Skip to content

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

1

Published on 1 Comment on Keyboard Shortcuts

by Janice Florent

keyboard

If you are using keyboard shortcuts, you already know keyboard shortcuts can give your productivity a boost.

Most people know the keyboard shortcuts to select all (Ctrl + A), copy (Ctrl + C), and paste (Ctrl + V). There are other helpful keyboard shortcuts you can use in Microsoft Word, Excel, and PowerPoint. Being able to use the same keyboard shortcuts in all three programs can make them easier to remember. Here is a list of keyboard shortcuts that you can use in Word, Excel, and PowerPoint to save time and effort.*

If you want to Windows Mac OS
Select All Ctrl + A Command + A
Copy Ctrl + C Command + C
Paste Ctrl + V Command + V
Cut Ctrl + X Command + X
Bold Ctrl + B Command + B
Underline Ctrl + U Command + U
Italic Ctrl + I Command + I
Find Ctrl + F Command + F
Replace Ctrl + H Shift + Command + H
Undo Ctrl + Z Command + Z
Redo Ctrl + Y Command + Y
Hyperlink Ctrl + K Command + K
Save Ctrl + S Command + S
Print Ctrl + P Command + P

Hopefully using these shortcuts will help you to increase your productivity.

For additional shortcuts, check out these Microsoft Office shortcut cheat sheets. Also, ICYMI, check out Bart’s PowerPoint Power blog post for additional PowerPoint keyboard shortcuts.


Image credit: Image by Pixies from Pixabay
*Some shortcuts may be specific to certain software versions.

1

Published on 1 Comment on Digital Copyrights

by Janice Florent

Finding quality images, audio, video, etc. to use in your Blackboard course is one of the most important and potentially daunting aspects of developing your course. There are certain legal rights for digital content. You cannot, for example, just pull an image off of a Google image search and use it. There are some important things you should understand about digital copyrights before you use an image or other digital content that you did not create on your own.

copyright vs copyleft vs creative commons

Copyright is all about balancing the rights of authors with the rights of the public to use the work without seeking permission or paying royalties. Under copyright, authors have the right to control the use of their work subject to exceptions permitted under the law. If the use exceeds such exceptions, then infringing on someone's copyright can result in the infringer paying money damages (civil liability) and/or going to prison (criminal liability).

Copyleft (a play on the word copyright) is the practice of offering people the right to freely distribute copies and modified versions of a work with the stipulation that the same rights be preserved in derivative works down the line.

Fair use is a limitation and exception to the exclusive right granted by copyright law to the author of a creative work.

Works in the public domain are those whose intellectual property rights have expired, have been forfeited, or are inapplicable.

A Creative Commons (CC) license is a public copyright license that enables the free distribution of an otherwise copyrighted work.

The image below describes how Creative Commons licenses relates to traditional copyright and the public domain.

copyright spectrum

Here are a few links to resources to help you better understand Creative Commons licenses and copyrights:

Image credits:
copyright, copyleft, and creative commons icons found in public domain
"the spectrum of rights" by Michelle Pacansky-Brock is licensed under CC-BY 2.0

Published on Leave a comment on Bb Tip #155: 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.

person walking on jogging track with the caption 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?

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 7 Tips to Motivate Millennials

by Janice Florent

millennials working together on a project

Many educators feel frustrated that millennials are especially difficult to reach and to motivate, yet motivation is one thing that can drive millennials to succeed. Student engagement is the key to academic motivation, persistence, and degree completion. Educators must find ways to get students' attention and get them actively engaged with the course material and with their peers.

In a recent Pulse Learning blog post, Christopher Pappas listed seven tips to get millennials excited and fully engaged in the learning process. Those tips are:

  1. Stress real-world applications – Millennials need to know why they are doing something and how it will serve the greater good.
  2. Empower them - Give millennials a way to share their opinions and insights so that they can feel as though they are making a difference.
  3. Track their progress - Millennial learners like to be able to track their progress as they go along. They must be able to immediately determine where they are at and what they still need to accomplish.
  4. Encourage collaboration - This generation of learners thrives in social environments. They enjoy sharing personal experiences and skills with their peers, as well as learning new things from other members in their group.
  5. Offer immediate feedback - Millennial learners crave feedback and recognition. They like to be congratulated on a job well done and praised for their achievements. You should offer feedback that is specific and that helps them learn.
  6. Focus on flexibility - Create a flexible schedule that allows learners to complete online projects and exercises when it’s most convenient for them.
  7. Offer mentoring or other online support services - The millennial generation likes to have control, but they also like to be able to see the direct path they need to take to achieve success. In other words, they require guidance from time to time. Educators should provide mentoring for student success.

If this has piqued your interest, you can read more in Christopher’s How To Motivate Millennials: 7 Tips For eLearning Professionals blog post.

Published on Leave a comment on Bb Tip #154: Bb Grader

Hand holding iPad mini with Bb Grader app screen showing on the screen

The Bb Grader app provides instructors with a mobile solution to grade Blackboard assignments. With Bb Grader, instructors can use their iPads to review, provide feedback, and ultimately grade submitted assignments from within the app. Instructors can view a detailed list of all assignment submissions and can sort submissions based on a category of information.

Key features in the Bb Grader app:

  • Inline viewing of student submissions for PDF, Word, Powerpoint, PNG, and JPEG files
  • Gesture-based interactions for grading and feedback
  • Support for audio and video-based feedback
  • Course and assignment level views
  • Integration with multiple attempts, group assignments, rubrics, and anonymous grading

Note: For unsupported file types, instructors may download the file, view the file on their device (if supported by the device), and still provide grade information via the Bb Grader app.

The Bb Grader app is not intended to replace all grading workflows within Blackboard; rather, it’s meant to complement it with the enhancement of key features that translate best to a mobile device.

Bb Grader requires iOS 7 + and is compatible with iPad Air, iPad mini, and iPad 2, 3, or 4.

Want more information?

Bb Grader App
See Bb Grader in action (video [2:42])
Bb Grader Features Guide (PDF)
Download Bb Grader app
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 Bb Tip #153: Simplify Assignment Collection

Use the Assignment Tool to help you set and manage deadlines, unclutter your inbox, and save trees.

email inbox showing there are 99999 unread messages

The Assignment Tool is an efficient way to manage and collect your student's individual and group assignments digitally. Blackboard's Assignment Tool allows instructors to create a secure location for students to submit class assignments.

Instructors use the Grade Center to monitor the submission process, to view and/or download submitted work, to compose and send confidential feedback to students and to grade the assignment. Instructors can download all of a particular assignment’s student submitted files in a single zip file. In the download zip file, each student submitted file will be renamed automatically to include the assignment’s name, the student’s username, as well as the filename the student originally submitted.

A number of options are available when creating an assignment using the Assignment Tool:

  • Assignment Files - allows instructors to attach supplemental information
  • Assignment Availability - allows instructors to create assignments in advance
  • Assignment Submissions (attempts) – allows for multiple or unlimited submissions
  • Date and Time Restrictions - allows instructors to decide when students can access the assignment
  • Individual or Group Assignments – allows instructors to choose who has access to assignment
  • Tracking Statistics - track the number of views and by whom

Want more information?

Getting Started with Assignments (PDF)
Working with Assignments
How to submit assignments (video [2:28])
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 Technology to Help Students Find Their Voice

by Janice Florent

birdhouse with you are your voice etched on it

It’s important for students to find their voice in eLearning. Students need the ability to recognize their own beliefs, practice articulating them in a variety of forms, and then find the confidence and the platform to express them.

There is no one-size-fits-all technology solution for students to express themselves and interact with the world. In a Edutopia blog post, Terry Heick writes,

You can indeed insist that all students blog because, from your perspective, it sounds justifiable and beneficial, but if the goal is to help students find their own voice, they will need choices.

Terry goes on to suggest some possible web tools that would allow students to find their voice. Those web tools are:

Word Press or Blogger – These tools can help students establish their own digital space to meet the world.

Storify or Storehouse – These tools allow you to collect media bits and pieces from across the web, and to socialize them (that is, to shape them into a unique form of expression through social media.)

Podcasting or VoiceThread – These tools allow students to express themselves verbally around an idea important to them.

YouTube Channels - Students can create review channels, perform music, humorously remix existing content, act, create documentaries, and an unlimited number of other possibilities.

For more information, you can read Terry’s blog post 4 Technologies to Help Students Find Their Voice in Your Classroom.

Also, check out Bart Everson’s blog post 50 Web Tools for other web tools that may be used to help students find their voice and my Blackboard tip on how to integrate web 2.0 tools in your course.

2

Published on 2 Comments on Twitter Cheat Sheet for Educators

by Janice Florent

Twitter is an excellent tool for consuming and for learning. Twitter has proven itself to be an indispensable tool for many educators venturing into the world of education technology. Some educators are harnessing Twitter as a part of their PLN (personal learning network) to connect, share, and network. If you are interested in using Twitter, here is a Twitter Cheat Sheet for educators to get you up to speed.

Also, follow us (CAT+FD) on Twitter @xulacat.

twitter cheat sheet for educators

Published on Leave a comment on Plan for Potential Classroom Disruptions Redux

by Janice Florent

Snowmageddon 2016 should be a reminder that course delivery is vulnerable to unplanned events. Potential interruptions to class activities include but are not limited to natural disasters, widespread illness, acts of violence, planned or unexpected construction-related closures, severe weather conditions, and medical emergencies. Whatever the event, an instructional continuity plan will help you to be ready to continue teaching with minimal interruption.

It's not too late to consider developing an instructional continuity plan for your current courses.

For those who missed our workshop and for those who want to learn more about instructional continuity you will find a link to the PowerPoint presentation above. Also, please visit our Instructional Continuity web page, where you will find planning guides, resources, and a recording of the workshop presentation.

image with the wording

Do you have a plan? If so, we would like to hear about it. If you had a classroom disruption and found a way for students to continue to make progress in your course, we encourage you to share it with your colleagues. Please email a brief description of what you did along with your reflections on how it worked for you, and we will post it to our Instructional Continuity web page.

1

Published on 1 Comment on Give Students Feedback That Helps Them Learn

African American female looking at laptop computer screen

In a recent Teach Thought blog post, Justin Chando writes,

To tell a student “great job” or “this needs work” is a missed opportunity.

Hearing that you did a great job is wonderful. However, the problem with “great job” or “this needs work” is that it is not specific. There is no indication of what was done that was successful, and no information about how to replicate this success in future assignments.

In the blog post, Justin goes on to explain Grant Wiggins’ key characteristics of better feedback. Helpful feedback is:

Goal oriented: Goal referenced feedback creates a roadmap for students; it shows them how far they can go in the mastery of a subject or skill by outlining specific places for improvement or highlighting successful behaviors/techniques.

Transparent: A useful feedback system involves not only a clear goal, but transparent and tangible results related to the goal. The feedback needs to be concrete and obvious.

Actionable: Great feedback begs an obvious action/response from a student. It provides a clear course of action for the next time around or outlines a new plan for moving forward.

User-friendly: Feedback is not of much value if the student cannot understand it or is overwhelmed by it. Quality feedback should be accessible to the student, clear and concise, using familiar language from the lesson/course.

Timely: Vital feedback often comes days, weeks, or even months after. Give students timely feedback and opportunities to use it in the course while the attempt and effects are still fresh in their minds.

Ongoing: One of the best ways to give great feedback is to give it often. Ongoing formative feedback helps students identify their strengths and weaknesses and target areas that need work.

Consistent: Keeping guidance as consistent as possible allows students to hone in what needs to improve in their work and focus on making it better.

For more information on these key characteristics of better feedback including strategies to give better feedback, read Justin's Teach Thought blog post, How To Give Students Specific Feedback That Actually Helps Them Learn.

Photo credit: photo by #WOCinTech Chat is licensed under CC BY 2.0