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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.

Published on Leave a comment on Plickers

by Janice Florent

Are you looking for a simple solution to be able to do in-class polling of your students? Try Plickers.

image - plickers logo

Plickers is a powerfully simple tool that lets educators collect real-time formative assessment data for free, without the need for student clicker devices. Just give each student a “paper clicker” and use your smartphone (or iPad) to scan the cards (paper clickers) to do instant checks-for-understanding and impromptu polls. Students respond to your poll questions by rotating their cards to indicate their A, B, C, or D answer. You scan the room with your mobile device to capture the student responses. The results are displayed on your mobile device and can optionally be displayed on your computer in a “Live View” through your Plickers account.

Does this sound interesting to you? If so, you can get more information at plickers.com.

Also, check out my How To Use Student Response System (Clickers) Effectively blog post to get information on how best to use clickers for student engagement.

Published on Leave a comment on OpenCulture.com

by Karen Nichols

When Sue Frantz was here last week, she mentioned during one of her presentations that MOOCs are being used by people who already have degrees but who are interested in lifelong learning opportunities. Well have I got a website for those of us who seek self-improvement! Do you know about OpenCulture.com?

This site is edited by Dan Colman, director of Open Culture at Stanford, and not only has links to MOOCs on myriad topics, he also searches for lectures, audio books, digital books, movies and any other educational media that he believes may be of interest to lifelong learners.

The curation of the multi-media items is well organized, so whether you're looking for a lecture lasting a few minutes or an online course on a literary movement, you can easily find what suits your needs.  If you have young children, there's even a K-12 resource site.  It's good to have a safe area to send the children to for their multi-media needs as well.

In addition, there's an area for learning another language or two. Since languages are my area of specialization, I'm anxious to try some of these sites. Having recently begun tracing my genealogy, I've become interested in Gaelic. Sure enough, there's a site in the list for learning the basics.

I also think this site may be of use to your students. Take a look at your subject area to see what may be available. If you see a film or lecture or even an introductory course for students who may need a refresher on the basics, you can post the links inside your Blackboard course for your students. There's also a section on free textbooks that are available. With the rising costs of textbooks, wouldn't it be useful if there's one that students can use for free?

I'm quite interested in the lectures available.  There's an entire series in French of Roland Barthes, one of the sources from my dissertation that I'm looking forward to listening to.  Here's one from Leonard Bernstein, part of his 1973 lectures on music at Harvard:

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Check out the site and let us know what you find interesting and useful.

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Published on 1 Comment on How To Use Student Response System (Clickers) Effectively

by Janice Florent

Do you want to know more about just how to use clickers to best help your students learn? This short video shares best practices in clicker use, including tips on writing clicker questions and getting students to talk about them, the finer points of running a class discussion about a question, and how long to allow for this process.

Additionally, the Science Education Initiative at the University of Colorado has a number of clicker resources you may find helpful.

Published on Leave a comment on When Not to Use Technology

by Janice Florent

Most of us know better than to use technology for technology’s sake...Using technology for practical purpose, and not for the sake of using technology, must be the clear objective.

Here are a few suggestions from a post by Saga Briggs, at informED, for when NOT to use technology:

  • When it undermines deep learning
  • When it undermines basic learning
  • When it decreases interaction
  • When it reduces the chance of failure
  • When you don’t have time to integrate it
  • When it doesn’t support connecting and sharing

You can read more about this in Saga's post When Not to Use Technology: 15 Things That Should Stay Simple in Education.

Published on Leave a comment on Conversation #29: Sustainability in Higher Education

Download Conversation #29

Meghan Fay Zanhiser

A conversation with Meghan Fay Zanhiser of the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education on teaching, learning and sustainability in higher education.

We are a nonprofit membership-based organization that exists to serve anyone in higher education working on sustainability.

Meghan Fay Zanhiser is the Executive Director for the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education (AASHE). She has been with AASHE for six years and previously held the positions of Director of Programs and STARS Program Manager. Previously, Meghan worked as Sustainability Specialist at NELSON, where she provided sustainability expertise and consulting services to various clients. She also spent over five years working at the U.S. Green Building Council where, as Manager of Community, she developed and managed a local chapter network for building industry professionals and helped create the Emerging Green Builders program that integrates students and young professionals into the green building movement. Meghan also worked as Environmental Educator for the University at Buffalo Green Office, organizing campus and community education focused on energy conservation, green building, and sustainable living. She holds a bachelor’s degree in Social Sciences, with concentrations in environmental studies and health & human services, from the University at Buffalo and a master’s degree in Organization Management and Development from Fielding Graduate Institute.

Links for this episode:

Published on Leave a comment on Digital Distractions in the Classroom

by Janice Florent

Technology in education is great, distraction is not...Digital technology in the classroom is here to stay, whether it’s provided directly by the school or used surreptitiously by students on the sly. The question is not, "Should we allow digital devices in the classroom?", it’s "Now that they’re here, how can we prevent digital devices from becoming a distraction?"

A post by Leah Anne Levy, at Edudemic, suggests the following tips for dealing with digital distractions in the classroom:

  • Destroy the multitasking myth
  • Rethink smartphones bans
  • Write how they read
  • Use their unique distraction styles to spark learning
  • Don’t post everything online
  • Create opportunities for curiosity outside the digital space
  • Teach grit

You can read more about this in Leah's post 7 Ways to Deal with Digital Distractions in the Classroom.

Published on Leave a comment on Bb Tip #126: Link Checker

Quite often faculty insert links to external web sites into their courses. This makes it convenient for users to get to the external web sites. While the link may be a live link when it's placed in the course, there is no way to automatically know if a link later becomes broken.

link checker

You can use the "Link Checker" course tool to check for broken links. With Link Checker, you can run a quick scan of your course to determine if any of the web page links are no longer valid.

Follow these steps to do it.

To verify web page links in your course are still valid, you should:

  1. Goto the [Control Panel] for that course and click on the [Course Tools] link to expand it. Click on [Link Checker].
  2. After a few moments, a list of all the web links in your course will appear.
  3. Broken links will have an "X" in the valid column.
  4. You cannot remove a link with Link Checker, but you can make it unavailable by hiding it. Check the Hide box for the link you want to make unavailable.
  5. Click on the [Submit] button when done.

Note: If you do not see Link Checker in your Course Tools, you should verify the Link Checker tool is available in your course. To verify, go to the [Control Panel] click on [Customization] to expand it and click on [Tool Availability]. Make sure there is a check mark in the available box for Link Checker. Click [Submit] to save the changes.

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.

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Published on 1 Comment on New Year’s Resolutions

by Karen Nichols
Happy New Year Everyone! Did you make any resolutions for 2015? I don't usually try to set goals on January 1st other than the rather nebulous "try to be a better person" one. However, Dr. Michaelis recently wrote a blog for the Huffington Post in which he recommended a few apps to help us keep our New Year's Resolutions. His recommendations are Rise (nutrition coaching), My Quit Coach (quit smoking) and Buddhify.

Perhaps one of your resolutions was to do more than use an app or two. If you've resolved to become more comfortable with technology and to try to use more of it in your courses, I have a few sites that I recommend in order to help you keep that resolution!

Try Sue Frantz' Technology for Academics! She is an expert on "finding new technologies so you don't have to".  Thousands of people have blogs with lists of new technologies, but Sue Frantz roadtests each one she writes about and then provides the most clear instructions on how and why to use them.

The John A. Kaneb Center for Teaching and Learning and the Office of Information Technologies at the University of Notre Dame (the hosts of our Professional and Organizational Development listserv) has a very good blog, NspireD2. The entries are concise, relevant and numerous.

Finally (or should I have said Firstly?) CAT is always a great resource, so please consider adding a visit to us on the 5th floor of the library to your list of resolutions--we'll be happy to help you!

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Published on 1 Comment on Bb Tip #125: Date Management

Due dates, availability dates, and adaptive release dates are usually entered when you create assignments, assessments, discussion boards, blogs, wikis, journals, etc. You can use due dates to help keep students on track. Students see the due dates when they go to My Grades to view their grades and when they look at entries in their course Calendars. With the Blackboard Calendar feature, students can see the due dates for items in their courses. Assignments, assessments, discussion boards, blogs, wikis, journals, etc. with due dates automatically populate into the Calendar.

The Date Management tool allows you to easily change due dates, availability dates, and adaptive release dates at one time (all on one page). If you have to modify dates for two or more items you should consider using the Date Management tool to adjust the dates. The Date Management tool will save you some time as you will not have to edit each individual item to adjust the dates.

The Date Management tool can be very useful when you use the Course Copy feature. For example, if you created a master copy of a course and copied the content from the master course into a blank course, you can use the Date Management tool to easily adjust dates after the course copy.

Note: You cannot use the Date Management tool to adjust dates of Collaborate sessions, Bb partner integrations or publisher content items (e.g. Turnitin, McGraw Hill, etc.)

Follow these steps to do it.

To adjust content and/or tool due dates, availability dates, and adaptive release dates you should:

  1. Goto the [Control Panel] for the course and click on the [Course Tools] link to expand it. Click on [Date Management].
  2. Choose whether you want the system to automatically adjust dates to new dates or if you want to "List All Dates for Review". The "List All Dates for Review" option allows you to review all dates and manually adjust dates yourself.
  3. Click Refresh to ensure the page is up-to-date.
  4. Review all dates and adjust accordingly. You can filter your review by item type (e.g., assignments, blogs, journals, discussion boards) and date types (e.g., due dates, availability dates, adaptive release dates).
  5. You can adjust dates individually, two or more at one time, or automatically. Use the pencil icon to modify dates for individual items.
  6. Click [Run Date Management Again] to automatically adjust dates.

Note: If you do not see Date Management in your Course Tools, you should verify the Date Management tool is available in your course. To verify, go to the [Control Panel] click on [Customization] to expand it and click on [Tool Availability]. Make sure there is a check mark in the available box for the Date Management tool. Click [Submit] to save the changes.

Want more information?

Step-by-step instructions are available [webpage] [video].
Copy Course Contents into another Course [webpage].
Master Copies of Courses [webpage].
Blackboard Calendar [video].
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.