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eLearning is like a sewer, what you get out of it depends on what you put into it.

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Giving Your Students Directions on their learning journey!

ImageWhen you travel somewhere for the first time, doesn’t it seem to take a little bit longer to get there than it does to return home?  Whether it is unfamiliar surroundings, difficulty reading the map or the GPS isn’t up to date, it can be frustratingly slow to travel to new places.

Think of your online course as that new destination for your students.  How would they describe their navigation experience?  Would they say that once they travel into your course that it is difficult to find their way back?  Would they say that the course links were easy to find and use?  Would they be frustrated trying to make it to their “destination”?

Connecting your course by organizing and clearly naming your navigation elements will save your students and ultimately you time when putting together your online course.

Below are steps you can take to connect your course and save time for you and your students:

  • Use Dividers and Subheaders to visually organize your course’s navigation menu (hint see the Teaching Online and Putting it Together Subheaders in this course.
  • Append the text (Click to Open) on titles for content folders, learning modules, lesson plans, web and course links.
  • Make the content item Blue if you want your students to click it
  • Chunk your course content as you would teach it in your face-to-face course.  For example: Put all Chapter content in chapter folder with different sub-folders for each chapter.
  • Place a Course Link at the bottom of a unit a study so that the student can navigate back to where they were before easily.
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Moderating Posts in Discussion Forums? Now there is an ORIGINAL thought!

Discussion Forums GraphicOne of the best communication tools used in online, hybrid and face-to-face courses is the discussion forum. The benefits of forum use are widely published in academic circles. Some examples of these benefits are:

  • allowing the student to reflect and respond thoughtfully to a discussion question
  • allow them to apply that same kind of critical thinking to a peer’s posting
  • enables students who might not otherwise responds in a live classroom environment to have a “voice”

As envelopes are pushed in the distance education arena, we are discovering some things that need to be addressed.  Having taken a few online courses for my Master’s degree and in working with faculty in their courses, I’ve noticed a trend when it comes to some student postings in what are supposed to be well reasoned, interactive back-and-forth discussions.

Students are waiting to see what their colleagues post and then creatively copy-pasting their own discussion board posts. Instead of doing the leg work of coming up with their own thoughts about whatever it is they are supposed to be posting, they are rehashing their colleague’s posts.  There are thoughts as to why this may be happening, but that is subject for a different post.

The challenge then becomes one of encouraging the interaction and critical thinking you want in a discussion board while maintaining the academic integrity of original thought.  Forum moderation presents itself as a workable solution.  Forum moderation allows the instructor or designated reviewer to approve the post before it is seen by the rest of the class.  So, with this in mind here are the steps to promoting original responses in discussion board postings:

  1. When creating the forum be sure to ensure that your force moderation of posts.*
  2. Assign a due date for the creation of discussion threads in response to your discussion question.
  3. Do NOT publish/moderate the posts until after the due date.
  4. Turn off post moderation once the due date is reached (you can also disable the ability of the students to add new threads)
  5. Have a separate due date for replies to original postings.

By following these steps, the students make their posts, completing the first part of the discussion assignment (the part when you want them to reply with their original thoughts) without being able to view the posts of fellow students. Then, when you open the discussion back up for reply the are free to build off of each others’ ideas and continue to interact.

This does entail a little more work on the part of the forum moderator (professor, instructor, TA), but can really go a long way to ensuring the integrity of student discussions.  This solution does not have to be utilized on every discussion forum in your course, but can be leveraged for when you want to ensure the student’s thoughts are original.

*Some Learning Management Systems do not have the ability to moderate posts, so another solution may be in order.
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Blackboard World 2012 – Thoughts upon Leaving

I sit here this evening after a tremendous  Blackboard Client Appreciation party where I might or might not have one an HD video camera for dancing.  Check @jspradlin to be sure.  I am reminded of the vibrant community of users that get a chance to interface in an f2f environment after.  This community is what makes what we do great.

This community involves CIOs, Sys Admins, Instructional Designers, Faculty, Students, vendors and @Blackboard Staff who work in concert to provide an environment where students of all ages and life long learners in a professional environment can communicate, connect and collaborate in ways that are native to them.

You see ultimately, the job I’m responsible for is to equip our faculty so that they can help our students learn how to think critically, and to be well-rounded productive members in society. Blackboard and the Blackboard community just makes my job easier, and for that I am grateful!

I look forward to Vegas in 2013 where we get to do it all again!

Sincerely,

Jacob Spradlin
Official Blackboard World Blogger 2012

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BbWorld Blog: Beyond the Bells and Whistles – Exemplary Courses and Best Practices

7/12/2012 2:50pm | Room 273

Subject: Focus on importance of pedagogical best practices.  Discuss design and teaching principles behind the ECP rubric; the impact of exemplary courses on the student experience; and how the ECP and its rubric can be used for individual course improvement, faculty training and professional development.

Exemplary Course Program – http://www.blackboard.com/catalyst

What is it? – core of program is a rubric:

Course design

  • Goals and Objectives
  • Student Engagement
  • Content, Org and Clarity

Interaction and Collaboration

  • Learning and COurse Grade
  • Vareity of tools

Assessment

  • Alignment w/ objectives
  • Formative and SUmmative

Learner Support

  • Orientation and training
  • Technical and Pedagogical

Design Standards:

  • Sound Instructional Design
  • Quality Matters Rubric

Practices Exemplary

  • Extensive interaction
  • use of of multimedia
  • Mastery based exercies

Interaction

Faculty Information – includes picture weekly office hours through blackboard IM, Expectations
Discussion Boards – Each week different discussion board faculty must seed each discussion (first reply) Weekly graded assignment
Live Classroom – Every class has live classroom link (trainings offered to faculty)  Faculty who Commit to doing 3 live sessions they are offered a stipend
Feedback & Grades – Consistent, responsive feedback.  Rubrics for every assignment.

Media
Module Content (videos & podcasts) and accessibility.  Every piece of audio and video content has transcript.

Mastery Based Exercises

Check your Understanding Exercises – use Adapative release
Mastery exercises – for a grade 10 questions, take it unlimited and no due date.

Advanced Photoshop

Course Design
Projects & Interactive Rubrics.  project base course design.  The way each week is laid out is identical.

Assessments and Rubrics – Can be accessed in several different locations (Course information, and Gradebook)

Leave feedback when you score in your Interactive Rubrics!

Introductions to Computers –

Course is active, collaborative and authentic – design principle.

Dashboard Announcements – Frequently used features. Schedule your announcements to release ahead of time.

Label everything as Required, Recommended and Optional. Allows more content in front of the students without it overwhelming them.

Task List – Use the Date management screen to set dates of when things open close and when they are required.

Automated Notification from Agents console of the Early Warning System.  Entire course is Project Driven.

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BbWorld Blog: Wikis, Blogs, Forums, Journals- Which One Do I Use & Why?

7/12/2012 | Room 276

Deborah Prickett
English Instructor
Jacksonville State University

Rewrote mission statement to be a “learning centered” university.   Doing a lot of challenge based learning in the English Department.  Offering many hybrid courses.

Forums:

  • Prompts or not
  • Replies when required
  • Checking for posts that respond
  • Students – not continuous Engagement
  • Grading Fast and easy

Discussion forum keeps track of all comments(replies) in Gradebook.  Blackboard Blogs & Wikis do not.

Blogs:

Individual Blackboard Blogs are better Chunked.  Put them together so that they are easier to grade.  This professor created an individual blog for every chapter.  Great for multimedia input (videos, pictures, charts etc).  Great for older students.

Students are used to looking at blogs.  Blogs are more visual.  Forums have Tree Structure.

*Tip:  Have your students decide how the assignment will be graded: A student created Rubric!

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Bb World Blog: Rubrics – Why and How to Best Use Rubrics in Blackboard

7/12/2012 | 8:30am

Subject: Learn the benefits of using Blackboard Learn’s interactive Rubrics.  This presentation will also include how-to instructions and some best practices.

Objectives

  • Define academic rubric
  • pros and cons
  • learn how to use
  • best practices and pitfalls

We are using clickers to see where we wall stand on grading and rubrics.  Great concept!

Rubric
Any established mode of conduct or procedure; protocol.

Academic Rubric
Explicit set of criteria that’s used for assessing students’ work.

Pros of a Rubric

  • promotes consistent, accurate and fair descriptive assessment
  • Promotes self-reflection and self-assessment in students (leads to higher quality work)
  • Enables comparison of works across settings (use criteria in several assignments throughout the year to help assess progress in how they are doing to achieve goals)
  • Rubrics reduce need for clarification. (Time Savers)
  • Promotes Formative Assessment

What does a rubric look like?
Holistic Rubric – applies to the whole of the assignment. Not broken down by criteria.

General Rubric – Contains criteria that are general across all tasks.  Clarity of Description 35% Opinions %35 References %10 Structure/Gammer %25

Analytic Rubric – Breaks assignment down by criteria along several dimensions.  Puts it into specific things you want the student to do.

Cons of a Rubric

  • Too specific, too detail oriented (easy for this to happen)
  • Not appropriate for all situations (algebra for example – calculate correctly or not)
  • Time Consuming
  • Do not capture complexity and creativity of some works

Steps to create Rubric

  • Dtermine learning outcomes
  • keep it short 4-15 items
  • each rubric should focus on a different skill
  • Focus on how students express learning
  • Evaluate only measurable criteria
  • reevaluate the rubric

Building Rubrics:

  • Ctrl Panel > Course Tools > Rubrics > Create Rubric
  • Supply Name and Description
  • Complete Rubric details (columns are levels of achievement and rows are criteria)

Rubrics can be exported and imported through Blackboard.

Adding Rubric to Assignment:

  • Go to assignment > Edit
  • Section 3 – Add Rubric (select rubric, create new rubric, create from existing)
  • Select the Rubric(s) you created and want to use
  • Set points from Rubric to points from assignment (only works for Points based rubrics)
  • Click OK
  • You can then delete, view and edit rubric as well as change type (grading, secondary eval), show rubric to students (make sure to say “yes with rubric scores”)

Grading with rubric

  • Grade Center
  • Go to assignment
  • find student Grade attempt
  • Click View Rubric Button
  • Check the appropriate check box for what the student accomplished in terms of levels and criteria
  • You can give feedback on specific criteria
  • Points are automatically totaled

Get the impersonate student building block from Oscelot.

Student – goes to My Grades > View Rubric

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BbWorld Blog: HuMBUG without the Bah!

7/11/2012 3:50pm | Digital Content and Upgrade Center

Subject: How are large metropolitan area works together to Improve the Blackboard Experience for their Students.

John Lane – Univ of Houston Downtown

Joan Talbot – Houston Baptist University

Paul Lee from Lee College

Martha S from San Jacinto College

  • Generated list of all universities and community colleges and called & e-mailed
  • Started Listsserv using Google Groups
  • Started website after first Meeting (hosted by St. Thomas)
  • Quarterly meeitngs at different sites since.

Brainstorming sessions at meetings
Recruit new Members
Vendor Invitations for show and tells
Breakout sessions for server administration and GUI administration when possible
Discussions about what we’re doing and or current problems. Just Sharing
Lunch!
humbugonline.org

Be Open
Everyone’s opinion counts
Helpful
– if you have experienced something, share so no repeat mistakes or re-inventing the wheelReady to Share
Vendor Representations to offer insights and information

Less time figuring out things on your own.
less frustration – you have friends to call
Less Money
– Hours Spent
– Training with the Eperts
New Connections
– New Resources
– Collective Thinking
– Unlimited possibilities

Network, Seek out Bb Administrators in your geographical area!

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BbWorld Blog: New Ways of Communicating at Xavier University

7/11/12 1:50pm

Subject:  Implementation and uses of Connect to communicate on campus.

Moving from just using connect for emergency communication to using it for alumni, financial aid, student activities etc.

Test messages to cell phones, PDAs networked digital signage, and other text based devices and messages to e-mail accounts.  Personalized voice messages to land line and cell phone.

Issue:

Only issue was collecting required data (cell phone number).  Had students fill out survey with cell phone and alternate e-mail address.

Bursar’s office use:
Registration – Notify students to pay for classes before they are dropped.

Refund Checks -Notify students receiving refunds.

Bills – Notify students via text and e-mail on bills.

Financial Aid office Use:

Acceptance – Notify students to accept financial aid awards
Verification forms – Notify students to complete before aid is awarded
Attendance: Attend all classes before aid is posted.

Faculty Use: Faculty schedules, attendance codes

Department Use: Notify students on meetings and seminars.

Scholarship Use: Notify students when scholarships are available.

Newsletter Use: Alumni newsletter

Social event Use: Notify alumni in certain areas of regional events.

Fundraising use: remind pledger about pledge and due date

Create a data file (.csv or .txt) of the constituents you want to communicate with and send the message just to them!

You can get information (data) about all of your communication (sent, people reached, bad numbers and successful deliveries)

Generate reports can be generated from the data.

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Practice makes Best Practice

Cutting down on last-minute scrambling with technological glitches by having your students practice the activity before the real assignment or assessment is due.

One of the worst feelings as an instructor occurs when you work tirelessly to put together an assignment or assessment in your course only to have the technology fail you. You spend countless hours organizing an activity with the learning objectives in mind, ensuring the activity is perfectly aligned to the curriculum, only to find that the students can’t even access it because the technology isn’t working. Talk about frustrating!  While in some respects you will always be at the mercy of the technology gods, for example the old adage “It is not a matter of if technology will fail you, it is a matter of when.”, seems to come to mind.  However, there is a very proactive way to greatly reduce the chance of a technological failure in your course………Practice!

Oftentimes assignments, assessments and activities that deal with third-party software or technology other than the Internet browser take place at stressful times during the semester or are associated with a stressful activity (test taking).  At this point, you are taking the normal stress and anxiety levels associated with coursework and compounding them with the added fun of using a new or different technology.  Why not introduce your students to the “new tech” at the beginning of the semester or make the activity less than 25% of the course grade.  Below you will see some great examples of “practice activities” that you can use in your course.  You don’t have to limit yourself to these activities as this best practice transcends just these examples.

The Syllabus Quiz (Killing 3 birds with one stone)

This activity touches in three important areas that will affect how the student goes through the rest of your course. By completing this exercise the student will:

  • become familiar with the testing mechanism in the learning management system before they take their first major exam or quiz.
  • learn how to use-third party applications (lockdown browser or remote proctoring) to ensure academic honesty during the assessment without the added anxiety of a big test being due.
  • at least know the information in your syllabus that you think is most important, ensuring that they have at least looked at the syllabus once during the course.

NOTE: Be sure to make the Syllabus Quiz worth enough points so that the students will follow through on taking it.

The “Introduce Yourself” Presentation

One of the ways we can bridge the gap of interactivity in online and Hybrid courses is to allow students to record presentations and upload them to the course.   This means that the student can present a project, assignment or some other activity while sharing video, audio and whatever is running on their desktop or laptop computer.  We all know that many students undergo stress when they have to give an oral presentation.  Take that stress and tie it to the added stress of “Can they hear me?”, “Is my webcam working?”, and “Can they see my PowerPoint?”.  Give your students a fun activity at the outset without the added pressure of a major assignment deadline and the stress diminishes considerably.

Sample “Introduce Yourself” Presentation Guidelines

  • Place activity in first week or getting started unit of your course.
  • Include directions on how to access recording tool and start recording.
  • Have student create a 3-5 slide PowerPoint or Keynote presentation that Introduces them to the class and record themselves giving the presentation.
  • Tell them to have fun with the presentation!

Note:  Tools that can work for this assignment include:  Adobe Presenter, Slide Bloom, Tegrity, Jing etc.. It will depend on if you want a view of the student along with the presentation.

Use this Concept in other Scenarios

This principle applies to many other activities you may do in your course.  Having your students use a wiki to post their educational and professional goals and it will be easier for them when it comes to completing group projects, case studies and portfolios using wikis later.  If you require your students to meet with you in real-time using a webinar tool, it is always a good idea to have a pre-meeting meeting to iron out any difficulty they might have in getting the web conferencing tool to work. A web meeting room is another tool where a Microphone headset is mandatory.  You never want to get stuck in that feedback loop that comes from hearing yourself in someone else’s speakers during a web conference.

In conclusion, you can avoid the wailing and gnashing of teeth that takes place when students encounter a technical difficulty by practicing and ironing out the bugs. This best practice can save your life when it comes down to evaluation time.

Note: In most cases work with whatever support system you have to let them know when your students will be doing the dry run so they know to expect the phone calls and e-mails.

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