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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 Using a Backchannel to Engage Students

Are you looking for new ways to engage more of your students? Do you want to provide more authentic learning opportunities for your students? Searching for some way to help students write concisely, critically examine arguments, or take notes? One strategy you might consider using is a “backchannel”

Dr. Michelle Rodems, program manager at the School of Interdisciplinary and Graduate Studies (SIGS) and at the Delphi Center for Teaching and Learning suggests using a “backchannel” to give your students a secondary way to communicate with you or each other.

Want to know more? Read Dr. Rodems' article on "Using a Backchannel to Engage Students."

Published on Leave a comment on Bb Tip #96: Resources

Two new tabs were created inside Blackboard in an attempt to simplify access to faculty and student resources and to provide consistency for Blackboard users. You should see the new tabs when you login to Blackboard.

image showing Bb tabs with faculty and student resources highlighted

Send email to Karen Nichols with any comments or suggestions about the new tabs.

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 Disaster Planning for your Courses

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.

For those who missed last week's presentation 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.

Published on Leave a comment on Bb Tip #95: End of Semester Tasks

As we approach the end of the semester there are a few things you can do in Blackboard to wrap up for the semester.

image showing empty desks with the caption Getting Ready for the End of the Semester

Download your gradebook

Student access to courses is removed two weeks after the end of a semester. During this process all grade book records are deleted. You should download your gradebook to your local computer after you submit your final grades.

Create a master copy of your course

Courses remain on the Blackboard system for three semesters before they are removed. You can request a Master Course Shell that you can use to develop and maintain your course materials. Master Course Shells will not be removed from the Blackboard system.

Hide old courses from view

When you login to Blackboard you will see your courses for previous semesters listed along with the courses you are currently teaching on the Xavier University and Courses tabs. If you do not want to see older courses in the list, you can hide them from view.

Follow these steps to do it.

Instructions are available in previous Bb tips for downloading your grade book, requesting master course shells, and hiding old courses from view.

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.

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Published on 1 Comment on Bb Tip #94: Turnitin – Rubrics

Turnitin recently announced two new rubric features. You can now import rubrics from Excel files. Previously you had to create the entire rubric inside Turnitin. Now you can create a rubric template in Excel and upload the template file into Turnitin. The rubric scoring values are added after you upload the template file.

The second new rubric feature is Grading Forms. Grading Forms are simplified rubrics that allow an instructor to give free-form feedback and scores for students across several criteria. Grading forms are easy to create and can be attached, modified, and shared just like Turnitin rubrics.

Want more information?

Turnitin - Import Rubric from Excel File [web page]
Turnitin - Grading Forms [web page]
Turnitin Instructor User Manual
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 Bb Tip #93: Tips on Searching Bb Tips

Over the years I have attempted to post just-in-time tips to assist faculty with using Blackboard (Bb). Currently there are over ninety (90) Bb tips posted to the CAT Food blog. Finding a previous Bb tip might take a while if you search the tips going backward through each one. That said, I thought this would be a good time to post a tip about searching for Bb tips.

Just in case you missed it, there is a search box on the CAT Food blog page. Simply type a search term in the search box and click the Search button. For example, if you want to search the CAT Food blog to find out what may have been posted about web tools, enter "web tools" in the search box and click the Search button.

You can combine search operators with your search term in order to narrow your search results. If you are searching for words that appear together you should put the search string in quotes. Additionally, you can refine your search by including a plus sign (+) in front of a search term to indicate the search results must include that search term. Note: You need a space before the plus sign and no space after.

Go ahead, try searching for "web tools" both with and without quotes and compare the search results. Then enter "web tools" +integrate to see what search results are returned to you.

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 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.

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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.