School of Education Blackboard Workshop

Summer 2012Amy Ginsberg

With thanks to Andrew Livanis, Monique Howard and Norm Sutaria

Today’s TopicsO Organization of your course Bb siteO Home PageO Course Overview / Syllabus / CalendarO Discussion ForumO BlogsO AssignmentsO RubricsO Grade CenterO Tracking Student Activity

Organization of your course Bb site

O Key Elements:O SimplicityO RedundancyO Structure (by topic, date, or content/tool)

O Q & AO Campus ResourcesO Professional ResourcesO FeedbackO Individual Appointments

Simplicity, Redundancy & Structure

Miscellaneous (Useful) Elements

O Q & A (for questions that pertain to many/all)O Tools: Discussion Board

O Campus Resources (for this class)O Build Content: Create Web Link

O Professional Resources (for this class)O Build Content: Create Web Link or Item

O Feedback (per your needs)O Build Content: Create Web Link to Survey

Monkey Anonymous Student Feedback Survey

O Individual AppointmentsO Build Content: Create Web Link to Doodle

Summer 2012 Individual Appointments

Home PageO Do not delete! (I learned this the

hard way.)O Maximize its usefulness for students

by removing what you don’t need and adding content to the most helpful tools.

O I use My Announcements, What’s New, and My Calendar.

O Other modules you might like are Alerts, Dictionary, and Library Resources.

Course Overview / Syllabus / Calendar

O Course Overview is the instructor’s introduction to the most important elements in orienting students to the course.

O Syllabus houses NYSED required components.

O Some syllabus components may also have their own content link for easy access.O CalendarO Grading SchemeO Readings / BibliographyO Rubrics

Discussion Boards, Forums & Threads

O Blackboard Learn 9.0 On Demand Learning Center: Discussion Board Tour

O Tools -> Discussion Board -> Create New Forum

O Incentive = ParticipationO Evaluation = IncentiveO Make instructions and evaluation criteria

explicit.O Some examples…

BlogsO Blackboard Learn 9.0 On Demand Le

arning Center: Creating a BlogO Course Tools -> Blogs -> Create BlogO Incentive = ParticipationO Evaluation = IncentiveO Make instructions and evaluation

criteria explicit.O An example…

AssignmentsO Blackboard Learn 9.0 On Demand Le

arning Center: Creating AssignmentsO Add menu item -> content area

(name it) -> Assessments -> Assignment

O Some examples…

RubricsO Blackboard Learn 9.1 On Demand Le

arning Center: Creating a RubricO Rubrics are easy to create in Bb and

can be as simple or complex as you want them to be.

O Rubrics can be used for assignments, discussions, and blogs, and linked to the grade center.

O Some examples…

Grade CenterO www.xavier.edu/ds/blackboard9/pdf/GradeCenter.pdf

O Grades can appear in grade center automatically or can be entered/changed manually.

O Needs Grading link shows just what you need to grade, and can be separated by category.

O Columns can be altered as needed.O Grade center can be downloaded to your

computer, worked on offline, uploaded, and printed.

Tracking Student Activity

O It is possible for you to keep track of what students are accessing and when.

O This is helpful for a variety of reasons:O Capturing students who are having

difficulty at the beginning of the semester

O Getting a sense of how much time and effort students are putting into the course

O Identifying students who are disappearing and falling behind