Skip to content

Month: March 2014

Published on Leave a comment on Bb Tip #92: Accessibility

Accessible course content may benefit everyone regardless of age, ability, or situation.

Awareness of some of the potential barriers and challenges students face can help you create an online learning environment that accommodates individuals with disabilities, adult learners, novice technology users and others in ways that benefit all users. The Creating Accessible Course Content document identifies some of the challenges students face and how you can use specific Blackboard tools and universal design techniques to help all learners master your course objectives.

Want more information?

Getting Started with Creating Accessible Course Content
University of Central Florida - Accessibility Tips
Try these Blackboard How-To documents.
Explore Blackboard’s On Demand Learning Center.
Visit the Blackboard FAQs for additional blackboard information
or schedule a one-on-one session, email, or
call Janice Florent: (504) 520-7418.

Published on Leave a comment on Bb Tip #91: Turnitin – Grade Anything

Instructors and students can now submit any file type to Turnitin for checking originality, grading online or distributing work for peer review. Submission file types may include PowerPoint presentations, spreadsheets, images, html code—whatever file type your students use for their assignments, Turnitin will accept it.

Turnitin - Grade Anything

Traditionally, English instructors have used Turnitin to evaluate papers and essays for plagiarism, grammar/mechanics and other writing skills. Now, with Grade Anything, Turnitin has opened up the door for instructors in other disciplines to provide feedback and evaluate other assignment types--not just papers. This exciting new capability allows Turnitin to be used by a broader range of instructors: those who evaluate presentations or teach in disciplines such as science, math, economics, and visual arts.

No submission? No problem! Instructors can provide students with feedback using Turnitin even if there is no file submitted for the assignment, such as with a musical recital or dance performance.

Instructors in every discipline can now evaluate student learning and give rich, timely feedback regardless of the nature of the assignment.

Want more information?

Turnitin - Grade Anything
Turnitin Instructor User Manual
Try these Blackboard How-To documents.
Explore Blackboard’s On Demand Learning Center.
Visit the Blackboard FAQs for additional blackboard information
or schedule a one-on-one session, email, or
call Janice Florent: (504) 520-7418.

Published on Leave a comment on Conversation #24: Interdisciplinarity

Download Conversation #24

Julie Thompson Klein

Doesn't matter whether it's engineering, whether it's psychology, there isn't a single report out there that doesn't acknowledge the changing relationship of disciplines and interdisciplinary work. It's often driven by a research agenda: The disciplines are changing; their research frontiers are expanding, and so that's an important part of what a department should be attending to, but also new themes and topics are coming into the curriculum.... It's a both-and world out there, it's not an either-or world.

A conversation with Julie Thompson Klein (Wayne State University) on teaching, learning and interdisciplinarity.

Links for this episode:

Published on Leave a comment on Spritzing: A New Way to Speed Read

Spritz, a Boston-based tech company, is releasing to the general public a new app that allows you to speed read in a different way from other similar products that are currently available.

After a few years of research and development, they are ready to launch a wearable technology product for Samsung. This reader lines up the words to our actual way of reading (slightly left of center of each word) so that one's head isn't constantly moving as we read across and down a page.

image from spritzinc.com
image from spritzinc.com

I tried samples of three different speeds provided and found it difficult to concentrate. My mind wanted to wander--make associations with other texts, search memories. While I think this app could be extremely useful for technical reading, I'm not sure I would like to use it for literature or even non-literary fiction. Part of the "fun" of reading is savoring well-written prose or conjuring up delightful images of the characters and places described. At up to 1000 words a minute, there's no time for that!

Want to experience what it would feel like to "spritz"? Elite Daily offers samples as well as additional information. If you have a need for speed and are looking for time-saving measures, this might be the app for you! And if you decide to try it, please let us know what you think.

1

Published on 1 Comment on Facilitating Online Discussions

Mia MacMeekin, who is an educator and lawyer, developed an Infographic with tips and best practices to facilitate online discussions. She writes:

The online discussion board has received differing reviews. Many believe it is a place that students simply write mini-papers, with little to no feedback. Others believe that it is a true learning tool for online courses.

Online Discussion Tips

You can read Mia MacMeekin’s Online Discussion Tips blog post on her An Ethical Island blog.

Published on Leave a comment on Bb Tip #90: Grade Center – Understanding Weighted Grades

The Grade Center allows you to create weighted grade columns. There are several different ways to calculate weighted totals in the Grade Center.

Weighted Grade Calculation Example

For example, you can calculate a weighted total:

  • by item
  • by category
  • by weighted running total
  • when dropping the lowest score from a category
  • in categories with equally weighted items consisting of different point values
  • in categories with proportionally weighted items consisting of different point values

Want more information?

Understanding weighted grades
Explore Blackboard’s On Demand Learning Center.
Try these Blackboard How-To documents.
Visit the Blackboard FAQs for additional blackboard information
or schedule a one-on-one session, email, or
call Janice Florent: (504) 520-7418.

2

Published on 2 Comments on Bb Tip #89: Grade Center – Weighting Grades

A weighted grade column is a calculated column that displays the calculated result of component parts (columns and/or categories); each part is worth some percentage of the total. You can create a weighted grade based on any column and/or category in the Grade Center. For example, you can create a weighted grade column that calculates the final grade for the course. Categories such as Test, Discussion, and Assignment would be given a certain percentage of the final grade along with the percentage for other grade columns (e.g. Mid-term, Final Exam).

Weighted Grade Pie Chart Example

Follow these steps to do it.

To add a weighted column to the Grade Center:

  1. Go to the [Control Panel] of the course you want to add a weighted column. Click on the [Grade Center] link to expand it.
  2. Click on [Full Grade Center].
  3. Move the mouse over the [Add Calculated Column] button and select [Weighted] from the drop down menu.
  4. Enter a name that describes what the weighted grade column is in the Name field. Grade Center display name and description are optional.
  5. Select how you would like the results of the weighted grade to be shown by clicking on the pull down arrow and selecting primary display from the list. Secondary display is optional and will only be shown in the Grade Center.
  6. In the select columns section, choose which grade columns and/or categories will be used in the calculation of the weighted grade by clicking on the grade column or category and then clicking on the respective arrow to move the column/category over to the selected columns area.
  7. Enter the weight percentage to be applied to each column/category you selected. The total weight must equal 100%.
  8. When selecting a category you can choose to weigh columns equally or proportionally and whether to drop grades in the category or to use the highest or lowest grade in the category.
  9. Choose whether to calculate the weighted grade as a running total which would include only the columns that have been graded in the calculation.
  10. In the options section you should indicate whether you want to include this weighted grade column in grade center calculations, show the weighted grade column in My Grades, and show statistics for the weighted grade column in My Grades. My Grades is what is shown to your students when they go into your course.
  11. Click [Submit] when you are finished entering all your information and selecting the options. The weighted grade column will be added as the last column in the Grade Center.

Want more information?

Step-by-step instructions are available [pdf]
Explore Blackboard’s On Demand Learning Center.
Try these Blackboard How-To documents.
Visit the Blackboard FAQs for additional blackboard information
or schedule a one-on-one session, email, or
call Janice Florent: (504) 520-7418.

Published on Leave a comment on Trapped in an Inhospitable Alien Landscape!

How did CAT's Media Artist, Bart Everson, come to be trapped in this inhospitable alien landscape?

Don't be alarmed. We are just testing a new feature in our Camtasia Studio. We are in the process of installing a green screen, which can be used to drop just about any background you want behind you in your video.

Stop by some time and check it out.

Published on Leave a comment on Bb Tip #88: Test/Survey Design and Deployment Enhancements

The Blackboard Learn SP13 upgrade gave us a number of exciting new features, including enhancements to Test and Surveys. The Test and Surveys enhancement gives you more control over the design and gives you flexibility over the delivery of assessments.

Grade Center Color Coding

The enhancements to Test and Surveys are:

  • Adding questions to a test/survey – When creating/editing a test/survey you can add new questions exactly where you want them on the canvas by clicking the plus sign before or after another question and then choose a question type.
  • Test/survey availability exceptions – New settings have been added to Test and Survey Options pages to allow you to select one or more groups of students and make a number of exceptions to the already established availability settings. For example if you have a student with a disability that needs additional time to take a test, you can set an exception to give that student extra time to complete the test. You can change these settings at any time, even after the test/survey has been attempted by some students.
  • Due date and late submissions – This new enhancement allows instructors to decide whether to allow students to take a test/survey after the due date has passed.
  • Test/survey results and feedback – After students complete a test/survey, results and feedback are available to them. By setting up rules, you can set the release of progressive feedback to keep test results secure and prevent cheating.

Important: When setting an availability end date for a test, instructors should be aware that students will not be able to view their exam results and feedback in the content area where the test was deployed because after the availability end date, the exam is no longer available to them in that content area. After the availability end date, students can view their test results and feedback using the "My Grades" Tool.

Want more information?

View short video: Test/Survey Enhancements [2:07]

Help for Students:

  • View test results/feedback when availability end date has past [pdf].
  • View Respondus LockDown Browser (RLDB) test results/feedback when availability end date has past [pdf].

What’s new in Bb Learn SP13?
Explore Blackboard’s On Demand Learning Center.
Try these Blackboard How-To documents.
Visit the Blackboard FAQs for additional blackboard information
or schedule a one-on-one session, email, or
call Janice Florent: (504) 520-7418.