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Published on Leave a comment on Improving Continuous Participation in Discussion Boards

by Karen Nichols

Are your students like some of mine in that they often wait until the last minute to post their discussion board assignments? When that happens, you have more grading to do all at once plus the opportunity for a really great discussion is missed because students are merely trying to complete an assignment before the deadline rather than practice engaged learning.

Tony Birch gives two ideas to help maintain a continuous flow of discussion posts in his article "How to Encourage Continuously Interactive Online Discussions" published in eLearning Industry earlier this year.  In his article, he recommends two techniques to improve the flow of discussion posts.

First, he suggests instilling a sense of social purpose for posting in the discussions.  Your objectives for each discussion should be clear to the students--they should understand why they are being asked to discuss a topic.  They should also be made to realize that their participation (or lack thereof) directly influences the success of the discussion and learning experience.  The students should take ownership of the discussions. To assist them in achieving this requires fairly quick feedback from the instructors which includes suggestions like, "Student X posted an interesting viewpoint on this topic.  Why don't you have a look and discuss your take on it?"  So, rather than giving the general direction of "respond to at least two of your classmates' posts", you are helping to direct students to certain posts.  In that way you can match up some students according to different criteria--a weaker one with a stronger student, two students with similar or different ideas, etc.  This type of feedback can also ensure that everyone has received some response to their post and no one is left out of the discussion.

Another way to discourage last minute or all-at-once posting is to reward students who post early and/or throughout the given time for the discussion board.  The author suggests adding Timeliness into your grading rubric.  Here is the one he uses for a week-long discussion:

Timeliness All posts are after Friday or all posts on a single day First post no later than Wednesday; other posts prior to end of week Posts early: First post no later than Wednesday; at least one other post Friday or before; posts on several days of the week
0 pts 1 pts 2 pts

The author notes that the total number of points is 13 so adding these 2 points affects the grade by 15%.  Explain to the students that they can potentially raise their grade by 15% just by posting on time.  The difference of a whole letter grade can be a significant incentive.

Well, what do you think of these two ideas?  Can they work for you with your discussion boards?  Are you using other techniques with success?  If so, please share!

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Published on 1 Comment on PowerPoint Power

by Bart Everson

Embrace Keyboard Shortcuts

Everyone know that I am a hug(e) advocate of keyboard shortcuts. They are easy to learn and will give your productivity a boost. If you really enjoy sitting in front of your computer, and want to spend more time doing that every day while getting less done, then by all means ignore them — but the rest of us will want to memorize our keyboard shortcuts.

Everyone also knows that I do not use PowerPoint, have never used it, and generally avoid Microsoft products as if I was afflicted with a life-threatening allergy.

So that's why you've never heard me talk about keyboard shortcuts for PowerPoint.

Fortunately Scott Schwertly, famed presentation expert, has compiled a list for you. These are keyboard shortcuts you can use when actually presenting with PowerPoint. Extremely handy, if you ever do that. Check it out.

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.

Published on Leave a comment on ICYMI: Social Media, Social Justice

Last week CAT's own Bart Everson gave an invited talk at Xavier's long-running series on Across the Curriculum Thinking.

Watch Social Media, Social Justice on Vimeo

(See our wiki for related resources and credits.)

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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.

Published on Leave a comment on Contemplative Engagement with a Text

Text

Two years ago, we hosted a session on lectio divina which married two prominent themes in CAT programming: our campus-wide initiative, "Read Today Lead Tomorrow," and contemplative practice. The session was well-received but only hinted at the rich possibilities of contemplative reading, and some participants expressed a desire for more information.

Therefore we are pleased to report that noted scholar Robert-Louis Abrahamson has published a guide on "contemplative engagement with a text." This is not a technique per se; it's more of an attitude. Nevertheless, Abrahamson does prescribe six steps in a clear pattern, with plenty of substantive advice for teachers.

Download the PDF guide from this page.

Published on Leave a comment on Pedagogy for Self and Planet

Photo by Chase Clow

Here's a workshop/retreat for which combines two current CAT themes: contemplative pedagogy and the quest for sustainability.

Contemplative Environmental Studies: Pedagogy for Self and Planet
July 26 - August 1, 2015 Location: Lama Foundation, San Cristobal, New Mexico

How can higher education best address global environmental challenges? How can we most meaningfully teach and research about environmental issues? How can we cultivate our inner lives through active engagement with environmental challenges?

This workshop explores the contribution of contemplative practices to scholarly inquiry and teaching in environmental studies. Through discussions with distinguished scholars, focused conversations among colleagues, artistic exercises, and regular contemplative practice (meditation, yoga, journaling, and nature walks), participants will investigate ways to deepen their teaching, research, and lives at this historic moment of environmental intensification.

Part workshop and part retreat, this 6-day summer institute provides an opportunity to step back from the frenetic pace of our lives, and cultivate our inner resources and nurture the resiliency we need as teachers committed to education on a fragile and wild planet.

Learn more

(Photo by Chase Clow)

Published on Leave a comment on Why We Stopped Buying Bottle Water

Hopefully by now you've gotten in the habit of using your CAT XX water bottle, bringing it with you to CAT events, and refilling it at our shiny new bottle-filling station.

You may wonder why we decided to stop purchasing flats of bottled water.

Here's why.

(Thanks to Olivia for spotting this amazing video.)

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.