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Author: Janice Florent

Technology Coordinator in the Center for the Advancement of Teaching and Faculty Development at Xavier University of Louisiana

About Janice Florent

Technology Coordinator in the Center for the Advancement of Teaching and Faculty Development at Xavier University of Louisiana

Published on Leave a comment on Moving from In-Person to Online Teaching

by Janice Florent

Are you thinking about moving a face-to-face course to online? A recent Faculty Focus article suggests five steps to quickly transition your in-person curriculum into a creative and successful online course. Those steps are:

Start by Chunking: Simplify your content by breaking it up into smaller, more manageable pieces.
Decide on Overall Structure: Course design is a critical element to any course. A consistent and clear structure allows students to successfully engage with the material and meet expectations.
Select your tools: Face-to-face content can easily transition to the online classroom if you select the right tools.
Trades and Edits: Another colleague may have developed content that they are willing to share with you. Additionally, have another pair of eyes look at your online course. Feedback about your online course can prove to be invaluable.
Stay Current and Journal: Keep a journal as the class progresses. Journaling can help you to see where changes need to be made. For example, if there are a lot of student questions on the same topic or assignment, your directions probably need to be expanded or redefined.

An online course with clear structure and considered content will go a long way to support your students.

You can read more on these suggestions for moving your courses from face-to-face to online in the article, “Taking the Leap: Moving from In-Person to Online Courses.”

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Published on 1 Comment on Organizing and Managing Citations, References and Bibliographies

by Janice Florent

Managing, organizing, and citing references can be challenging especially if you don’t keep up with what and who you cite. Two recent articles from the Educational Technology and Mobile Learning web site suggested a few web tools for organizing, managing and publishing bibliographies, citations and references. Those web tools are,

More information about these web tools is available in the "6 of the Best Web Tools for Organizing and Managing Citations, References and Bibliographies" and "A Very Good Tool for Generating Citations, Reference Lists and Bibliographies" articles.

Published on Leave a comment on Bb Tip #134: Customizing the Grade Center

image of a keyboard with a customize key

Instructors can customize their view of the Grade Center by hiding and/or reordering columns to focus on specific columns and reduce scrolling. Hidden columns are not deleted from the Grade Center. Instructors can show/hide and reorder Grade Center columns at any time.

Follow these steps to do it.

You can hide Grade Center columns in one of two ways.

Method One - Hide Column

image showing Grade Center column menu options

Method Two - Column Organization

image showing Grade Center Manage menu with Column Organization selected

  1. On the [Manage] menu, select [Column Organization].
  2. Click the checkbox to the left of the column you want to hide and then click on the [Show/Hide] button.
  3. Click [Submit].

When you use Column Organization to hide a column, this will hide the column from the instructor’s Grade Center view. However, students can still see the hidden column in My Grades. To hide columns from students you should use the drop-down menu to the right of the column name and choose "Show/Hide to Users" or edit the column information and answer no to the "Show this Column to Students" option. You can easily tell when a column is hidden from students because in the instructor's Grade Center view, the column will have a circle with red slash next to the column name.

Additionally, instructors can also use Smart Views to get a focused view of the Grade Center.

Want more information?

Customize the Grade Center [Video]
Reorder, freeze, and hide Grade Center columns
About Smart Views
Working with the Grade Center
Explore Blackboard’s On Demand Learning Center.
Check out help for instructors at help.blackboard.com.
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.

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Published on 4 Comments on To Flip or Not to Flip?

by Janice Florent

By now, most professors have heard of a "flipped classroom" and a number of them are "flipping" their classes. The term "flipped classroom" is often applied to a wide range of approaches to teaching. Flipping in its various forms involves a key trait: It inverts the traditional relationship of students and teachers. Flipping seeks to put the learner at the center of a course instead of the teacher.

The value of a flipped class is in the repurposing of class time into a workshop where students can inquire about lecture content, test their skills in applying knowledge, and interact with one another in hands-on activities. During class sessions, instructors function as coaches or advisors, encouraging students in individual inquiry and collaborative effort.

Many professors try flipping, struggle with it, and quickly revert to straight lecturing. What do you need to think about if you are considering flipping? Here are some resources to guide you.

7 Things You Should Know About Flipped Classrooms
"Flipping" a Class
How Flipping the Classroom Can Improve the Traditional Lecture
Flipping the Classroom
Toward a Common Definition of Flipped Learning
Going Beyond the Basics of Flipped Learning

Published on Leave a comment on Using Word Clouds in Education

by Janice Florent

Word clouds allow you to visually display text data. Word clouds are also referred to as a text clouds or tag clouds. Word clouds are popular for text analysis because they make it easy to spot word frequencies. The more frequent the word is used, the larger and bolder it is displayed.

When it comes to finding the deeper meaning in a text passage, a word cloud is a simple application that you might have seen as a cute bit of fluff rather than a useful academic tool.

Word clouds are being used in education to sort through important ideas and concepts quickly. A glance at a word cloud is an easy way to preview a passage, or to analyze text. So what does this mean for your courses? Joseph Kern's article, "Word Clouds in Education: Turn a toy into a tool," lists some interesting ways word clouds can be used for readings and assignments.

Published on Leave a comment on Bb Tip #133: Grade Center

The Grade Center is more than just a way to record students' grades. It's a dynamic and interactive tool, allowing instructors to record data, calculate grades, and monitor student progress. In addition to being able to record grades, instructors can track student work and share private comments and feedback with students throughout the semester.

image showing Grade Center

The Grade Center is integrated with gradable items such as tests, assignments, discussion boards, blogs, journals, wikis, and ungraded items, such as surveys and self-assessments. Instructors can create Grade Center columns for activities and/or requirements done outside of Blackboard, such as exams given on paper, oral presentations, and participation.

Students also benefit when their instructor uses the Grade Center. Students have the opportunity to adjust their approach to learning to improve their performance when they see their grades and instructor feedback.

Follow these steps to do it.

Listed below are links to previous Bb tips on using the Grade Center:

Want more information?

Working with the Grade Center
Explore Blackboard’s On Demand Learning Center.
Check out help for instructors at help.blackboard.com.
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 How to Be a Better Online Teacher

by Janice Florent

Faculty readiness to teach online and student readiness to take online courses are key to success in online education. In a Campus Technology article, Paul Beaudoin writes,

Teaching in the blended or online learning environment is not a direct transfer of the traditional face-to-face class. The challenges of online learning often require a different set of skills that may not come easily to brick-and-mortar instructors.

Paul suggests six things instructors can do to be better online teachers. They are:

  1. Maximize your digital savvy
  2. Be an active and engaged participant
  3. Reinvent your wheel
  4. Include your learners in the learning process
  5. Reassess assessment
  6. Realize it's okay to fail

To find out more about his suggestions for being a better online teacher, read Paul's article "6 Ways to Be a Better Online Teacher."

Published on Leave a comment on Bb Tip #132: Keeping Students on Track

Students are more likely to be successful in a course when they attend regularly and keep up with their coursework. Instructors can use Blackboard to help students stay on track.

Review Status, Performance Dashboard, and the Retention Center are features in Blackboard that collectively enable instructors to access student progress.

Review Status allows instructors to give students the ability to mark an item as "reviewed." When Review Status is enabled, there are benefits for instructors and students. The instructor can check to see who has reviewed the item, while students can use the feature to keep track of which content they have reviewed. This is especially useful when students review content in a non-linear fashion.

The Performance Dashboard is used to monitor student progress throughout the course and help keep them on track. A summary of access and progress for each student appears in a table format. Instructors can see the last time a student has accessed the course, which items they have reviewed, and how much they are participating in discussion boards.

The Retention Center is a tool that allows instructors to monitor student performance. Instructors can utilize the Retention Center to identify students who are struggling and help them take immediate action for improvement. Instructors can begin using the default rules in the Retention Center immediately—no additional setup is required. However, instructors can edit the default rules and/or set their own criteria or rules to monitor student performance.

Want more information?

Step-by-step instructions for tracking student performance [PDF].
Enabling Review Status
Using the Performance Dashboard
Using the Retention Center
Explore Blackboard’s On Demand Learning Center.
Check out help for instructors at help.blackboard.com.
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 Turn Distracted Students into Engaged Learners

by Janice Florent

It is hard for students to remain focused and engaged with all the digital distractions out there. This is especially true for students taking online classes.

In a recent Edudemic article, Rony Zarom wrote:

There is no silver bullet for keeping students engaged in the online classroom, there are many simple things educators can do to improve their chances of success.

Rony lists four ways educators can examine their online learning approach for student success. They are:

  • Assess skills early and set goals
  • Give students a variety of ways to learn
  • Prevent the "zone out" effect
  • Establish flex class learning options

If this has piqued your interest, you can read more in his article 4 Ways to Turn Distracted Students into Engaged Learners.

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Published on 3 Comments on Bb Tip #131: Performance Dashboard

The Performance Dashboard gives instructors a "view at a glance" on how students are progressing within the course. Instructors use the information in the Performance Dashboard to monitor student progress and keep students on track.

image showing performance dashboard

Various types of user activity information is available in the Performance Dashboard. The information includes:

  • Last Course Access: The date and time when the user last accessed the course.
  • Days Since Last Course Access: The number of days that has elapsed since the last time the user accessed the course.
  • Review Status: Displays how many items have been reviewed.
  • Adaptive Release: Clicking on the icon opens a new window showing a directory tree overview of the entire course relative to the user, and the access status.
  • Discussion Board: This column lists the number of Discussion Board comments created by the user. Clicking a number link opens the Discussion Board page listing all of the selected user's Discussion Board comments in the course.
  • Customize Retention Center: This column shows the number of triggered rules and the number of total rules that may trigger a warning. For example, 3/5 means the user has triggered three rules out of five. Clicking on the data in this column will display a page showing the Retention Center status for the user.
  • View Grades: This column provides direct links to the full Grade Center.

Follow these steps to do it.

To view the Performance Dashboard, you should:

  1. Goto the [Control Panel] for the course and click on the [Evaluation] link to expand it.
  2. Click on [Performance Dashboard].

To print the Performance Dashboard, you should:

  1. Goto the [Control Panel] for the course and click on the [Evaluation] link to expand it.
  2. Click on [Performance Dashboard].
  3. Click on the printer icon in the right hand corner of the heading.
print preview performance dashboard

Want more information?

Using the Performance Dashboard [webpage] [video].
Explore Blackboard’s On Demand Learning Center.
Check out help for instructors at help.blackboard.com.
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.