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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 Six Tips for Recording Video

by Janice Florent

Video is a powerful way to make that essential human connection in online courses.

Michelle Pacansky-Brock created this infographic listing six simple tips for recording video as well as a few video recording tools you can use.

The infographic (produced using Piktochart) was originally posted in Michelle Pacansky-Brock’s 6 Tips for Recording Video blog post at Teaching Without Walls.

You can get more information about how to use videos in teaching and learning in these CAT Food blog posts: How to Effectively Use YouTube in eLearning and Bb Tip #108: Videos.

If you are interested in how infographics are being used in education, read this Educause article, 7 Things you Should Know About Infographics.

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Published on 1 Comment on Social Media Tools for Teaching and Learning

by Janice Florent

Social media has evolved into more than a simple tool to stay in touch with friends or to share vacation pictures. Educators are finding interesting ways to use social media in their teaching and learning. Benefits to using social media in teaching and learning include putting concepts into context, keeping course content up-to-date, and fostering a sense of community both in and out of the classroom.

Facebook and Twitter may be ubiquitous, but there are many other social media tools out there that can enhance teaching and learning.

Facebook and Twitter are social media tools that are familiar to most people. Here are a few other social media tools that are being used in education:

You can read more about how three educators are using these social media tools in the Campus Technology article, 6 Alternative Social Media Tools for Teaching and Learning.

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Published on 1 Comment on Bb Tip #130: Lock Discussion Threads

If you setup a discussion forum with date and time restrictions, once the scheduled available time has passed the forum becomes unavailable and disappears from the student's view. If you would like students to be able to read posts once the date restriction has past but not be able to submit new posts, you can "lock" the discussion thread to prevent new posts. Students may read the threads but not make any additions or modifications.

image showing how to lock db thread

Follow these steps to do it.

To lock discussion board threads, you should:

  1. Open the Forum in the Discussion Board.
  2. Select the threads you want to lock (you can select all threads by checking the box to the left of “Date” in the header).
  3. Click the [Thread Actions] menu button and choose [Lock] from the list. Verify the status under the discussion board shows "Locked".
  4. Once you have successfully locked the thread, remember to go back and edit the forum to remove the date and time restrictions so that the students can see the threads.

Want more information?

Step-by-step instructions are available [PDF].
Drip-feeding course contents to students.
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 Using QR Codes in Education

by Janice Florent

QR (QR being short for Quick Response) codes were first created in 1994 by Toyota to track vehicles in manufacturing using a small barcode that allowed for high-speed component scanning. Although initially used for tracking parts in vehicle manufacturing, QR code technology is experiencing a revival — but not in the automotive industry. The small, square codes are ubiquitous, showing up on everything from billboards and flyers to food packaging.

image of a QR code

QR codes allow people to connect to video, audio, pictures, web sites and more by linking the individual to content on any supported smart phone or with a desktop reader. With the increasing use of mobile technology, QR codes are becoming more common in business and educational settings. The possibilities for their use are endless, and many translate into the classroom, offering a fun and exciting way for students to use technology for learning. If you are interested in how you might utilize QR codes in teaching and learning, read more in this article 50 Great Ways to Use QR Codes in the College Classroom.

Also, here is a link to my Prezi from a past CAT workshop on Educational Uses for QR Codes.

Are you using QR codes? If so, we would like to hear about it. Please feel free to leave a comment telling us how you are using QR codes in your teaching and learning.

Published on Leave a comment on Bb Tip #129: Course Calendar

You can use the course calendar to provide students with dates for course-related events. Instructors can create events on their respective course calendars. Everyone who is enrolled in the course will see the course-related events in their calendar.

The calendar displays a consolidated view of all institution, course, organization, and personal calendar events. You can view events by day, week, or month. Color coding makes it easy to distinguish which course each event is tied to.

image of a Blackboard calendar

Common calendar entries include:

  • Instructor office hours
  • Due dates for assignments
  • Exams
  • Guest speakers
  • Meetings

Course items with due dates are automatically created in the course calendar. If an instructor edits an item to change the due date, the calendar gets updated as well.

Drag and drop works in the calendar. Instructors can drag and drop an item onto a new date to change the due date.

As a shortcut to view, edit, or grade attempts for an item, instructors can simply click on the item in the calendar.

You cannot import external calendars into Blackboard. However, you can import your Bb Learn calendar into an external calendar application (i.e., Google Calendar, iCal).

Follow these steps to do it.

To create a new event on the course calendar:

  1. On the calendar, click the plus (+) to create a new event or click a specific date to create an event.
  2. Type the New Event Name.
  3. Select the course calendar to associate the event to.
  4. Select the Start and End times.
  5. Type the Event Description.
  6. Click [Save].

To add a course item with a due date to the course calendar:

When you create items with due dates, the calendar event automatically appears on the course calendar. Content items with adaptive release and availability rules are shown on the calendar at the appropriate time, ensuring that the release of an item on the course calendar is in sync with the availability rules you set.

To edit or delete an event:

Click the event to edit or delete it. OR

Click and drag the event to another date in the main view (or on the smaller monthly view) to change the due date of the event. The time of the event and calendar it is associated with remain the same.

If the event is a course item that has date availability rules set, you should edit the item to adjust the availability dates.

Want more information?

Working with the Calendar
Using the Blackboard Calendar (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.

Published on Leave a comment on Add Voice Narration to PowerPoint Slides

by Janice Florent

Did you know that you can add voiceovers (recorded narrations) to PowerPoint presentations? Adding recorded narrations to PowerPoint presentations is a useful feature. Benefits of adding recorded narrations to PowerPoint presentations include:

  • Presentations with voiceovers can be played back by students at their convenience.
  • Students can review the presentation over and over again until they grasp the content.

It’s not difficult to add voiceovers to PowerPoint presentations. Your computer must be equipped with a sound card, microphone, and speakers for you to record and hear the voiceovers.

Kelly Walsh, of EmergingEdTech.com, created this 3-minute Teaching with Tech Tip: Voice Over PowerPoint 2010 video that explains how to do it.

The eLearning Department at Champlain College posted some tips for recording narration into PowerPoint that you may find helpful. Additionally, you can find further explanation on setting and using slide timings at Microsoft's website.

Caution: Adding voiceovers can significantly increase the size of your PowerPoint presentation. If you have a long presentation with a lot of recorded narration, it may take a little while for students to download the file.

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Published on 1 Comment on Bb Tip #128: Drip-Feeding

"Drip-feeding" is a term you will likely hear in association with online and hybrid learning. While the term "drip-feeding" is new to many people, most are familiar with the concept.

faucet with water dripping slowing

Drip-feeding is "scheduled lesson delivery." Essentially, professors can determine when they want certain content in their courses to become available. Professors can configure their course content and then set-up the sequential delivery of that content. Once set-up, the Learning Management System (LMS) will auto-drip the content to students without any more work by the professor.

The “Date and Time Restrictions” in Blackboard control when items are available to students. Utilizing date/time restrictions allow faculty to create content at a time that is convenient to them and make it visible to students at the appropriate time. This can be very handy because faculty can set-up their course content well in advance of when they want it to be available to their students. For example, create all the course content at the beginning of the semester, set the date/time restrictions, and then let Blackboard auto-drip the content.

Some professors may be hesitant to set date/time restrictions for the entire semester because assignment dates/times may need to be adjusted as the semester progresses. This means, the professor would have to go into the content items to adjust the dates/times when necessary. The Date Management tool can simplify this process. The Date Management tool allows professors to easily change due dates, availability dates, and adaptive release dates at one time (all on one page). The Date Management tool will save professors some time as they will not have to edit each individual item to adjust the dates/times. My Bb Tip #125: Date Management blog post explains how to use this tool.

Drip-feeding course content will not work for every situation. However, if you think it can work for you, give it a try.

Follow these steps to do it.

To set Date and Time Restrictions, you should:

  1. Log in to Blackboard and access the relevant area of your course.
  2. Add new content or edit existing content.
  3. In the Options section, you will find the option to Select Date and Time Restrictions. Select the availability options you require: Display After, Display Until or both.

    4. navigation

  4. Use the date picker to select the date you want the content to be available.
    5. navigation
  5. Use the time picker to select the time you want the content to be available.
    6. navigation
  6. Click [Submit] to save the changes.

Want more information?

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.

Photo credit: work found at ndbutter / CC BY NC-ND 2.0

Published on Leave a comment on Avoid Death by PowerPoint

by Janice Florent

Nowadays more classrooms (virtual and face-to-face) have the ability to project and share a variety of computer-based materials. One of the most common methods of sharing information with students is to use PowerPoint presentations. Although PowerPoint can be a powerful teaching tool, it has been soundly criticized for producing boring presentations, full of endless content that fails to show context and relationships between ideas. This tendency of PowerPoint obviously works against what professors should strive for: stimulating students to connect ideas and engage in critical thinking.

I came across these tips in an Atomic Learning blog post that may help to resuscitate PowerPoint presentations:

  • Mix up your media – don’t rely solely on text or clipart, consider other media types (e.g. photos, video clips, music)
  • Use eye-catching graphics/software - an impactful visual experience can be created when you use eye-catching software and graphics
  • Send content ahead of time - consider "flipping" your presentation
  • Intersperse content with discussion, group exercises, and reflection time

If these tips have piqued your interest, you can read more in the article, 6 Ways to Avoid Death by PowerPoint.

Published on Leave a comment on Bb Tip #127: Course-to-Course Navigation

It is not necessary to go to the Home page or Courses tab to access your other Blackboard courses. The course-to-course navigation feature allows you to quickly move from one course to another.

Follow these steps to do it.

Click on the course-to-course navigation arrow and select the course you want to go to.

navigation

Note: When selecting a course using course-to-course navigation, you will land in the same content area or course tool when you enter the selected course. For example, if you are in the Grade Center of a course and use course-to-course navigation to enter another course you will land in the Grade Center of the selected course. If you switch to a course that does not contain the same tool or task, the page set as the course entry point will appear.

Want more information?

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 Maximize In-Class Time by Moving Student Presentations Online

by Janice Florent

Virtual student presentations allow students to research scholarly literature related to course content, present their findings, and receive peer feedback; all outside of class time.

Virtual presentations are an option that allows for quality student presentations and does not take up too much valuable in-class time. Of course, virtual presentations may not work for all situations, but it is an option you should consider if you have student presentations and want to find a way to maximize in-class time.

Stephanie Smith Budhai, PhD, assistant professor of education at Neumann University, explains the benefits of virtual presentations and lists four steps to implementing virtual presentations in your classes. You can read more in her article Maximize In-Class Time by Moving Student Presentations Online.