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Published on Leave a comment on Research on Teaching & Learning Summit 2015

Click on the summit logo above for more information, to submit a proposal or to register for the conference.
Click on the summit logo above for more information, to submit a proposal or to register for the conference.

Looking for a conference that is exciting, collegial and a great value? Consider submitting a proposal to the Research on Teaching and Learning Summit. Formerly known as The Georgia Conference on College & University Teaching, the Research on Teaching and Learning Summit has been renamed to underscore the commitment to the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning, with an emphasis on research and evidence. Now in its third decade, the Summit is designed to provide college and university faculty the opportunity to discuss and share experiences and innovative teaching techniques. It offers concurrent sessions on cutting-edge issues in pedagogy and higher education in a relaxed, congenial atmosphere. There are also opportunities for participants to network with fellow educators.

The deadline for proposals has been extended to December 12, 2014, and the conference will be held on February 20-21, 2015, at Kennesaw State University in Kennesaw, GA.

Published on Leave a comment on Xavier Faculty React to Earth in Mind

Earth in Mind: On Education, Environment, and the Human ProspectFor our eighth annual Fall Faculty Book Club, we read Earth in Mind: On Education, Environment, and the Human Prospect by David Orr.

At our final meeting, we asked our participating faculty to jot down some thoughts. Here is what they wrote.

For my first faculty book club experience, the selection and discussion were stimulating and provocative. Though written 20 years ago, this is forcing me to think more critically of place, choices and practices, and the connection to other communities. Responsibility needed.

Earth in Mind profiles the gradual annihilation of the planet caused by no-holds-barred economic progress, reliance on fossil fuels, unrestrained technological advancements, and other harmful forces of modernization whose costs are rarely calculated. It should be required reading for everyone, but especially the power brokers of our global society such as politicians, CEOs, financial analysts, education administrators, and scientific researchers.

Earth in Mind is an appropriate name for this collection of essays on the Earth and education. I'm lucky to have received the kind of ecological citizenship training touted by Orr from my family. I believe that it's not too late to make a united, systematic and sustained effort to educate our children to be biophiles and not biophobes so that they will become advocates for our planet and its inhabitants and pass on the love to future generations.

Excellent book! A must-read about the relationship between economy and ecology! Holistic, wholesome, a reminder of our own connection to Nature!

This book provoked me, worried me and confused me at times. It reinforced ideas but it also required me to rethink my ideals and approach to life.

For me, this book was both a practical and promising guide to how I will live and love in this — the sunset of my life. I loved this book. As a teacher, it will be on my great books list!

Earth in Mind is a great book for inspiring an intentional, genuine focus on environmental issues in higher education. I intended to encourage deeper consideration of the long-term consequences of our lifestyle among my students.

Earth in Mind evokes a feel of urgency to spring to action and take care of Mother Earth.

The author builds the case for incorporating the environment to all disciplines. I think this is a good book for all educators.

This book was a great reminder of our responsibility as higher ed faculty to introduce students to the idea of sustainability. If we don't get students to critically think about these issues then who will?

CAT thanks Dr. John P. Clark for recommending this book.

Published on Leave a comment on Bb Tip #115: 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.

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 4 Comments on Bb Tip #114: Grade Center – Smart Views

A Smart View is a focused look at the Grade Center. It shows only the columns that match a set of criteria, and the view is saved for continued use. Smart Views are useful to quickly find data when the Grade Center includes a great number of students and columns. A Smart View is especially helpful if you have merged multiple sections of a course into one Blackboard course and you want to keep the students organized by their assigned section.

image showing Grade Center Smart Views

Several Smart Views are available by default, but you can also create your own. You can easily move between the Full Grade Center view and any of the available Smart Views. You can set a Smart View as the default view of the Grade Center and change it at any time.

Follow these steps to do it.

To create a Smart View you should:

  1. Goto the [Control Panel] for the course and click on [Grade Center] to expand it. Click on [Full Grade Center].
  2. Roll your mouse over the [Manage] button and click on [Smart Views] in the drop-down menu.
  3. Click the [Create Smart View] button.
  4. Enter a name for the Smart View.
  5. Optionally, you can mark the Smart View as a favorite by checking the Add as Favorite box.
  6. Select the type of Smart View you want to create and select the criteria for the Smart View.
  7. You can optionally select a filter for results and include hidden information in the grade data.
  8. Click [Submit].

To access the Grade Center using a Smart View you should:

  1. Goto the [Control Panel] for the course and click on [Grade Center] to expand it.
  2. If you saved the Smart View as a favorite you can click on the Smart View to open it.

    3. Otherwise:

    Click on [Full Grade Center].
    Roll your mouse over the [Manage] button and click on [Smart Views] in the drop-down menu.
    On the Smart Views page, click a Smart View title to open the Grade Center with the appropriate Smart View columns.

Note: You can also use the Grade Center's Filter function and a selected Smart View to narrow your view of the Grade Center.

Want more information?

Creating Smart Views [Video].
Using Smart Views in the Grade Center.
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 New York Times Webinar

by Karen Nichols:  I'm posting this message for anyone who may be interested.

Hello,

Please join me, Emily Ryan, Education Manager with The New York Times, for a brief demonstration of the various academic resources from NYTimes.com on Thursday, November 20th at 10AM PST / 1PM EST.

Learn About:

Academic resources inside NYTimes.com that will support your courses
Examples of how others have incorporated NYTimes.com into their curriculum
Special programs for core curriculum instruction and the study of leadership

Please feel free to register in advance and add this event to your calendar.

Click or copy/paste this link into your web browser: http://clearslide.com/v/k9u38s

To join the webinar on November 20th at 10AM PST/ 1PM EST simply click on the link below and dial into the toll-free conference line noted below.

Presentation Link:

clearslide.com/emilyryan

Dial in:
United States: (888) 419-5364
Conference Access Code: 3977-6248

I look forward to seeing you online.

Regards,
Emily Ryan
Education Manager

The New York Times
Sold by PCF, Inc.
(201) 560-2564

Published on Leave a comment on POD 2014 Leverage

by Karen Nichols
I attended my first POD conference last week and the theme was Leverage.  POD is our faculty development organization and such a wonderful group of people. I returned with a number of ideas and tools, not only for online teaching, but teaching with technology and general faculty development best practices as well.

I'd like to share a couple of links with you.  You'll be able to see the conference theme is well-used in a variety of ways.

One fun tool I learned about was 3M's Post-It Plus app. If you use post-it notes in workshops or classes and the students have to affix them to a board in order to see the responses from the entire group, this nifty app will allow you to snap a photo of the post-it-filled board. It then digitizes each note and allows you to organize them and share the board with everyone else. Here's a demonstration:

I'll be sharing more goodies from the conference in upcoming posts. Meanwhile, let us know if you try this app or find something that interests you in the conference links.

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Published on 2 Comments on Bb Tip #113: Get Feedback from your Students

desk with feedback written on piece of graph paper

You can use Blackboard to get feedback from your students. The Survey Manager allows you to create anonymous non-graded surveys. You can get statistical analysis of the responses provided by your students as a whole but you cannot see how a student answered a particular question. Some examples of the types of uses for surveys are: seeking feedback on the effectiveness of active learning exercises, the need for clarification of course material, and/or seeking suggestions for course improvement.

Follow these steps to do it.

Making surveys available to your students is a two-step process. You must create the survey first and then deploy it.

Create Survey:

  1. Goto the [Control Panel] for the course, click on [Course Tools] to expand it and then click on [Tests, Surveys, and Pools].
  2. Click [Surveys].
  3. On the Survey Manager page, click [Build Survey].
  4. On the Survey Information page, enter the survey Name, Description, and Instructions.
  5. Click [Submit].
  6. On the Survey Canvas page, roll your mouse over [Create Question], choose the appropriate question type, and then enter your survey question. Click [Submit] to save the question. Repeat this step to add all of your survey questions.
  7. Click [Ok] to exit the survey creation process.

Deploy Survey:

  1. Turn Edit Mode ON.
  2. Navigate to the Content Area where you want the students to go to take the survey.
  3. Roll your mouse over [Assessments] and click on [Survey].
  4. On the Create Survey page, select the survey from the Add an Existing Survey box and click [Submit].
  5. On the Survey Options page, specify the survey availability and other settings.
  6. Click [Submit].

Analyze Results:

  1. Goto the [Control Panel] for the course and click on [Grade Center] to expand it. Click on [Full Grade Center].
  2. Locate the survey column in the Grade Center. Roll your mouse over the survey column heading and click on the arrow on the right of the survey column heading and then click on [Attempts Statistics].
  3. Review the survey results.
  4. Click OK at the bottom of the page to return to the Grade Center.

Download Results:

  1. Goto the [Control Panel] for the course and click on [Grade Center] to expand it. Click on [Full Grade Center].
  2. Locate the survey column in the Grade Center. Roll your mouse over the survey column heading and click on the arrow on the right of the survey column heading and then click on [Download Results]. This option allows you to compile the questions and answers in a spreadsheet to review offline.

Want more information?

Step-by-step instructions are available [PDF].
About Tests, Surveys, and Pools
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.

Image credit: desk/feedback by www_darkworkx_de | Pixabay License

Published on Leave a comment on Understanding Students’ Aversion to Textbook Reading

Despite their importance, this is how many college students view their textbooks.
Despite their importance, this is how many college students view their textbooks.

Textbook reading is essential to a student's success, not only during his/her undergraduate education, but well beyond. Yet, students' compliance with class reading assignments is discouragingly low. Understanding why students don't read is a prerequisite to putting strategies into place that strongly encourage students to view their texts as useful and helpful tools, and ultimately encourage reading. Understanding Student's Aversion to Textbook Reading provides some literature-based insight into why students may not view their textbooks as the learning resources that they are, including reasons that are more under the control of the professor than the student. The presentation also offers some practical approaches to encouraging reading that address the specific reasons for students' aversion to textbook reading.

Published on Leave a comment on Bb Tip #112: Interactive Rubrics

image showing Bb rubric

Blackboard interactive rubrics will help you:

  • Increase Efficiency - Rubrics are built into the grading workflow. Rubrics click-and-score simplicity saves time.
  • Provide Consistent and Quality Feedback - Rubrics enable instructors to provide consistent evaluation and contextual feedback to students.
  • Promote 21st Century Skills - Rubrics make it easier to assign essay questions, individual and group assignments, blogs, wikis and discussion boards as assessment activities which foster critical thinking and collaboration.

Instructors can associate Rubrics when creating gradable content items, including blogs, journals, wikis, discussion boards, assignments, and short-answer, file-response, or essay questions in tests and pools. Rubrics can be associated with multiple items, and all associations can be viewed from the Rubric tool. Multiple rubrics can be associated with an item. Instructors can choose to have the rubrics visible to students at any time, only after grading has been completed, or not shown to the students at all.

image showing how to associate rubric with Grade Center content

When creating a rubric, instructors can assign weights to categories, allowing the same rubric to be used across multiple items with different possible points. Rubrics can be imported and exported for use across courses.

image showing how to grade using a rubric

Rubrics can be viewed from the Grade Center during the grading process. Instructors can interact with any associated rubric for grading in a grid or list view, and feedback can be typed for each criteria as well as the entire assessment. Grades calculated using rubrics can be overridden. When a rubric has been used for grading, a report is available to view the results of all content graded with that rubric.

NOTE: The Blackboard Rubrics tool is different from Turnitin Rubrics.

Want more information?

Using Interactive Rubrics
How to Create a Rubric (video)
How to Grade using a Rubric (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.