have to know how to share my hologram appropriately,” she said. “But the way I’ll have learned how to do that is because I learned how to do OpenOffice, then Google Drive, then Microsoft Office and then the Google AI that’s coming and eventually I get to the hologram. If you just stop learning those new things, the incremental progress that happens while you’re not looking makes it so hard for you to learn the new thing you have to learn for a job.”

 

Technical Advice for Instructors, Too

The Global Campus annual report for the 2025-26 academic year shows the Blackboard Help desk handled 2,704 calls for assistance from faculty and 1,712 calls from students.

Assisting instructors means fewer students need help, Moser said. If something is wrong with one instructor’s class, it could impact 200 students, she said.

TIPS (Teaching Innovation and Pedagogical Support) is another resource available for instructors. In addition to posting articles about Blackboard Ultra and other technology tools, TIPS offers assistance by email, virtual or in-person sessions.

“We have tried really hard to train faculty that, if they are trying to learn something, to schedule a TIPS consultation,” Moser said. “Go ahead and schedule an hour and just sit with somebody and they can walk you through everything. Blackboard Help is supposed to be for emergencies. If they have time for a consultation, they will get a more in-depth response because our goal in Blackboard Help is to take less than 15 minutes to help a caller.”

It’s common for a newly hired instructor to be unfamiliar with technology such as Blackboard Ultra, Moser said. If they taught elsewhere, they more likely used a different learning management system, she said, and the TIPS website offers extensive information and other resources to prepare faculty members to use Blackboard Ultra.

In every training she does, Moser tells people to spend no more than 15 minutes trying to figure something out. After 15 minutes, stop and ask for help, she advised, because spending more time leads to frustration.

The Blackboard Help employees respond appropriately whether a caller needs a quick answer or if they want to talk about everything leading up to the call before asking their question.

“You do have to gauge it very early on in a phone call,” she said. “There are some people that need to get out all of their frustration about it. They need to just say all the things they’ve been feeling. Then, there are other people that just call and say, ‘Hey, this is broken.’ And we say, ‘Tell us what’s broken.’ And they say, ‘These three things,’ and we say, ‘Here are the three answers,’ and they say, ‘Thanks, bye.’”

 

Making Technology Work for You

Students need to understand the difference between a laptop and a tablet, Moser said. They need a laptop with an operating system that allows them to download apps.

“A tablet is not going to have the robust operating system you need for a lot of the tools that are available,” she said. “You need to be able to install real programs on your computer as opposed to running applications.”

Online learners don’t need new versions of things, but they need to have hardware that has storage space and upon which software updates have been run regularly, she said. Installing updates every time you receive a notification that one is available is important. Also, turning your computer off occasionally is important for efficient operation.

Other tips from Moser that make life easier for a student studying online:

• Within Blackboard, the student can use alternative formats to turn a document into an audio file to learn while driving.
• Some files are available in a format that will play on a Kindle.
• You can choose a grammar setting that helps you understand English grammar while reading, helpful to students for whom English is not their first language.
• Reading preferences also can be set to assist students with visual impairments or learning disabilities such as attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder.
• Updating your profile on Blackboard Ultra allows you to include a photo so that others aren’t seeing a gray box above your name, how to pronounce your name and when to receive email notifications.
• Due dates listed by instructors will automatically go onto your calendar in Blackboard Ultra

 

Global Campus Focus

Global Campus at the U of A doesn’t have its own students, and it doesn’t have faculty members, either. The unit provides support to the academic colleges at the University of Arkansas that offer degree programs and courses delivered online. Global Campus staff specialize in helping instructors provide the best online learning experience possible.

• The Instructional Design and Support Services team partners with instructors to plan, develop and evaluate courses that meet the university’s high academic standards and maximize student success. They provide expertise and best practices in online learning environments.
• The Learning Technology Support team assists instructors in using effective teaching strategies that may employ technology to meet a specific need. That team includes employees who assist students and instructors with questions about Blackboard Ultra.
• The Media Production team works with instructional designers to help online instructors connect, inform and inspire students by creating video, images, podcasts, animations and other online course material. It includes experts in film and TV, 3D design and simulation, graphic design, illustration and animation.
• The Innovation and Student Experience team works directly with prospective and current students, answering questions and providing resources to guide their success. It facilitates online orientation for both undergraduate and graduate students and offers services by online student liaisons and coaches.